The Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia writes in Metamorphoses that “every living being is legion”, each species a patchwork of other species, with forms continually fading into and engendering one another. Something similar happens on SLIKBACK and KMRU‘s collaborative EP, ENEO.
On the face of it, SLIKBACK and KMRU appear to be polar opposites, as far removed from each other as the cockroach is from Gregor Samsa. SLIKBACK is the great accelerator, his music propelled by fractured rhythms, bass pressure and sudden eruptions of noise; KMRU has made an art of slowing time down, allowing field recordings, drones and environmental sounds to disclose their smallest internal movements. Yet they share the same point of origin. Both emerged from Nairobi’s experimental electronic scene, although their paths subsequently diverged: SLIKBACK developed his music through Kampala’s Nyege Nyege collective, absorbing gqom, trap, footwork, grime and experimental club music, while KMRU’s fascination with listening, field recording and environmental sound eventually took him from Nairobi to Berlin. They were already aware of and admired each other’s work while still in Kenya.
Their reunion on ENEO consequently has something of a homecoming about it. The title itself is Swahili for “area” or “region”, an apt name for music concerned with finding common territory between two very different practices. The four track titles extend the game of displacement: “TIXE”, “UBIRAK”, “OFNI” and “ITAKAW” are words presented backwards, including karibu (“welcome”) and wakati (“time”). The familiar is turned around and made strange.
Percussion becomes texture, sustained sound acquires rhythmic force, field recordings provide grain and grounding, while distortion, resonance and low-frequency pressure migrate between foreground and background. “TIXE” establishes this protean territory by opening in a luminous mode, with joyous buoyancy, coated in the sparkle dust of a fairground, complete with what sounds like children’s chatter. “UBIRAK” shifts gears, carrying some of that merry-go-round magic into the high-intensity spinning rides before eventually turning combative. “OFNI” allows its disparate materials to spread and overlap, with acoustic and electronic plates colliding, while “ITAKAW” compresses them again, taking on a more tribal character. The identities of the two musicians remain audible, but their music has learnt to live differently after passing through the other.
That capacity for mutation has become increasingly central to SLIKBACK’s recent work, particularly his output over the past year. On EFTIAMA KIRIPHA, rhythm, distortion, density and space behave as different states of the same electronic material, with sounds continually changing function and its seven pieces resembling interconnected studies in transformation.
ONE seems to flush rhythms from the sky. It darts forward with its wings angled back, driven by speed and fire of spirit. Loud, insatiable and unpredictable, it hurtles between fragmentation, pressure, collision and overload. It opens with the combative energy of “NaON2” and never lets go, although by the midpoint, “HYBRID” entertains melody at its core. “INTERCEPT” hares back in search of adrenaline, while “BLUE” briefly opens into a more reflective space, seemingly diluting, or rather dissipating, the excess energy before allowing the rhythmic spine to reassemble itself. The closing track, “RED”, reconcentrates its violence through scabrous textures.
While SLIKBACK’s 2026 output, comprising three albums, is all jagged lines and crystal splinters glistening with myriad refractions, embedded in heavy rhythms, KMRU has been cultivating his immersive and contemplative side. His two most recent albums, Kin (Editions Mego, 2026) and Crop (self-released, 2026), are characterised by circular drones in pastel and occasionally strident hues, pensive reflections and obstinate resolve.
ENEO finds another possibility. Neither artist tries to overpower the other. Their dissimilarities produce a strange confluence, a heteroclite body assembled from two distinct sonic organisms. In Coccia’s terms, their encounter becomes a metamorphosis: each sonic persona continues to exist, but lives differently once it has passed through the other. ENEO is the area in which that transformation becomes possible. Let us hope it is only an appetiser for a full-length album. (Gianmarco Del Re)
