LIFE AT GOETHE INSTITUT’S ELECTRO NIGHT

The calmness of the night around Broad Street Lagos was cut short by the vibrating sound of hot mixes emanating from the turntables. A handful of young people converged outside the building of the Federal Government Printing Press for different reasons. Some briefly took telephone and nature calls while others discreetly shared some “nightlife ingredients” that mustn’t be caught in the full beam of headlights.

Strolling in, the table on the left was marked “drinks” and surprisingly, only a few steppers came around it. Apparently, the fun part is beyond the culinary. Naturally, the table of attraction was lit with the energy driving the spins and the quick selections. It was not a countdown to change of year calendar, though it felt like one, but it was a concert tagged, “Electronic Soundscapes”.

That night was actually the wrap of the week-long workshop organised by the German Cultural Centre, Goethe-Institut in collaboration with Alliance Francais to train disc jockeys and music producers towards expanding the scope of the Nigerian music scene. Undoubtedly, contemporary Nigeria artists have put the country on the world music map with the popularity of the afro-pop culture. Sadly, this is putting all other music genres into that tight box and the truth is that it chokes creativity.

At the workshop, the attempt was to throw away the dominance of commercially-oriented music and create a platform for developing artistically ambitious music. Artists like Keziah Jones, Nneka, Asa and Ade Bantu are more successful abroad than in Nigeria where independent music producers and artists lack proper support schemes to produce and present their music creations. Hence, the German music producer, Marko Furstenberg facilitated the workshop which was attended by French DJ R-ash, Nigerian DJ Gboyega Afrologic Oyedele and six other Nigerian DJs and electronic music producers namely DJ Sketch, DJ Bally, PJEGK, Irawo drumline and DJ Kwest. Certainly, if Nigerian DJs change their attitude towards emerging music genres, the fans in the music landscape in Nigeria will likely follow suit. DJs are known to be very instrumental to many artistic breakthroughs through repetitive airplays and compulsive playlists at celebrity parties and funspots.

Back to the wheels of steel, it was a party enlightenment of sorts. Electro music was redefined with DJs exploring it as a staple while flipping back the beats with some other tracks in several genres such as hip hop, reggae, pop, dancehall, R&B and well, the ultimate Nigerian music cliché, afro pop. It goes without saying that DJ R-Ash lived up to his name, literally. He spun the discs with the restlessness of a person bombarded by rashes and evoked nolstagia with some classic tunes of the 90s like Missy Misdemeanor Elliot’s hit, “Get Your Freak On”. It got to a point that the steppers practically parked on the dance floor around him to watch how he managed to put his art together so brilliantly. Electro has essentially been perceived as the music of the youths or old ones with young minds but those kinds of mixes shattered all existing age and cultural barriers on the dance floor.

If you wonder what impact the explosive mixes had on the party animals, it was a curious case of ravaging pleasure. From Shoki to Fela dance steps, the dancers interpreted the electro moves to personal taste and convictions. The much that could be gathered that night was that electro music has come to stay in Nigeria. So, let’s make way for it in our playlists on radio, television, clubs and music award categories.