Timam by Kutiman " / " Mejja

Following the beguiling, tabla-laden double single “Guruji/Majan”, genre-defying producer Kutiman returns with “Timam”, his new single featuring Kenyan rapper Mejja.

Blending scattering afrobeats with an infectious top-line guitar melody, “Timam” is a joyous three minutes of intuitively danceable music, pairing sampled acoustic instrumentation with a club-focused bassline that is punctuated by Mejja’s Genge-referencing verses. It is a track that sits perfectly on the dancefloor or on headphones, evoking the optimism of a sun-dappled landscape filled with hip-swaying rhythm and a head-nodding groove.

“Timam” is a collaboration born out of unique circumstances. Kutiman was initially approached by Google to help launch their crowdsourcing app Task Mate by creating a song made up entirely of music and lyrics submitted by users. Focusing specifically on Kenya, Kutiman set to work sending out requests on the app and he was soon deluged with responses. “I just asked people to play whatever they wanted and we got a load of strange recordings back,” he says. “In amongst the snatches of background radio and talking, there was some great stuff too, like a guitar riff that I sampled the song’s main hook from, as well as chords that made up the chorus.”

This audio collaging method is not unusual for Kutiman, who gained notoriety for his 2009 Thru You projects. Here he edited together clips of amateur YouTube musicians into seamlessly coherent compositions spanning everything from funk to R&B, hip-hop and house. Applying a radically open approach to his source material, Kutiman went on to develop an intuitive aptitude for multiple musical styles, releasing projects based on field recordings made on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as “Guruji’s” Indian classical instrumentation, and 2021’s album of ambient modular experiments, Surface Currents.

Rearranging and sampling the choice musical submissions for “Timam”, Kutiman added a synth bass to round out the track and then sought out a Kenyan collaborator to make sense of the hundreds of lines of lyrics that had been sent in. Genge rapper Mejja was his first choice, following his popular features with the likes of afropop group Sauti Sol and rapper Femi One. “I loved Mejja’s vibe and he did an incredible job in putting together a narrative for the song out of all the lyrics, as well as combining them into his own unique style,” Kutiman says.

The result is an astounding track that captures the essence of its free-form making. For a sonic mould-breaker like Kutiman, it plays as yet another example of his restless compulsion to create intricate and deeply-felt tunes for all times. Long may that impulse continue.

Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, orchestra leader, digital mixologist, and filmmaker.

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