Zelalem

“You can only win freedom on reason. Therefore […] The job of the conscious is to make the unconscious conscious.” The words of civil rights leader Kwame Toure are an apt opening for Mikaeil Seifu’s “Zelalem”— which means “eternity” in Amharic  — an EP that seems to trace the Ethiopian producer’s own journey towards consciousness and freedom. His “Ethiopiyawi Electronic” fuses the traditional sounds of the krar,  masenqo, and kebero drumming with colorful synths, moody drones, and gravelly rhythms, and encapsulates his understanding that only by constantly renewing itself this ancient music can be truly eternal.