Released alongside a hallucinatory video filmed in Lomé, GKBL’s “Oyo” cuts a jagged path between ancestral percussion, electric guitar vamps, and synthetic overdrive. The duo — Congolese guitarist Germaine Kobo and Togolese vocalist-percussionist Bella Lawson — describe their sound as afrofuturisme chic, but there is little softness in this single’s tight, aggressive lattice of voice, rhythm and distortion.

Based between Togo and France, GKBL build their tracks on raw rhythmic foundations. “Oyo” is anchored by hand drums and call-response chants rooted in northern Togolese ceremony, recorded on site and adapted from traditional forms. The video stages a fictional rite around a sacred fire, where villagers enter trance through dance and drumming, only to be interrupted by a sudden pulse of flickering light, triggering an electronic rupture. The track’s structure follows suit, shifting from cyclical percussion into a denser section of electric guitar stabs and machine-programmed synthesisers.

There’s nothing ornamental in GKBL’s production. Every element is barbed, percussive and confrontational. The duo’s aim, they’ve said, is to “connect the ancestors to the machines”: a line that captures both the mythic drive and technological force of “Oyo”.

Learn more about GKBL’s work HERE