Ahead of this November’s Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht, we are presenting a series of previews centred around the coinciding Mega Record & CD Fair, and artists playing at the festival.
Last week, Pink Siifu discussed records by Prince, George Clint and more, and this week, it’s the turn of Lord Spikeheart, otherwise known as one-half of Nairboi-based Nyege Nyege Tapes affiliates Duma. Below, he talks about some of his favourite metal records from the last year or so as we ask him to pick out some records he might be on the hunt for at Europe’s biggest record fair.
Le Guess Who? will this year welcome the likes of William Basinski, faUSt, Pa Salieu, Ana Roxanne, Vladislav Delay, Jesu, Alabaster dePlume, L’Rain and Vanishing Twin, as well as guest curation from Midori Takada, John Dwyer, Phil Elverum, Matana Roberts and Lucrecia Dalt. The Mega Record & CD Fair will run alongside it in Utrecht. You can find more information about the fair here.
Le Guess Who? will take place from November 11 to 14, 2021. Find more information here.
Which three records would you be on the hunt for at the Mega Record & CD Fair?
Lord Spikeheart: Gojira’s Fortitude, Tetrach’s Unstable and Cannibal Corpse’s Violence Unimagined.
When / how did you get to know these records, and why are they special to you?
LS: I came to know these records over the lockdown as some of them were released at the beginning of this year during the pandemic. They really slap hard and I’m glad to see, for example, Gojira be top on the Billboard 100 just from traditional vinyl sales. Tetrach’s debut album is riff-spectacular and unapologetic. Cannibal Corpse have always been one my favorite bands and they are a huge inspiration, being over 20 years in the business and still churning out very authentic albums, much respect to them.
What album have you listened to the most over the last year?
LS: Bigman Bado Odinare by Ethic Entertainment. They do [hip hop sub-genre] Gengetone from my country Kenya, and all their songs are really relevant and witty. They slapped hard with ‘Quarantei’ about COVID-19 and drinking alcohol to stay sane, ‘Staga Niki Medi’ about focusing on the grind and keeping it low-key, ‘Pandana’ about making love to your partner since it’s all locked down and we can’t go anywhere, and ‘Tarimbo’ is real gritty and unapologetic with the beat and lyrics. Been listening to this at least every day over the last year.
What is the best record store in Nairobi?
LS: WLL, World’s Largest Library. It’s located at Alchemist Westlands in Nairobi.
