Single music - The fast and the furious

Singeli, the breakneck-paced dance music from the streets of Dar es Salaam, is bringing international fame to its young stars. Mark Edwards meets some of the movement’s leading lights.

It’s the early hours of Saturday morning in the Mburahati suburb of Dar es Salaam and there is little light beyond the embers of last night’s braais as we walk through a network of alleys between brick houses with corrugated metal roofs. It is sound that is guiding us, however, and we stop outside a hut emanating a thrum of bass that has attracted an amiable crowd who sit around chatting and drinking.

DIY dance music

Opening the door unleashes an ecstatic skittering of percussive sounds, sirens and bleeps accompanied by a rapper desperately trying to keep up with the relentless programmed aural assault. This is singeli, a DIY music genre born on the streets of Dar and now seen as one of most exciting strains of underground dance music, building renown across Africa and into Europe. And this snug little room is the Sisso Records studio, where it all began almost 15 years ago.

Sisso Mohamed is the DJ and producer who set up the studio and who also gives his name to the compilation album ‘Sounds Of Sisso’, released in late 2017 by Ugandan label Nyege

Nyege Tapes, which showcased the singeli sound to an international audience for the first time.

Sisso is not here now, although a framed diploma on the wall rather sweetly evidences the business course that helped the 24-year-old consolidate his vision for the studio. Instead, at the controls is rising young producer Jay Mitta, responsible for Nyege Nyege Tapes’ third singeli release, ‘Tatizo Pesa’, released in January and already sold out on vinyl. The album’s success is testament that singeli is no longer an underground phenomenon. Another Mburahati studio, Pamoja Records, is releasing tracks gaining international renown, while the Nyege Nyege Festival, which lassoes the best of contemporary dance music in Africa, had a strong singeli showing for the first time in 2018. Singeli acts have also been invited to play live shows in Poland and Germany and the Dar radio station E-FM now plays nothing but singeli music for four hours, Monday to Thursday. Jay is an energetic young man. He was given his singeli name ‘Mitta’

(Swahili for ‘metre’) as he would sprint everywhere as if he was running the 100 metres. No wonder the frenetic 200 to 300 beats per minute of singeli appeals to him. In the studio his speed is in his hands, which fly over the desktop keyboard – the only equipment in the studio beyond a battered Roland synthesiser and a stand-up mic for the vocals – as he tweaks a track using the software program Virtual DJ.

Studio time

Also there laying down some backing vocals on a new track he is working on with Jay is rapper Makavelli. My arrival, accompanied by studio manager Abbassi Jazza, brings the number in the studio to six – Jay is supported by a couple of friends – but we would have to press ourselves against the walls to allow anyone else

many young Tanzanian children from working class neighbourhoods will identify with.

Even though many young people in Tanzania see singeli as their music, it is steeped in sounds that go back deep into the country’s history. Producers will take instrumental sections from traditional music such as such as taa rab, vanga, mchiriku, sebene and se gere, along with hip-hop and South African kwaito. These are then looped and speeded up to provide singeli’s trademark full-pelt rhythms. Perhaps this is why there’s such a sense of pride about the music in districts such as Mburahati and Kigogo among the young and old. They see it as recognisably Tanzanian in origin, unlike the American hip-hop influenced Bongo Flava, and are happy for it to be performed at schools and community events.

Abbassi, at 34, is older than all of the artists under his wing, but he says singeli is always “evolving” – Pamoja Records’ DJ Duke’s slowed down beats on recent releases have created a new genre ‘hip hop singeli’ - and the

music still speaks to him as powerfully as when he first heard it over a decade ago.

“I thought the music was very special from the start. You just feel strong when you hear it,” he says. “I started off as a fan, going to shows. I liked the MCs and the dancers. I lived nearby Sisso Records Studio and one day I was asked if I could help out. I’m still a fan. I love that I can go to the studio and take the flash drive of some music which has just been recorded and take it home to listen to.”

‘This Is Our Music’

Abbassi is a big, burly presence, yet exudes softly spoken calm at all times. It’s clear the Sisso artists look up to him and in turn he has an avuncular duty of care to them. The storming Roundabout gig doesn’t finish until daybreak on Sunday, with performances delayed by a power cut that plunges the club, and Kigogo, into darkness for an hour – a worthy but doomed effort is made to restart the sound system with a petrol-fuelled back-up generator – but Abbassi is there throughout, keeping an eye on his young charges and even providing a lift home at the end of the night for two of his nephews whom he spots at the gig.

Singeli’s renown may have gone international, but to the fans from the Dar suburbs it will always be theirs. As he drives us all back from the Roundabout, Abbassi says: “Singeli was born from our boys, born on the street. Everyone likes it – young girls, boys and fathers and mothers. This is our music.”

Downloads of ‘The Sound of Sisso’, Jay Mitta’s ‘Tatizo Pesa’ and DJ Duke’s March-released Uingizaji Hewa can be purchased on the Nyege Nyege Tapes website. Visit nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com

Five stand-out Singeli tracks

Selected by Arlen Dilsizian, co-founder of Nyege Nyege Tapes

1

Dj Longo & Dogo Suma ‘TMK’

‘This track was so far beyond most people’s frames of reference of what electronic music from East African could be that it really took music specialists from around the world by total surprise. Fast, unrelenting and uncompromising it captures what is most unique about singeli.

2 S Kide: Disco Dancer

‘S Kide was one of the early stars of the singeli scene. This track has now attained cult status for its chorus that was intelligible to non Swahili speakers.

3

Young Yuda & Dj Shom: Unanijua

‘One of the first female singeli artists she paved the way for many more like MC Kad Reeda and MC Anti Virus. Unanijua was one of her first tracks, totally lo fi with an infectious melody.’

4 Makavelli and Bamba Pana: Lingalinga

‘This track whilst also a hit in Tanzania has also rocked European dance floors over the last two years in some of the prestigious clubs and venues, given that the duo were the first Singeli act to get booked for shows outside Africa.’

5 Dogo Mjanja: Tatizo Pesa

‘Dogo Mjanja is only 14 years old but proving to be one of the most versatile singeli artists around and the track’s producer, Jay Mitta, is a key figure at the infamous Sisso Studios.’