UWAMI: ALBUM REVIEW
It’s always weird when you hear music described as “challenging.” While the word “challenging” is typically just used as a stand-in for “experimental”, it’s worth noting what exactly about the music is said to be challenging. Is it challenging the listener? The genre? The idea of music itself? Obviously, all of this is pretty subjective, but they are questions worth asking every time you hear the word slapped onto music. But DJ Black Low uses “challenging” to describe his own music. Uwami, his newest album, is full of blissful bangers and challenges something specific: he aims to change an entire genre and mold it in his own image.
The genre of amapiano is made up of a mix of many genres popular in South African townships, such as jazz, kwaito, dibacardi, deep and afro house. Amapiano takes the most fun elements of each and creates sprawling percussive landscapes, engineered to make anyone dance. It’s one of the newest, fastest-growing genres in the world, and there is already so much boundary-pushing creativity from artists within it. DJ Black Low, a 20-year old producer from Pretoria, has pushed the limits of the genre even further on his newest project Uwami. He deconstructs the club-instrumentals and creates soundscapes full of stuttered rhythms and jagged edges.
The instrumentals on Uwami are quite cold. Minor chord synths lurk in the background of each track, adding an element of suspense to the project. While each song is dance-worthy, they are not held together by a feeling of joyful celebration. Rather than the guest vocalists pulling you into each track, they keep you at arm’s length with reverb-filled passages that can sound almost spooky. A great example of this is the song “Sbono.” While the backing chords are bright and the vocals are sunny, DJ Black Low adds dissonant chords that completely change the tenor of the track. The chords are unexpectedly interrupt the song and throw the track into uncharted territory.
The album excels the most when the beat is the most broken. The song “9 Days” features an incredible variety of instruments and always feels about two seconds away from completely splitting apart at the seams. While a simple, house-y rhythm drives the track, every additional synth becomes a new rhythmic element, the drums stutter and occasionally even stop, and every once in a while, a high-pitched piano comes in to disrupt the track’s entire flow. At one point, “9 Days” comes to a screeching halt, allowing for five seconds of complete silence before roaring back. This breakdown of conventionality happens on every track to varying success, but it always makes for music that keeps you on your toes.
Uwami is a dangerously fun album, and you can hear DJ Black Low trying to challenge the genre of amapiano at pretty much every turn. DJ Black Low is only 20 years old, but based on this project, you would have thought that he’s been in the game for years. Everything on Uwami is pushing toward something great, and it’s only a matter of time before DJ Black Low realizes that vision.