North East hero Man Power teams up with Kenyan artist Rapasa Nyatrapasa for two forward-thinking grooves backed up by two offerings from the M.A.D boys.
From the man who brought a series of world class electronic music parties to North Shields, Geoff Kirkwood aka Man Power has been trailblazing around the electronic music scene for quite some time now. Creative, musician, DJ, producer, curator, there is many words to pin on Geoff but incessant is one we’d use deftly. Seemingly never happy to rest on his talented laurels, Kirkwood is pushing the envelope constantly with his productions. His label Me Me Me is a constant output for Man Powers work as well as other producers like The Juan MacLean, Ben Caldwell, Elliot Adamson and Gina Breeze. This new release though sees Man Power land on Make A Dance, a label we’ve featured many times on our pages.
Hailing from Western Kenya, singer, songwriter, multi instrumentalist and music educator Rapasa Nyatrapasa is a real musical talent. Rapasa and Kirkwood met at the Glasshouse International Centre for Music and the result is is this quality piece of electronica that traverses not only continents but musical classification.
‘Lou Land’ is a low-slung bass-led groove instilled with Kenyan folk chants, afro percussion and nice plunging chords and more playful key ditties. ‘Battle Hill’ is an energy charged number that certainly could be played to a rousing outcome. Lots of layers of synths build tension perfectly asa maddening chatter rings out. The Make A Dance remix of ‘Battle Hill’ is a piece of brilliance, taking the original and flipping it into a groovy Gerd Janson type of groove. The Mad dub mix of ‘Battle Hill’ is a darker, rhythmic piece that focuses on chattering percussion and solemn sounding pipe leads. Lovely afrocentric vibe.
The double-sided release is out on M.A.D Records from February 16th, 2024. Pre order now here.
