Heavy Combination 1966-2007

Description

Disciples is very proud to announce the release of 'Heavy Combination 1966 – 2007', an essential introduction for international listeners to the extraordinary music of Joseph Kamaru, who, despite his revered status in his home country of Kenya, is little known outside of East Africa. These seventeen tracks cover the full spectrum, from vibrant dancefloor anthems with high life guitars, to afro funk, to disco grooves driven by drum machines and keyboards, and folk-style laments. The music is raw, immediate, danceable, and filled with memorable choruses. The incisive lyrics range from protest songs to relationship advice. In his home country, he managed to reach everyone from influential politicians to rural and urban working-class communities, and his music deserves a much wider global audience. Joseph Kamaru sadly passed away in 2018, but after his death, his archives were revisited by his grandson, sound artist KMRU. After digitizing dozens of old cassettes, he created a dedicated Bandcamp page for this unique and brilliant music, on which he has uploaded nearly fifty tracks to date. Disciples was immediately fascinated by the scope and dynamism of the music highlighted by this project, and reached out to KMRU to collaborate on a way to further contextualize this work. This led to a long correspondence about the selection of tracks, their order of appearance, etc., which ultimately resulted in this lovingly crafted compilation. The tracks have been carefully remastered from KMRU's original tape transfers by Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin. The cover was designed by Karolina Kolodziej from archives sourced from the Kamaru family's vaults. It includes detailed notes, including essays by Kenyan scholar Maina wa Mutonya, music journalist Megan Iacobini de Fazio, and KMRU himself.