Benon & Vamposs

Reggae has been a huge musical force in Africa for 30 years now but only a handful of artists have attracted attention in North America. Uganda's Benon and Vamposs hope to blaze some new trails with their new disc. I Know sheds some light onto the modern iterations of reggae in Uganda. So many generations of reggae performers have come and gone throughout Africa that Benon and Vamposs's sound is a hybrid of everything from Ghanaian hiplife to South African kwaito. Sung in Luganda, Swahili and English, this record seems very much like a disc for the domestic market, with no blatant crossover attempts. Though the title track seems like the most widely accessible cut, it's basically a less polished version of a typically gooey contemporary love song from Jamaica. The beats are almost entirely digital, and while they don't hit the dancefloor tremendously hard, their contrast of tuneful, sing-songy choruses with the rougher flow of the verses goes down well.