New Clap! Clap! – “Kuj Yato”

With an imagined island as conceptual backbone and plenty of field recordings and rain sticks in tow, Italian multi-instrumentalist Clap! Clap! (née Cristiano Crisci) is preparing his full-length debut, the Tayi Bebba LP, for a September 8 release on Black Acre. Last month, we heard “The Rainstick Fable”, a fascinating footwork re-interpretation featuring clanging organic production and beatific, children’s choir singing. It goes without saying that Clap! Clap! is a different breed of Western producer reinterpreting “global” sounds and his songs rarely involve the cringe-worthy, bloviating signifiers that cloister “world music” into the disreputable “genre” it is viewed as today. “Kuj Yato” is the second taste from Tayi Bebba and features a hi-res interpretation of trans-Atlantic percussion, comfortably resting in a contemporary hip hop framework.”Kuj Yato” rolls, dives and slams like the best of Iamsu! and might just be one of the more fun-loving club songs to emerge all summer. Crisci’s combination of beyond-impressive production quality, left-field instrumentalism and comprehension of the basics of club music sub-culture point towards Tayi Bebba being a wildly enticing listen.