Review Summary: Fuelled by an assortment of enchantingly dark and crunchy riffs, and ablaze with Guebreyes’ impassioned vocal performances, Awo is an album brimming with an unbridled energy.
With riffs vibrating off the walls, and saxophones spiralling circles around your head, uKanDanZ aren’t afraid to throw their stylistic strengths around, often all at once. The rock trio plus saxophone and lead vocal arrangement are quite happy to set ablaze the technicalities of rock music with force and conviction, creating what is essentially a jazzy alternative rock album you can dance aggressively to.
In the tight 39-minute time frame in which Awo operates, uKanDanZ blister their way through high-octane and ephemeral passages such as in the album opener ‘Tchuheten Betsemu’ and ‘Ende Yerusalem’, but also takes a pressure-cooker approach to music in ‘Lantchi Biye’ which erupts with wild vocals and brittle riffs. What’s most surprising however is how uKanDanZ choose to end Awo. Rather than carry on with their tightly focussed sections of brewing tension and energetic storms, they deliver a 12 minute progressive rock piece that sounds like it could be one of King Crimson’s heavier, jazzier epics.
What sets uKanDanZ apart from other jazz-rock outfits is the unrelenting momentum that comes naturally with their style, and of course, Guebreyes’ impassioned Ethiopian vocal performances, that are striking and varied throughout. Awo is an album fuelled by an assortment of enchantingly dark and crunchy riffs, made all the more worthwhile by uKanDanZ’s knack for capitalising on their abundant energy with aggressive, cathartic release.
