Kenyan DJ Slikback on His Rapid Rise and Ignoring the Haters Ahead of Apr 29 Dada Set

What's a DJ's worst nightmare? If you're Slikback it's a club goer approaching you in the middle of one of your footwork and grime-laced instrumental sets with a thumb drive full of mass appeal EDM, asking you to play that instead.

"[On another night] I was playing South African gqom, and a lot of people started coming up to me and asking ‘So you just don’t play African music?’ And I said: ‘What? I am!’” Slikback (who will perform at Dada on Apr 29) recalls with a laugh about the close-minded mainstream scene in Uganda’s capital.

Thankfully, the Kenyan-born DJ has found plenty of success elsewhere. Slikback's European debut last year at Krakow’s Unsound festival resulted in him being invited to play two extra sets because, as Pitchfork put it in a glowing writeup: “crowds just couldn't get enough of him.” Shortly after that breakthrough moment, he was recruited by Kampala’s Nyege Nyege Tapes, a label that puts on their own festival, and experimental shows at underground venues throughout the Ugandan capital.

Slikback's sophomore EP, Tomo, was released this past February to rave reviews, an impressive feat, especially considering that he only began DJing and producing two years ago.

By his own admission, Slikback's early work would probably have appealed to the thumb drive-toting haters at Kampala clubs, as he began by simply mimicking what he was hearing on dance radio stations in between classes as a university student in the Ugandan capital.

“Initially I just liked regular EDM. But maybe twice a day the station would play someone like Avicii, and I’d wait around for hours to hear that because it was different,” he says of the recently deceased star DJ who was considered cutting edge on resolutely mainstream Kampala radio. In his spare time, the budding DJ tinkered with FruityLoops and other music programs, hoping to ape what he was hearing, though he now humbly says “It sounded super rough, I couldn’t quite nail it.”

However, even then his friends liked the left of center quality of Slikback's music, prompting them to invite him to a Nyege Nyege party. It was not only a crash course in Kampala’s fringe music but also an opportunity for Slikback to meet Derek Debru, one of the label’s co-founders, who quickly took the Kenyan hotshot under his wing. “It all happened in one night – me falling in love with underground parties, and meeting the Nyege Nyege crew,” he says.

Slikback says Nyege Nyege has since been both a supportive platform and a continual source of inspiration. For instance “Karum,” one of the best tracks off Tomo, begins with organic, tribal percussion before melding with more modern dance elements. That compelling juxtaposition was inspired by the lineups at Nyege Nyege parties and festivals. “They like to keep things interesting by having both modern and traditional acts, like African folk artists. Hearing that inspired me to make similar mixtures on ‘Karum,’” Slikback says.

As for his China tour? He’s hoping to soak up more fresh sounds, and his arrival on the mainland was preceded by a love of Shanghai DJ and producer Hyph11e, whose DIY label SVBKVLT coordinated Slikback's China shows (check out Nyege Nyege co-founder and Slikback mentor Derek Debru’s plans for a broader Africa-China music exchange in an interview with Radii).

“I love her darker industrial sounding stuff,” Slikback says with palpable enthusiasm about Hyph11e's music. “I can't wait to meet Chinese producers like her, and make some music together and share some ideas.”

Slikback will perform at Dada on Apr 29.

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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
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Photos: sonar.es, fm4.orf.at