Demokeen Whips Up A Passionate Embrace of Love & Music on 'Sound'

Soul has always been a recurrent feature across several generations of Black music. From genres like Jazz, Afrobeat and R&B, one perceives a deep sense of the historic coming into touch with the personal, a culmination which often results in very emotive music hinged on a high level of technicality. Why am I saying all this?

“Sound,” a record from Nigerian artist Demokeen, exudes these lists of qualities. On pressing play, one is immediately ushered into a soundscape which bubbles with the ripeness of live instruments. Indeed, an earthy atmosphere is the immediate mark of the song, which first works up a steady stream of drums and riffling sax. Although not quite hurried, the production favours intensity over progressive build-up, a sonic choice which hits the listener like a jolt from somewhere urgent and entirely contained.

In the storied evolution of Nigerian music, we’ve had artists who have made their niche from this sort of sonic expression, the likes of Asa and Timi Dakolo coming readily to mind. But where these artists often favour a mellow classical energy, Demokeen’s engagement is quite vivacious, rocked on by whatever theme he’s exploring on a particular song.

On “Sound,” that theme is ostensibly the head-spinning emotions evoked by love, a feeling that’s parallel with the intoxicating highs of music. As the song progresses, the artist’s voice soars into a tightened pulse, breathing down the instrumental with the fierceness of a man who knows sound is all he has. “Sound, sound, you make my head sound every time you want me, oh girl, I won’t shout,” he sings just before the second verse, while the instruments rise and descend, rise and descend, like waves licking the shores and then retreating.

It’s a bit trite to say by now that the so-called alternative channels of our music will always offer some of the most riveting expressions we’ve ever heard. Yet some artists are so strikingly original in their presentation that they have a lot of potential when they cross over to more popular strata of culture.

Based on the strength of his releases, Demokeen is clearly one such artist.