On the contrary to what Wikipedia may tell us, UHURU is not a Kenyan President, (that is Uhuru Kenyatta,) an American football player (this is Uhuru Hamiter,) or the translator and communications officer from the Sci-fi franchise Star Trek (because she is, of course, Uhura, silly billies.) As you are about to discover on the pages of this music blog today, UHURU is an electronic pop duo from Southampton, and their name is a Swahili word meaning freedom. However, there is a Kenyan connection within the band, and this lies with producer, singer, songwriter, Connor Daniel who was born in Mombassa before relocating to live in the UK when he was a youngster. Enough of the band history? OK… onward to the music because these dudes are particularly good and I am into their sound, style and music in a BIG way.
Unlike most electronic pop of the day, the duo’s engrossing style sounds timeless. And, yet where so many acts fail miserably, especially within the electronic realm, these guys make genre-bending music styles together seem so easy when it’s not. It’s part skill and part Connor and Rob’s (multi-instrumentalist of the band) eclectic tastes in music which have enabled them to be rather brilliant, at meshing their fast flowing ideas into some really, tasty tunes. If you were to lock Years & Years and Shy Luv in a studio together, in all probability the music they made would turn out sounding like UHURU’s. In the duo’s tracks “Thirsty” and “Riddle” I am hearing a lot of similarities between these acts. First in the future-pop production and secondly in Connor’s soulfully leaning voice.
I am hard pushed to place one of the tracks into pole position as my favourite, but seeing as “Riddle” is the current release it is the one of the two I am highlighting today. I am so excited by what I’ve heard from this band. They are not afraid to push boundaries, show versatility by the bucket load and produce songs bursting with experimental creativity, uniqueness, and intelligence. Those are practically the boxes I tick when finding my next favourite band. I guess I found them in UHURU today.
Oh sod it, they are too good. I’m putting up “Thirsty” as well.
Connect with UHURU
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Uhuru/
Twitter: @UhuruMusicUK
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uhuru/