Bringing Uganda on the Map

Video Essay

In Kampala, musicians, DJ’s, and video producers work hard to compete with artists in big markets like Nigeria and Kenya. Some artists created pan-African fan bases and perform in Europe and the U.S. Others work long hours to fullfill their dreams one day. Hear and watch latest tracks and clips from the Equator: Ragga-flavoured songs, hardcore rap, Kitsch and some Bling Bling.

Copying music in Jinja (photo: Thomas Burkhalter)

Dr. Jose Chameleone

Dr. Jose Chameleone is one of the international stars from Uganda. I met him at Audio1 Records in Kampala. His track «Born Fighter» with rapper Mun G has become my personal earworm of June 2014. The video was produced by Frank JahLive.

DAXX Kartel

Keko

I visited rapper Keko in a studio with her producer The Weezy. Both are working on some amazing tracks right now ...

The Weezy (producer) and Keko (rapper) in Kampala (photo: Thomas Burkhalter)

«Don’t photograph our shoes» … Rapper Keko (right) and producer The Weezy (left). (photo: Thomas Burkhalter)

DJ Shiru

DJ Shiru is one of the most talented dj's in Africa. He will tour the world with DJ Black and other great dj's from Africa soon. (DJ Black is featured in our XL Teaser «Ghana is the Future».)

Bataka Squad

Bebe Cool

Bebe Cool is an international artist too, and a great competitor of Jose Chameleone.

Radio & Weasel

Klear Kut

Rap crew Klear Kut (with Navio) produced some amazing tracks and video clips in the past. Enjoy this weird clip from 2012.

Video not available anymore.

Biography

Dr. Thomas Burkhalter is an anthropologist/ethnomusicologist, AV-artist, and writer from Bern (Switzerland). He is the founder and director of Norient and the Norient Festival (NF), co-directed AV-performances and documentary films (e.g. «Contradict», Berner Filmpreis 2020 + Al-Jazeera Witness), and is the author and co-editor of several books (e.g., «Local Music Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut», Routledge, «The Arab Avant Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East», Wesleyan University Press). He teaches regularly at universities, and runs workshops for arts institutions. Since 2022 he produces the Norient Mixtape for Swiss National Radio SRF3. Currently, he is working on his new music duo «Melodies In My Head», and on the podcast series «Long Take: Life as an Artist». Follow him on Instagram, Research Gate, Academia.edu, Bandcamp, Spotify, or Meta.

Published on July 02, 2014

Last updated on April 10, 2024

Topics

Capitalism

Music Video

Place

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Oriental Trap

Playlist

by Norient

Manipulating Oriental melodies and rhythms with digital software seems in vogue – once again. This is what this collection of grime, dub, breakcore, hip hop, noise, new wave dabké, and mahragan tracks seems to suggest. Is this yet another Orientalist Trap? Or do many of these tracks go beyond Electro-Arab-Tracks of the late 1990s and early 2000s?

Musicians About their Tracks

«‹Douga Douga› represent an imaginary landscape, a Saharan dream let's say. I tried to build that with the rhythmic structure and Mauritanian vocal samples.»

El Mahdy Jr., Türkiye, 2014

«‹Theme› was our very first track, and it was exactly as we dreamed: dark, cold, techno and oriental, without the use of a big sample.»

Acid Arab, France, 2014

«You picked one of my favourite songs: Egyptronica in it's true bold & original form.»

Machine Eat Man, Egypt, 2014

«Most important in the track ‹sho hal meshkleh› is respect. U have to respect humans in most cases, and u have to stay humble no matter what, but ... there's always exceptions to any rule.»

Edd Abbas, Lebanon, 2014

Some of the Tracks

Published on July 22, 2014

Last updated on June 27, 2023

Topics

Othering

Sampling

Soundscape

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Sounds from India and Pakistan

Mixtape

by Arshia Fatima Haq

Arshia Haq from the LA based Discostan collective made an exclusive mix for Norient titled «Line of Control». She is presenting us forgotten scores and current field sounds from India and Pakistan. Listen to this colorful mix and dive into the sounds of the Indian subcontinent.

Making a mix from the sounds of the subcontinent proved challenging as these are the sounds I am closest to, so I tried to use that to my advantage. What I came up with is a personal audio memoir, using scores from lesser known films, children's songs, and field recordings of my own in Pakistan and India (thus the raw quality of some of what you'll hear), and playing on nostalgia, exile, the tension between the sensuality of the soundtracks and the austerity of the religious dogma over loudspeakers (both Muslim and Hindu) as well as political broadcasts in these places.

Tracklist

1. Excerpt from Zinda Laash (Dracula in Pakistan)

2. Sohail Rana: «Al-Vida»

3. Pakistan Television Corporation news broadcast (archival)

4. Anupama Deshpande: «Laher Laher Chanchal Huyee»

5. Arshia Haq: «Birdcaged»

6. Excerpt from Pakeezah

7. Ahmad Zahir: «Instrumental»

8. DJ DrAk: «Love Mera Hit Hit» (Vocoder Remix)

9. Ilaiyaraaja: «Love Theme»

10. Pakistan air force demonstration (archival)

11. Runa Laila: «Romance»

12. Excerpt from Pakeezah

13. Nahid Akhtar: «Goli Naal Begi Aey»

14. «’Ek Anek Ekta’ Theme Song»

15. Ravi: «’Do Kaliyan’ Love Theme Music»

16. T.K. Ramamoorthy: «Ranjani»

17. Noor Jehan: «Disco Jugni»

18. Unknown: «Pashto saaz and attan»

19. Unknown: «Pashto saaz and dhol»

20. Tableeqi Jamaat sermon, Islamabad (field recording)

21. Azaan recitations (Muslim calls to prayer), India and Pakistan

22. Ayatul Kursi recitation, Bhit Shah, Pakistan (field recording)

23. Dawn Vedas, Andhra Pradesh, India (field recording)

24. Taliban on the ground, Waziristan, Pakistan (archival)

25. Qari Waheed Zafar: «Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi»

26. Aneesa Umme Habiba: «Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi»

27. Excerpt from Pakeezah

28. Ahmad Zahir: «Awateen Eshqam Tu Boodi»

Biography

Arshia Fatima Haq is Los Angeles based filmmaker, writer and DJ, and is the founder of Discostan, a collective of artists curating sound, image, and text from an imagined federation of states spanning the regions of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia and eastward to the edge of the earth – from Beirut to Bangkok via Bombay. Narrative threads include migration, celebration, warfare, nostalgia, homeland, borders, often within realms of Islamic influence, through the lenses of timeless traditional forms, the kaleidoscopic reinventions of pop culture, and everything in between and beyond. Most simply, Discostan is a love letter to the Dis-Orient. Follow her on her Website.

Published on May 28, 2014

Last updated on August 11, 2020

Topics

Nostalgia

Religion

Soundscape

Tradition

All Topics

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sounds

Bringing Uganda on the Map

Biography

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Oriental Trap

Topics

Sounds from India and Pakistan

Tracklist

Biography

Topics

films

images

sounds

words