Review: MC Yallah & Scotch Rolex
Award winning Uganda-based rapper returns to Berlin
Peeling away from the dancefloor for a drink of water, the music dies off while low end vibrations from the Panke sound system follow me through wooden partitions to the washroom. Rising laughter from down the corridor cuts through the tumult, as the low rumble peters out. Then the timber stalls groan with incoming basslines and insulation in the ceiling cavity overhead rattles and contorts, signalling that a new act has taken the stage This time, a live collaboration that straddles different continents and sets hiphop on a collision course with left-field electronic music .
All the stage lights are killed at once leaving dancer-participant pupils reeling, before moving LEDs brighten just enough to reveal the silhouettes of two artists Yallah Gaudensia Mbidde a.k.a. MC Yallah, a rapper of Kenyan heritage born and raised in Kampala, Uganda, leans into her toes at stage right - mic in hand Maverick Japanese beatmaker, Shigeru Ishihara a.k.a. DJ Scotch Egg . . . . readies himself at the controls to deliver heat His latest project, Scotch Rolex, was christened by his Kampala pals - a nod to a popular Ugandan street food The unlikely duo were connected through Nyege Nyege - a Kampala-based label, festival and artist residency programme building regional and international audiences for East Africa’s most forward thinking sounds They perform together this evening as part of the two-night Refraction Festival at Wedding’s Panke Culture.
Revellers beginning to flag from hours on the dancefloor to a revolving door soundtrack of different genres and styles are pulled back in by MC Yallah’s obvious star power and gift of the gab Björk is a fan of the Kampala MC, and regularly spins her tracks in DJ sets and mixes. As C-Ville’s Nick Rubin notes, ‘Yallah is like the coolest girl you see in the hall between classes, nice to everyone but bad as hell ’ Even her warm-up patter and welcome to tonight’s audience is rich in musicality and dynamics, replete with vocables and rolled Rs. Scotch Rolex hypes the crowd further with movie-trailer style sample-grabs Then the lights go down again and the beat kicks in.
MC Yallah is wildly versatile, boasting lyrical flow in multiple languages – she alternates between raps in Kiswahili, Luganda and Luo. She spits rapid-fire staccato fire bars over deconstructed dancehall and trap rhythms, which veer between frenetic and spacious. Ishihara’s productions ride the line between heavy and playful, dropping 8-bit video game sounds and distortion-heavy elements that trace back to his roots in breakcore and gabber.
Describing herself as a ‘conscious rapper’, Mbidde’s lyrics are inspired by lived experience and social observations On one track, she draws the audience into a call and response – her own vocal delivery electrified by the crowd energy .
Access to the entire Refraction Festival programme is free with advanced online registration, while an evening ticket for the more spontaneous attendee costs a tenner at the door - a welcome respite for the young and the cash-strapped It bucks the trend in a club culture drifting perilously . towards new norms of costly cover charges and door policy gatekeeping The Panke crew hold . down the vibes in the bar area – more like a living room gathering than a mere beer-slinging operation From here, a sloping chokepoint stems the two-way tide of punters entering and . leaving the venue’s long and narrow dancefloor, as they weigh an upstart thirst against the persistent urge to move This ducking and weaving might be a chore in a less considerate crowd.
Playing just before Mbidde and Ishihara is another artist incorporating hiphop and electronic influences West Bank-based producer Muqata’a cut his teeth with pioneering Palestinian rap crew. Ramallah Underground His live productions traverse tense soundscapes and lush Arabic string samples that sound like they’re coming from passing cars. An arsenal of hefty basslines remind the . crowd to get low.
Elsewhere in the lineup, O.N.A. spins a yarn of different dance music influences, shifting from . . . North America to Europe, from dance music’s roots to the new school. His track selection pushes dancers in different directions, skirting the margins of house and techno, jungle and footwork . Kaitlyn Davies and Xzavier Stone serve up their selections of club cuts, while Eddington Again and Max Dahlhaus perform their own homegrown productions live
The evening’s most experimental booking, Opium Hum, closes the night with a sound bath of visceral textures and atmospheres. Refraction Festival is the initiative of an organisation of the same name. The group describes itself as ‘a global collective of more than musicians, artists, curators, DJs, programmers and cultural 500 workers building a participatory ecosystem for the future of art and culture’ . With its curation drawing upon such a broad church of aesthetics, the event runs the risk of becoming less than the sum of its parts The tempo-switching and genre-mashing of an eclectic lineup can present a challenge for Berlin steppers, who may be more at home locking into a groove and staying there. Fortunately with such a high calibre selection of artists to choose from, the ‘parts’ speak for themselves.
