For a long time, there’s been a vacuum in the Kenyan music industry; that is with attribution to electronic music. Pop music is well catered for even as it continues to flourish, and for a while, benga music would be the popular music of the industry until at some point artists started exploring the unfamiliar territories.
Artists started being more innovative, recording music that inclined to what would be called ‘alternative’ music. Pick electronic music for instance, in under a decade, this genre has started making its way into the country’s music scene, though still sort of ‘underground’, there is a certain click or should we say group of artists that has found comfort in this type of music. Their efforts have already started paying off, with a few of them receiving international recognition. The likes of Blinky Bill the talented one-third of the renowned group Just-A-Band. The Kenyan group took a break allowing the artists to focus on their own projects.
And as Just-A-Band fans reel from the band’s short break, Blinky Bill has now released his new EP titled “We Cut Keys While You Wait”; the short project portrays the artist’s deft abilities as an outright creative producer and songwriter, an experimental release which contains different sounds, a cocktail of disco, funk, house and crusty electropop.
The Intro lets off that mood experience as the synth juices flow seamlessly, and the short track fades out-just when you least expect-into “Don’t Doubt” which he features the talented songbird Maya Von Lekow, the self-produced single is an undulating experience to that mild adrenaline rush transitioning to the mid-tempo “Wacha Maneno” (Stay Cool) where he enlists the help of rapper ShappaMan culminating to an air of trance then lazily folding to the Dillie-produced “Rise” which is subtle but with an awe of impressive vocals from Sage. Then comes the brasher dance tune “Kwani Iko Nini” (what’s happening) pumping that adrenaline rush and maintains the high-charge as it leads into “I should have learnt KingFu” the last single done with the likes of NairobiDhobi and Aero Manyelo.
The new release basically is testament to Blinky’s abilities and a long awaited indirect gift from the Just-A-Band trio. The production was handled by Blinky himself, Aero Manyelo and Dillie.
Blinky Bill has also thrown in a dazing artistic video for “Kwani Iko Nini”
The EP which is Blinky’s first solo project comes ahead of his album. which according to him. will be released soon.
Check out the EP here: