Evil Plan / UKANDANZ

Ukandanz’s sixth album is another cosmic explosion in the galaxy that the band self created fifteen years ago: Ethiopian music from the 70s pumped up on rock, noise and experimental hormones! The phenomenal Evil Plan is due to explode on Friday 18th April. 

In the burning blast of this opus, we find what has always made the strength of the Franco-Ethiopian combo, as well as a nice surprise… Activated by the electrifying sorcerer Damien Cluzel, Ukandanz goes up the stream of Ethiopian music by offering new landscapes for the vocal flexibility of modern cantor Asnake Gebreyes.

The band’s new approach to great Ethiopian music is back on the track, and if you can still feel the whiff of swinging Addis in its heyday, there’s a lot more electricity in the air! The single Yene Felagote, from Tlahoun Gèssèssè, immediately sets the scene for this new adventure. The modernised polyrhythms and unleashed riffs are also part of two instrumental tracks, reminding us that these passionate musicians know how to emancipate themselves from their modern-day griot.

The quintessence of their union is further strengthened on this gem of a cover, which turns the band’s founding principle on its head: it’s the rock repertoire that’s explored, and it’s a choice track that’s dipped into the bubbling cauldron of 2.0 Ethio music. Black Sabbath’s War Pigs blends perfectly with the history of Ethiopia, which has been at war since 2020, but also with its music thanks to this literal transcription in Amharic, perfectly embodied by Asnake Gebreyes. The arrangement matches the situation, incisive and powerful like an anti-militarist charge against the world leaders and their death squads.

Evil Plan is Ukandanz’s diabolical new plan to provoke a conscious and liberating trance!