Taz Waves Samples the Past to Synthesize the Future
Tracing the history of the Yamaha PSR and Technics KN2000 keyboards in Sudan, the producer has created an album that brings these iconic sounds into conversations with new electronic Sudanese music.
Amuna WagnerAmunaWagnerCairo-Based North Africa Correspondent
Under his own Basinkob label, Taz Waves explores Sudan’s sonic past and reimagines it for an electronic future.from Taz Waves - The Return Of The Unknown Traveler (Music Video) تاز ويفز - عودة المسافر المجهول on YouTube
You know you’re about to witness a legendary Sudanese party when you see the keyboardist pull up to the function, a cigarette dangling between his lips. Even when they’re part of a band, Sudanese keyboardists are one-man orchestras that can conjure all types of instruments and polyrhythms. All they need is a Yamaha keyboard.
Since the late 1980s, Yamaha PSR and Technics KN2000 keyboards have become a major force shaping Sudanese popular music, helping create a sound unique to the country.
On his latest album, The Electronic Sounds of Sudan, Sudanese multi-disciplinary artist Zaher Nasr, aka Taz Waves, builds on the sonic traditions of the Yamaha PSR and Technics KN2000 keyboards and synthesizes them into a more futuristic sound that carries both nostalgia and novelty. Previously known as a producer who expertly samples the past, this project explores how a sound rooted in these keyboards' tones can travel toward new horizons.
The Journey of the Unknown Traveler
Growing up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Taz first honed his musical skills as a rapper. At 17, he moved to Port Sudan, started traveling more, and discovered he preferred working as a producer behind the scenes. He released two tapes called The Journey of the Unknown Traveler, which sampled the sounds Taz, the unknown traveler, came across while reacquainting himself with Sudanese music traditions.
While his father listened to Sudanese music at home, it was never cool in Saudi Arabia, and Taz, like many of his peers, rejected it. “Even if you listened to Sudanese music, you wouldn’t show it to the girl you were dating,” he tells OkayAfrica. “So this research [as the unknown traveler] helped me get close to my culture.”
Growing up, Taz tried to avoid Sudanese music whenever his father played it at home. Now, it influences everything he creates.by Taz Waves/Basinkob
Because he wanted people to engage with his art, Taz began experimenting with dance music. On his explorations, he was guided by several questions: “Do we have electronic music in Sudan? If yes, what does it sound like and what instruments do they use? Why specifically those instruments, and are they accessible?”
The Sudanification of Japanese keyboards
On his quest to carve out a unique space in Sudanese electronic music, Taz returned to the genre’s vintage foundations. For The Electronic Sounds of Sudan, he specifically searched for the FM synthesis sounds of the Yamaha PSR and Technics KN2000, Japanese keyboards that have become the driving force behind the hypnotic soundtracks of Sudanese wedding culture, street parties, and electronic music.
Their emergence had a practical reason: Sudan faced major socio-economic and cultural shifts in the 1980s and 1990s, which made the large, traditional live orchestras of earlier eras too expensive for everyday occasions. “These keyboards were like a one-man band where you can play rhythm, bass, and guitar,” explains Taz. “You can play the harmony with your left hand and the melody with your right hand.”
Originally, Yamaha and Technics were not creating instruments with African music in mind, which is why Sudanese musicians tweaked the keyboards to fit their specific sonic worlds and local aesthetics. There used to be a place in Omdurman where specialized electronics mechanics and keyboard hackers would tune these foreign keyboards, manually modifying the circuitry, loading custom data, or reprogramming the micro-tunings to cater to Sudanese poly-rhythms and melodies. The result is a variety of different electronic sounds, depending on how a keyboard has been tweaked, what synth the artist chooses to use, and which traditional influences they infuse the music with.
“What defines Sudanese music is the way that we play these keyboards, the sound selection, the rhythm, and how these three come together,” says Taz. “Other artists could be using the same sounds, but [what makes Sudanese music special] is the [pentatonic] scale and the way they play it.”
Astro-Sudanese music
On his Bandcamp, Taz describes his album as “a sound that feels like finding a long-lost cassette tape inside a spacecraft drifting over the Nubian expanse.” This, of course, brings to mind Jantra, a fellow Sudanese maestro who creates sonic worlds that are equally grounded in Sudanese tradition and celestial synths. Something about the desert and its vast expanse makes Sudanese musicians feel like reaching for the stars and creating music that is simultaneously high-energy and meditative.
In Taz’ experience, this mix of Sudanese heritage, nostalgia, and futurism speaks to Sudanese and non-Sudanese listeners alike. “I’m synthesizing the future to put Sudan in places that Sudanese music hasn’t gotten the chance to be a part of,” he says.
