The unstoppable DJ Tobzy returns to Nyege Nyege Tapes with a hi-octane fusion of acid synths, manic chat and syncopated hand drums, often sat over brilliantly incongruous ambient harmonies and swelling chorales, opening a wormhole from TikTok straight to Lagos. Sick, sick gear.
If you thought his batshit 'Cruise Beat Album' was intense, young Nigerian "freebeat" architect DJ Tobzy ups the ante on 'Lagos City Unloaded', jacking the tempo on two hyperactive side-long mixes that cheekily shoehorn fragments of bargain bin pop, Eurodance, R&B and local street rap into brittle rhythmic trelliswork. Tobzy's only been recording since 2020, but he's quickly built up a dedicated fanbase on TikTok and YouTube, broadcasting the nascent cruise beat scene's dancers at Femi Kuti's New Afrika Shrine and integrating memes into his frenetic kitchen sink productions. This time around, we get to absorb the music in its proper form, with Tobzy's Lagos rave workouts interrupted by blaring samples, ATL-styled 'Kill Bill' drops and cocky shoutouts, or haphazardly blended with pitch-fucked pop. We don't even have to wait that long for Tobzy's larger-than-life personality to appear - within a few seconds, his woody 155bpm clacks are disrupted by yowling interjections, clipped horns and, most unexpectedly, detuned chorals - fully discordant in the best way.
Traces of kwaito, palm wine, Afrobeats, gqom and amapiano are shuffled with techno, rap and Brazilian funk, and Tobzy refuses to take his foot off the gas, using relentless trills to herald the mix's off-piste set pieces. Anything's up for grabs, whether it's Vengaboys-style plastic synths roughly gluef to steppy rubber band pings and brittle percussive knocks, before folding in a loop of Lil Wayne's 'A Milli', or a helium-powered trance edit of Rihanna's 'Diamonds', that's almost burst by Tobzy's bolshy drops. He then dilates Swiss DJ Yves Larock's '07 smash 'Rise Up', using its familiar chorus as a prelude to a chaotic burst of tuned West African rhythms, wheezing synths, orchestral fragments and kwaito guitar.
An exhausting experience, in the best way.
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The unstoppable DJ Tobzy returns to Nyege Nyege Tapes with a hi-octane fusion of acid synths, manic chat and syncopated hand drums, often sat over brilliantly incongruous ambient harmonies and swelling chorales, opening a wormhole from TikTok straight to Lagos. Sick, sick gear.
If you thought his batshit 'Cruise Beat Album' was intense, young Nigerian "freebeat" architect DJ Tobzy ups the ante on 'Lagos City Unloaded', jacking the tempo on two hyperactive side-long mixes that cheekily shoehorn fragments of bargain bin pop, Eurodance, R&B and local street rap into brittle rhythmic trelliswork. Tobzy's only been recording since 2020, but he's quickly built up a dedicated fanbase on TikTok and YouTube, broadcasting the nascent cruise beat scene's dancers at Femi Kuti's New Afrika Shrine and integrating memes into his frenetic kitchen sink productions. This time around, we get to absorb the music in its proper form, with Tobzy's Lagos rave workouts interrupted by blaring samples, ATL-styled 'Kill Bill' drops and cocky shoutouts, or haphazardly blended with pitch-fucked pop. We don't even have to wait that long for Tobzy's larger-than-life personality to appear - within a few seconds, his woody 155bpm clacks are disrupted by yowling interjections, clipped horns and, most unexpectedly, detuned chorals - fully discordant in the best way.
Traces of kwaito, palm wine, Afrobeats, gqom and amapiano are shuffled with techno, rap and Brazilian funk, and Tobzy refuses to take his foot off the gas, using relentless trills to herald the mix's off-piste set pieces. Anything's up for grabs, whether it's Vengaboys-style plastic synths roughly gluef to steppy rubber band pings and brittle percussive knocks, before folding in a loop of Lil Wayne's 'A Milli', or a helium-powered trance edit of Rihanna's 'Diamonds', that's almost burst by Tobzy's bolshy drops. He then dilates Swiss DJ Yves Larock's '07 smash 'Rise Up', using its familiar chorus as a prelude to a chaotic burst of tuned West African rhythms, wheezing synths, orchestral fragments and kwaito guitar.
An exhausting experience, in the best way.