Kabeaushe - Hold On To Deer Life, There's A Blcak Boy Behind You! (2023)

Kabeaushé once described their music as “the complete opposite” of the hardcore leftfield electronic sounds of their then labelmates on Nyege Nyege Tapes. And at the time that was true: the Kenyan polymath’s sound on their debut album The Coming of Gaze was fiercely and single-mindedly focused towards giddy pop rush, old school party hip hop upfulness, clean sounds, gentleness, bounciness, positivity and JOY.

Now, though, the lines are not quite so clear. On their new material for Monkeytown, a little more rawness, weirdness and rave energy seems to have soaked in. This isn’t just an effect of being around Nyege Nyege peers, mind – partly it’s the experience of playing at eclectic festivals all over the world and being exposed to all kinds of radical music, but even more so, it’s the expression of Kabeaushé’s own wild performance energy shining through via their alter ego “the Shé”.

Anyone who’s seen a Kabeaushé show will get it instantly. Their sets are far more than just performance, they’re a celebration, a communion, a party in which the audience gets what they give, and the Shé emerges. Kabeaushé / the Shé’s presence is angelic but also elemental, channeling modern pop energy but also something deep, ancient and profound. And it’s that which surges through HOLD ON TO DEER LIFE, THERE’S A BLCAK BOY BEHIND YOU!

You can hear the drive and energy in every atom of the sound and lyrics of the record. “I get this shot once - so I gotta do this dance / And I’m gonna play it hard ‘til I fucking break a sweat” (“DAY ONE”). “And we'll swim with the sharks / ‘Til skies turn dark” (“MITTE”). “If it’s flying, fly and be not ashamed, in the winds, your wings they will not be tamed.” (“IF IT’S FLYING, FLY!”). You see a theme forming? This is music forged through fearless opposition to adversity, negativity and hate, and it is electric with determination to shine ever brighter and brighter, in performance as in life.

So yes, there’s more grit in HODLTABBBY!, more acknowledgement of the darkness, more depth and derangement in the distorted kickdrums, ricocheting breaks and rave energy. But, crucially, not one bit of the pop brightness or joy has been lost. There is all of the ambitious brightness that was there all along, but also the sweat, the fierceness, the communion that global club and festival audiences have come to love in Kabeaushé shows. This is a talent of global proportions coming to maturity, and you’d better be ready for it to explode out into the world.