Kilamanzego tunes in to “Jungle Frequency”

Over the past several years, West Philadelphia’s Kilamanzego has emerged as a unique voice in electronic music, subtly incorporating the tones and textures of music from West Africa into big-bang, body-moving compositions. As I put it when they visited XPN studios back in 2018, “primarily, Kilamanzego’s music is indented to rock parties with high-energy beats…but they also look to push the possibilities of what those beats can sound like, merging [their] Ghanaian heritage with their punk rock roots and experimental spirit.”

That session came on the heels of Kilamanzego’s first visit to Ghana, where two opportunities to DJ left them inspired to push their sound further. The new single “Jungle Frequency” is the latest point in that sonic continuum, and does a little bit of a lot of different things for a unique, immersive sound.

The song moves at a pace evocative of glitch and dubstep — the music winds down to draw a breath, and resumes on a different track at several junctures across its three-minute runtime — and is built around trancey synthesizer bubbles, samples of inscrutable stringed instruments, and tight loops of beats that layer together to create a conga drum-esque vibe. Towards the end, we even hear vocal interjections reminiscent of classic house music.

Though Kilamanzego’s M.O. for the past several years has been releasing one standalone single at a time, an EP is on the way later this year. In the meantime, listen to “Jungle Frequency” below.