Music Review: Shake It – Biya

Biya has been snapped up by Shake It Africa, a record label that is also an independent African music and entertainment company. The label was founded by Ugandan singer-songwriter Jon Muq and seasoned music executive Kevin Wommack.

Shake It represents an interesting musical direction for Biya, who has had a bias in favour of World Music when dipping her toe into the industry. However, her bio does describe her as ‘a Ugandan acoustic singer-songwriter and contemporary folk artist who weaves traditional African rhythms, storytelling, and poetry into a soulful folk and Afro-electronic sound’. So perhaps Shake It is not too far off the beaten track for her.

She uses African rhythms, an Afro-electronic sound that is unusual whilst being simultaneously contemporary.  Having made her mark as an acoustic singer-songwriter favouring contemporary folk music, this is a more commercial approach, a more pop approach that still manages to hold on to her musical roots.

Musical analysis aside, Shake It is also just a fun, sultry song.

Shake It was composed by Biya, with lyrical input from Jon Muq, who also gets producer credit on the track, alongside Kevin Wommack, which is pretty impressive. It is almost a throwback to the 90s production duos (L.A. Reid and Kenny Edmonds, or Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis), or maybe I am just being nostalgic. Kevin brings market know-how, with his background as an A&R executive, while Jon Muq brings the musicality. Artin Pro, a Ugandan music producer whose government name is Martin Musoke also gets a producer credit, so this was a huge collaborative effort.

In Biya (born Patra Kabatesi), they have an artiste with crossover appeal who would sound at home in a cosmopolitan market space. Shake It is a track that would work on the dancefloors of Barcelona, or in Ibiza, in London, Berlin or New York. Her syntax works perfectly, especially with its neutrality. It lends a universal appeal to her delivery. And she does it with ease – you just know there’s a lot more let in the tank when you hear those vocals of hers.

The primary producer on Shake It is BLK ODYSSY, an Austin-based producer whose unique sound blends influences from artists like Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo, Outkast and Funkadelic. You can feel the Neo-soul influences of his background on the track.

The deliciously prominent throbbing bass line on the song is also credited to him.

There’s additional guitar work from Jon Muq and David Pulkingham, as well as keyboards credited to BLK ODYSSY and Bryce Powell, and yet you do not get the clutter that often hampers songs within this genre. The mixing engineer, Jesse Ray, gets a nod from me in this regard. The song clocks in at 2 minutes 36 seconds, which is typical of today’s musical releases, but a tonne of work went into this.

With Shake It, it shows. It’s a fantastic afro-electronic effort.