Gallardo by Runtown ft. Davido

In Gallardo, Runtown and Davido overrun the town with absorbing Thum and Miel [= Music and Dance]. The ear and the eye are finely catered for. Immersed in all that pampering, the spirit levitates and soars. Gimme mo! But wait, that's just the initial read.

Click to watch the video

The song's tone has a certain ambivalence to it -- a double-edged intent, or effect. It charms. Yet it appears to lull and to 'prepare'. Everyone's seemingly in an imposed waiting mode -- for a far bigger thing than the dancing that reads like the culmination of the day the're having. And yet no one's about to emit the subtle waiting vibes that can alert anyone to pick and run with. 

Everyone seems stuck between a Before (that's not to be spoken of, and an After that can neither be figured out nor escaped. An ever-present fire-shower, as a premonition, is pure pre-Vesuvian. Blackout and spare light? Some kind of pre-ritual ritual.

No one really knows where anyone's going to go with any of this maneno. And yet everyone waits and waits -- dancing, singing -- for the story to end, after a fashion, and for the suspense to go bust.

MUSIC (Uganda): Sheebah's "Weekend" feat. Runtown

Weekend -- Wikendi, if you like -- as sung by Sheebah and Runtown, is a superb collaboration between two musical pillars in Uganda and Nigeria. The video invokes images of weekend dos-and-dos that are clearly the stuff of daydreams, as well as 'endmonth' to 'endmonth' planning and chatter.

Click to watch the video

We see a more energetic Sheebah here than we do in many of her other outings. She's singing with animation and even excitement -- something faintly reminiscent, of course, of her Farmer Remix do with Ykee Benda.

Likewise, we see an inspired Runtown at the top of his game. His timed 'interjections' particularly stand out. They add punch and 'magic' to a song all will be happy to hear and love. So there was chemistry.


[Weekend was published on the last day of 2017, and was first noticed for this Blog's purposes only on January 23rd. Too late for inclusion in 2017 lists already published]