Nigeria’s Ekiti Sound turned quite a few heads with 2019’s Abeg No Vex, a rumbling, clattering mash-up of electronic, hip-hop, Afro-jùjú, and Afrobeat. The brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and producer Leke Awoyinka, this one-person project is one of several virtuosos helping establish a contemporary music scene burbling with invention and new styles in his native Nigeria. Drum Money, the follow-up to the debut, is set to release this summer and picks up where the last album left its mark.
Following on the heels of Drum Money’s first single, the hyper-percussive “Chairman”, Drum Money‘s latest single, “aLAcarte pt. 2”, offers another sweet slice of Ekiti Sound’s culturally-spiced pie. It’s a sensuously shuddering, percussive jam that is as minimal as deep. “It’s a celebration shuffle to let you know that we are back in town,” Awoyinka says of the new single. “It’s delicate with the piano, but there is an urgency to the drums. It’s got big footsteps with the timpani, so, like an elephant in Africa, you know Ekiti Sound is coming!”
He adds, “Around the time of writing this song, I fell into a rabbit hole of watching dance crews doing Memphis Jookin. This song is my contribution to the Memphis Jookin scene playlist.”