Out Of the Comfort Zone Ep

Finally. Umoja Sounds are here with their superbly put together EP aptly titled ‘Out of the Comfort Zone’ after months of rigorous production schedules. Prior to this, the dynamic trio of Kevin Prvk, Akula ‘Dunga’ Akwabi, and Robert Jakech, have already been releasing songs and tracks with different artists from Eastern Africa to the point where an EP release became necessary. Speculations aside one can only anticipate that ‘Out of the Comfort Zone’ would be outside of our solar system synthetically but Umoja Sounds decides to tweak knobs without throwing off and losing their ardent listeners. Charity beginning from home, it’s fully packed with East African Urban flavors and sensibilities bearing in mind that the approach inculcates a global adherence and sentimentality as well. They bring wonderful mixtures of Afro- Caribbean, AfroPop fused with RnB and Soulish soundscapes and Classical realms to mainstream consciousness as part of their collaborative efforts with selected talents from East Africa and Zambia. Diving into Umoja Sounds’ wholesomely is a journey worth embarking on as listeners get to partake of the diversity curated in an audio flow of activity. ‘Out of the Comfort Zone’ is a continuation of Umoja Sounds mantra ‘Vibe-Collaborate -Reciprocate gathering names in rap, dancehall, swarnb, swahili soul, spoken word, and more experiences that the listener is allowed to decipher and discover for themselves the beauty that lies within the music without necessarily being cliché. The EP starts with a thoughtful analogy from Kenya’s poet laureate Mufasa Poet, breaking into ‘Higher’ with Kenya’s Emma Cheruto, ‘Venus’ featuring Rwanda’s Ariel Wayz and Fredrick Mulla from Tanzania, the groovy yet mellow chorded banger ‘Designer’ that features Jay Rox from Zambia, and ‘Stamina’ that features 1der Jr from Uganda. Marleen XPlastaz intimates soothingly in the RnB influenced ‘Bayana’, bringing the EP to a close. While raising expectations for the next sphere of up and coming epic audiovisual releases and further continental collaborations in the near future towards the global, it is clear that with this release, the world should expect more music from Umoja Sounds.