- The Ugandan dancer and producer blends styles from across East Africa to electrifying effect.
- Faizal Mostrixx grew up surrounded by music. His father, a truck driver, regularly brought home cassettes full of pop music from Congo and Kenya. Through his mother, a dancer who performed in a traditional troupe, he was introduced to the world of movement. Starting in early childhood, Mostrixx helped out at her rehearsals, an experience that would weigh on his life choices—he ultimately decided to become a professional dancer himself. After several years of performances and shows across the continent, Mostrixx decided to return to his other love: sound.
Mutations is Mostrixx's second full-length, and his first for Glitterbeat Records. The album is a bolder move into the realm of Afrofuturism (or, to be more precise, Africanfuturism) than his previous works. The most basic layer of Mostrixx's music are the rhythmic patterns performed during kadodi, a Ugandan rite of passage, described in Mostrixx's own words as the "energy of bravery, to get into a trance." He takes influences not only from Uganda but Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, and adding modern elements—electronic sounds and footwork, amapiano and downtempo influences—to this traditional foundation. He also works with a collection of field recordings and samples, some made by Mostrixx, others taken from the International Library of African Music.
Faizal makes his method clear in the opening track, "Onions And Love." The sampled vocal line comes from a recording Faizal made in Addis Ababa, where he met Kebenesh, a cook's helper who was singing the song about a lost lover. Mostrixx marries this bittersweet melody with spacious synths and frenetic polyrhythms to create an irresistible dance track. "Loosely" follows suit. Recorded during the same session in the Ethiopian capital, it features Lesothan band Morena Leraba, who spontaneously started jamming to Faizal's production, prompting him to add even more layers to the track, making it denser and more complex—an improvisational energy you can feel the dense movement of Mostrixx's music.
Mostrixx's manipulation of Pan-African found material reminds me of Sacred Groves, a 2018 album from Kenya’s DJ Raph that mixed ethnographic field recordings with—less danceable and more spiritual)—electronics.
"Back To Tanzania" showcases Mostrixx's deftness with library samples, where chopped vocals intertwine with thumb piano, frenetic synths and heavy pads. The music is freewheeling and future-facing, a kind of forward thinking that sits between pessimistic cyberpunk and more optimistic strains of futurism. It's dark and harsh, but hopeful. Mostrixx draws this hope from precolonial pasts and still-living traditions—traditions that have adapted, or mutated, to new conditions. The title track takes the Bwola royal dance from Northern Uganda and transfers it to a club setting. "Muzukulu" references the sounds of Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, with its vibrant guitar plucks. The only time that Faizal slows down is the closer "Afro Aliens," owing as much to downtempo as Mbongwana Star's cosmic rendition of Congolese music.
Kampala has become a hub for new, exciting electronic music in East Africa, with styles that are rooted in local history but looking towards the future, and Mutations is a a prime example of the city scene’s creativity and vision. An homage to various and diverse African traditions—but also a call to recontextualising them—it shows how even ancient practices change and evolve over time. When they stop, they become museum artifacts, devoid of life. Using field recordings from several decades ago, taking them away from libraries is a defiant and bold move, and Mostrixx gives them back their purpose: telling stories through dance.
Tracklist01. Onions And Love
02. Loosely feat. Morena leraba
03. Back To Tanzania
04. Passing Through
05. SandMan
06. Mutations
07. Tunes Of The Jungle
08. Muzukulu
09. Afro Aliens