May 23rd 2021 at 12:00:00 GMT +0300
A legendary Gikuyu musician is living in abject poverty in Murang’a even as some of his songs enjoy extensive airplay on leading vernacular television and radio stations.
Moses Wanyoike, 65, was once a household name in Mugithi music and his Muthithi Komesha Band was among the most sought after in the entertainment industry in major towns until his star dimmed decades ago.
Some of his popular hits that still play on native FM stations include ‘Ndacoka Muthithi (Return to Muthithi), Macindano ma Ago (Competition in witchcraft), Coka Mucii No Nguka (I’m coming back strong) and Nyumba yakwa Mathare (My House in Mathare).
There’s an almost intimating depth to the sprawling, intricate music of KMRU. On the surface, it nods towards giants of ambient and drone like William Basinski and Tim Hecker, all seismic pads and glacial pacing. On further inspection, though, there’s something else going on here, woven between the processed field recordings that evoke the likes of Manchester’s Space Afrika or Stuart Hyatt’s Field Works project; something a little more dynamic and tactile than the occasionally monolithic impenetrability of many established ambient artists.
KMRU’s background may be instructive. He’s originally from Nairobi, though he’s lived in Berlin, and his grandfather was the musician and activist Joseph Kamaru, whose blend of jazz, gospel, Benga and Kikuyu folk brought him considerable fame across East Africa in the 1960s and ’70s. Kamaru’s highly political music placed him in a turbulent, sometimes dangerous position in the Kenya of that period, as the struggles and tensions
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