_mwl. Gregg Tendwa is a multimedia artist, freethinker, and afrofuturist questioning the future of the African identities in the face of the next industrial revolution. He explores deeply complex and uncomfortable conversations of social reality through music, writing, photography, fashion, food, stories and games.
He is a keen music collector, selector and director with an amazing attention to taste. His direction of producing, remixing and playing music can be described as Afro – eclectic with an element of experimentation drawn from the diversity of African guitars and percussion.
His DJ sets are full of afrogoodness, – dropping rare grooves – from Afrohouse to Afrofunk to Afropop, Afrojazz, Afrosoul, Afrobeat, Highlife, experimental Electronica and everything in between. His style of “digging” has sometimes been described as afrocosmic archeology – unearthing the forgotten, the nostalgic and the futuristic.
_mwl GT. Is hugely influential to the Afro + Electro + House movement across East Africa. As the architect of Santuri Safari, he engineered a project that is famed for disrupting the underground electronic dance music culture of East Africa. He is the pioneer of Bengatronics, a sound that blends sweet as sugarcane rhythms of the traditional Benga style of music with the cutting edge of electronic dance music. Benga Music evolved between the late 1940s and late 1960s, in Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi and is currently interpreted as Kanindo/Sungura music in Zimbabwe.
Since 2014, he has performed widely across the East and West of Africa and Europe. He is familiar face in Arusha, Jinja, Kampala, Dar e Salaam, Nairobi and Amsterdam. He has shared stage with Umoja, a dutch Dj duo that is heavinly influenced by African sounds, the German DJ Duo schlachthofbronx and the Jimmy Hendrix of Kora, Sekou Kouyate from Guinea, and Berlin based DJ Zhao also known and the ambassador of rhythm. He has spoken at major music conferences including Buzz Meets Biz – (Accra, 2017) and Music in Africa ACCESS conference (Nairobi, 2018).
Beyond curating amazing DJ set, _mwl GT. finds a calling in bringing to the world a finely crafted Benga Music experience. He grew up listening to Katitu Boys Band, Kimagu and Newtown Karish of Kangara Boys Band. Since childhood, he picked an interest in the soulful harmony of Benga Rhythms and Patterns, and is currently setting up a record label to work with various artists to discover, rework, and publish a retrofuturist sound direction of Benga Music.
