Olympean Serves Quintessential Debut
Uganda’s contribution to the music and entertainment industry at large has been on the gradual rise: especially in the alte scene. From artists such as Lagum, Kohen Jaycee, Tai Dai, Chxf Barry and Mwami the scene is full of DIY artists who have more often than not opened their musical doors for Kenyan alte artists. Their creativity and willingness to dive into new and unubiquitous production and sound perhaps is what sets them apart from their East African peers seeing more Alte Kenyan artists invest in their production. An example being the unresistable “SHE WAAN” by Kalibwani, Mwami, Chxf Barry, Mau From Nowhere and MAUIMØON.
Arguably one of the freshest talents to emerge from the Pearl of Africa has to Mwami, who recently released his debut album ‘Olympean.’ Not a guest in the music scene, Mwami has a couple of years in the music industry under his sleeves releasing his debut EP ‘Protean’ in 2019, he is a definition of an experimental, electronic and unquestionably out of the box audio-visual artist. The EP houses major vogue anthems “Diego” and the critically acclaimed “Rektless” smoothly transitioning into softer numbers such as “Restless,” and “Sweettooth.”
In the last quarter of 2024, Mwami teamed up with celebrated Kenyan producer Agent Mgumbe and Ugandan artist Tai Dai for ‘EA Open.’ The non traditional project served as a sneak peak of what to expect from Mwami musically. From the clean cut production to their thrilling verses and unique voices it was a focal joint EP in the Alte world and one with a high replay value catapulting it’s listeners into a new dimension. While “SOIRÉE” introduces us to the glistening world of the artists creativity with Tai Dai rapping “I got my position you know my Feng Shui,” they blessed at the entrance of the project and “SI TUTAONANA TENA,” served as the perfect outro with a laid back production of the artists assuring us of their position in the music eco system.
Fast forward to late November, Mwami graced his fans and overall music lovers with his debut album ‘Olympean.’ The 12 track project is a meticulously curated project with an agglomeration of East African artists such as Nyokabi Kariuki, Kalibwani, Ridym and more. There is a rich touch of Ugandan heritage straight from the introduction track “Kinanda//Tizita.” The song gives off a feeling of nostalgia reminiscing of early traditional numbers that were heavily influenced with traditional instruments. The trumpets at the end heavily send a sonic wave through the listeners body as you are ushered into a more modern track “Boy Scout” featuring long term collaborators Tai Dai and Lagum The Rapper. The track echoes Mwani’s electronic presence as the tempo pumps through the speakers. Telling the story of love and loss through dance and experimental production, Mwami combines both local and international sound.
Being an outsider to Ugandan languages, it is interesting how Mwami fuses the latter with English in “Daisy,” featuring Kohen Jaycee as the echo “twin flames know no rest..” a line which I choose to view as a double entendre in terms of the co-relation between languages and also soul mates. As I peruse through the credits it’s simply exciting and professional to see Mwami credit the respectful contributors throughout the album. An art that most East African artists are still struggling with. Among the 12 tracks “Danser” has my soul on chokehold as it pays homage to Sam Fan Thomas’ “African Typic Collection.” Note I say homage because like most of my counterparts, I am unable to accurately differentiate between sampling and interpolation.
As technology and media continue to evolve, Mwami found creative ways to not only share his music via audio but also visually through “The Olympean Trilogy.” Mwami teamed up with Kenyan creatives Chebeni (“Ghost” by Mau From Nowhere”) , Mbalamwezi (Johnny Walker:The One’s Who Keep Walking) and Tysevisual (“Slide” Razor Man ft Kig$) to direct the Trilogy which was screened in Nairobi, Kenya. Telling the stories of two lovers seeking love in a enchanted forest, the characters were based off “The Protean Collection,” which was a paperback zine that enabled him to tell the story behind his debut EP ‘The Protean.’
‘Olympean’ is not only a testament of Mwami’s creative brilliance but also his position of one of East Africa’s talents to watch out for but hey if you dont believe the hype, head over to his music channels and interact with his content.
Stream ‘Olympean’
