Guerrilla

It is difficult to listen to Nazar's music without an appreciation of the enduring pain caused by the Angolan civil war. A country torn by conflict, its enduring wealth disparities were evidenced earlier this year in legal proceedings launched against billionaire businesswoman and daughter of the former president, Isabel dos Santos, whose assets were allegedly procured through nepotistic means. Meanwhile, the average Angolan lives on a few dollars a day. Nazar, from Angola and now based in Manchester, produces dystopic compositions that reflect upon tumultuous times. His debut album, Guerrilla, explores terror, militaristic hubris and familial fragili.

Urgency pervades the record. ‘Diverted’ tackles his father's dangerous work as a decoy for guerrilla groups. Its propulsive bassline and kuduro drum pattern sonically renders a warfield for the dance floor. Elsewhere, ‘UN Sanctions’ is suitably bleak, with hauntological vocal recitations cut against a backdrop replete with gunshots. There are also subtler moments. Recollections from his mother's time with rebel militia are interspersed with rich choral textures on ‘Mother’, while ‘End of Guerrilla’ acts as a marker of pious remembrance, following the 2002 ceasefire. Guerrilla's brutalist collage of gunshots, disembodied voices and bullish basslines is both hellish and cathartic in its evocation of war.