Songs of Paapieye (2015)
6 tracks, 33 minutes
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SK Kakraba plays the gyil, a xylophone of the Dagaare people. It’s not that big – only about a metre to a metre-and-a-half long, but the sound it makes is immense. The wooden keys are amplified with calabash gourds which are stretched over with spiderwebs, which gives every note a harsh buzz. This buzz serves to amplify the sound, but it also obscures the sound in the exact same way as distortion does, highlighting obscure harmonics and adding a whole load of grittiness to the purely acoustic tones.
When you get someone like SK Kakraba, a master who can hold the most complex polyrhythms in his head while his hands skate across the keys at a million miles an hour, it means that those layers of buzz accumulate into something overwhelming. The whole effect is hypnotising and, although the gyil is used to play all sorts of music, it’s easy to see why its sound is considered sacred in the hands of the most proficient.
At just over half-an-hour long, this isn’t the longest album, but that length is pretty much ideal – enough to really dig that intense sound of the solo gyil and leave you wanting to explore more, but without the risk that the almighty buzz will set up home in your brain forever, rendering everything in psychedelic noise.
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