KIKOMMANDO

A collective effort from a vital scene in Kampala, KIKOMMANDO takes its name from Ugandan street food of flat bread and beans.

As a kind of “food for soldiers,” offering maximum energy with minimal means, KIKOMMANDO is an equally nourishing and ambitious project, spanning mixtape, video series, and book. It began in East Africa in the summer of 2018 during a two-month residency at the Nyege Nyege collective’s villa, in collaboration with their sublabel Hakuna Kulala. There, producer and PAN artist Simone Trabucchi (aka STILL) opened his temporary studio to a group of Kampala-based artists, setting the stage for a vital cross-cultural collaboration. The publication also includes a set of stickers and a mixtape download code.

Trabucchi’s aim was to record as much as possible, and the resulting mixtape brings together eight artists whose influences range across trap, drill, kuduro, electro, cut-ups, and more. Rather than flattening these differences, KIKOMMANDO captures them as a vivid snapshot of one part of Kampala’s music scene at a particular moment. Featured artists include Blaq Bandana, Florence, Jahcity, Ecko Bazz, Biga Yut, Swordman Kitala, Omutaba, and Winnie Lado, each contributing a distinct voice and presence.

The project extends beyond sound. Each track is accompanied by a video, and the book itself functions as a kind of recording diary, gathering images, colors, and textures that echo the music’s heterogeneous character. What emerges is a multifaceted project shaped by collaboration, movement, and exchange. As Trabucchi has emphasized, KIKOMMANDO was conceived not as an album in the conventional sense, but as a mixtape: an open, dialogic form in which ideas are shared, transformed, and carried by many voices.