DJ TravellaDJ Travella

Scene insiders have long known: East Africa is home to some of the most exciting club music you can find. A major reason the European scene has been paying attention is the label Nyege Nyege Tapes, based in the Ugandan capital Kampala. For years, they have been championing emerging talent from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Among those artists is DJ Travella, whose fans include avant-garde icons like Arca and Björk. Raised in Dar es Salaam, he pushes the Tanzanian genre singeli into the future. His sound blends mind-bending tempos (often exceeding 180 BPM) with wildly inventive melodies played on a simple Bluetooth keyboard—sometimes evoking jazz legend Herbie Hancock experimenting on the keytar.

DJ Travella, who has been making music since the age of 15, broke through in 2022. Since then, he has taken his frenetic and highly original rave sets around the world—from Berlin to São Paulo, from Jakarta all the way to the Gurten. On Thursday, DJ Travella will be performing at Soundgarden. Let’s goooooooooo 🚀🚀🚀