EKITI SOUND Abeg No Vex (The Remixes Vol 1)

‘Art takes living
Art takes truth
I’m an artist and my medium is noise
This is my symphony of Nigeria’s new era’

Ekiti Sound’s childhood between London and Lagos was invaluable: it was a lived experience of the recent musical dialogue between West Africa and the UK.
 
Spending his formative years in East London clubs, then working as a sound designer for Pinewood Studios and scoring movies within the booming Nollywood film industry became the foundation of the album’s eclectic sound, which takes in references as varied as techno, trap and soul, while its narrative pays homage to Nigerian folklore: “I’m really focused on the preservation of our culture,” says Ekiti Sound, whose moniker was named after the region where his father was born.
 
The artist’s award-winning 2019 debut album ABEG NO VEX is a record whose production ingenuity nuanced a new chapter in the Afro-fusion sound, while asserting the vocalist and producer as a maverick who’s ready to keep pushing boundaries.
 
Voiced through a collage of Yoruba, English and pidgin, the songs deliver an exuberant constellation of fables through a cast of featured artists.
 
“It’s music for ceremonial dance floors and clubs that specialize in spiritual uplift, replete with sturdy musical reference-points, from classic Neptunes hip-hop productions and UK junglism breaks, to Afrobeat foundations of Fela Kuti and Tony Allen. This sonic diversity speaks to Leke’s own creative point of view.” (Afropunk, US)
 
With ABEG NO VEX receiving support from Tom Ravencroft (BBC6 Music), Gilles Peterson (WWFM), Laurent Garnier, Afropunk and other global tastemakers, the album has built a cult fan base of DJs and diaspora ravers.
 
The worldwide appreciation of the album inspired Ekiti Sound to invite producers from across the globe to remix tracks. Resulting in the EP Abeg No Vex (The Remixes Vol 1), which will be released on March 6th on Crammed Discs.

The featured remixers are Canadian electronic music producer Hrdvsion (pronounced “hard vision”), London’s Stan-ley & BeatSoul and eclectic French producer & DJ Soul Edifice.


”Song For Lara (Stan-ley & BeatSoul Remix)” inspired Leke to make a music video on Victoria Island, in a small spot called Bar Bar where you can chill out after a chaotic day in Lagos. It features DJ Ayizan, Pastagoras and Leke aka Ekiti Sound, all part of Nigeria's underground music scene.




Ekiti Sound’s ABEG NO VEX album was described as:
Multilingual and sonically diverse, bold and unpredictable (Pop Matters, US)
A bold gamble that pays off in full  (The Quietus, UK)
Connecting the UK’s electronic music scenes with Nigeria’s music heritage (Tsugi, FR)