Kampala Night Tape — seventy-five cassettes, pink shells in blue-backed cases, one motorcycle wheel wrapped in chains — is the first thing Atmosferal ever released. In early September, label co-founder Galzu called Florence, aka DJ Flo Moon, mid-way through her European tour with HHY & The Kampala Unit, to talk about the tape, teaching in Kampala, and why a prepared playlist never survives contact with a dancefloor.
[Draft in review — passages marked [?] await correction; one section awaits Florence’s sign-off.]
Galzu: So — you’ve seen the tape now.
Flo Moon: I love it. I love it how you can see through — I was not sure about this, but now I like it.
Galzu: It’s a mixtape, so it’s a mix from the front and the back. Blaise is very happy — he wants to make t-shirts and everything.
Flo Moon: The t-shirts will look good, with just the tracks. If he does one, I’ll get one t-shirt. You know, in our country we don’t have where to play this kind of tape.
Galzu: You don’t have cassette players?
Flo Moon: No, we don’t have. But back in the days in Africa, everything was tape — twenty, thirty years ago it was almost everywhere, tapes, also watching a movie. Now with cell phones, everything shifted.
Galzu: For the good and the bad, as always. Let’s see — maybe we can find a tape player for you. (He looks. It’s not there.) Never mind.
Galzu: Let’s start with the basics. Your life in Uganda — I know you DJ, you play trumpet in HHY & The Kampala Unit, you’re a music teacher, there was the fundraiser. Are you basically living as an artist from touring now, or do you still teach?
Flo Moon: Actually, both. When I’m here I leave my crew [?] to help me with the kids, and when I go back, I go teaching the kids. I don’t stop — I keep my routine. In Kampala, yes.
Galzu: I saw the fundraiser online, and you told me the people from Roskilde finally supported the project.
Flo Moon: Exactly — and also Panke [?] in Berlin added, to finish up the thing. I was so happy that I got the fundraising, and I had to make it work. The house is there now — when I come back from tour I’m going to start working on the school. It needs a lot of money: renovation, beds, food for the kids, so I can bring the kids in to sleep. Now I can’t, because the house needs more work.
Galzu: An ongoing project.
Flo Moon: Ongoing project.
Galzu: You’re on tour with HHY in Europe right now — and this isn’t your first tour.
Flo Moon: I started touring in 2018. Every year I tour, from the beginning of the year to the end — because of the visa: one month back in my country, one month here.
Galzu: I read on the PAM blog that it’s often very difficult to get visas for playing here.
Flo Moon: It’s very hard. So you have to go back. And it’s expensive — the flights from Uganda to Europe are not cheap. Nothing to do.
[Section pending Florence’s sign-off — a touring story she shared, held back until she has reviewed the piece.]
Galzu: When I saw you live in January, people loved what you were doing — you get a lot of love touring, no?
Flo Moon: It is good love. People — that’s what makes me keep moving with the music, and keep doing what I love, and sharing the love to others. They’re showing me love and I share love with other people.
Galzu: At the last Nyege fest — the DJ set, my goodness. I was completely out of this world after it. You had me like a marionette.
Flo Moon: I love to play. You put yourself in what you’re playing — it becomes a part of yourself. You open up your character and show yourself. It’s like art: you need to enjoy what you’re doing. If you don’t enjoy, that means it’s like a routine — you should do something else that you like.
Galzu: Tell us about the tape. You told me once it really came from the heart, very spontaneous — I think I can feel that when I listen to it.
Flo Moon: When I’m DJing, I always create some feelings. I put this mood of happiness, I shift the energy around, so when I’m DJing I always want people to share what I feel. Say it’s something around 2 a.m. — it is like trance, someone needs to go into trance. Sometimes clubby, dance over this kind of trance-dance, always into the vibe. So when I was doing this mix, I was just at home, sitting. I put on my headset and I play a track, and I create the feeling — this track should feel much with this one.
Galzu: So you didn’t prepare the mix? It was improvisation?
Flo Moon: Actually, I always try to prepare — I’m like, I’m going to play this playlist. Then I don’t! It just happens to me, and I’m like, oh my god, I didn’t play the playlist. I could sit for one hour checking, and when I play, I go to different playlists — oh my god, go to this one. So it’s like a mix-up.
Galzu: This feels similar to me. I’ve played since the nineties, and I’ve never prepared a playlist. Sometimes it was terrible and sometimes it worked out excellent.
Flo Moon: That’s life! (laughs) But when you prepare the playlist, it doesn’t come from here. What you play has to come from here — it has to keep the feeling and the mood.
Take the vibe and respond, and see what comes back. You need to bring the freshness. Otherwise you’re more like a machine who executes a program.
DJ Flo Moon
Galzu: And that’s why some mixes on the tape are a bit wobbly — for me this is a selling point. We will print “no AI” on it. It is human, it is a performance. You see: DJ at work.
Flo Moon: We should do the t-shirt also — DJ at work. (laughs)
Galzu: I bought one of these newer controllers, and I’m doodling around with the DJ software from Algoriddim [?] — I want to see it as an instrument. Naturally I was always playing with records, and Serato and stuff. What about CDJs?
Flo Moon: But it’s so easy — just to listen!
Galzu: I’ve played a few times with CDJs and I should finally learn it. Somehow it works, but I’m not accustomed to it. I’m so old-school — I feel most comfortable when there is a record spinning.
Flo Moon: You will learn. (laughs)
Galzu: I know you’re working on releases — what’s coming?
Flo Moon: It’s Flo — like, solo singing. And it’s coming, I think, this month.
Galzu: Wow. I’m looking very much forward to that. And you just mentioned Nyege — can you tell us about the impact of Nyege Nyege on the Ugandan scene?
Flo Moon: It’s massive. The festival is now at the twelfth edition and it is really big. Why they love Nyege: because Nyege brings people together. It brings a lot of artists from another world to share their music with others, and there’s a lot of traditional culture music in Uganda — when they perform, people love to hear this. You hear a lot of different music at Nyege festival. You watch something and you stare, you get stuck — not even dancing — you’re like, wow. Even Ugandans who used not to love that: when they go, there is this “wow” — because you dance from morning to night and you never get tired. That’s why — “nyege nyege” is like, to break, to shake your body. It’s about fun and happy days and dance.
Galzu: When I was there the first time, there were huge banners everywhere — Uganda Waragi [?], Nyege Nyege Festival, all through the city. And it’s amazing how it is very Ugandan and yet very open. It’s really a blueprint for me — one of my favorite labels in the world. The most progressive music and traditional music and everything in between, so well curated. I’m very fond of singeli, and all the Gqom [?] compilations —
Flo Moon: I always love the singeli! Me, I go nuts. [On a festival mainstay — name unclear in the recording:] He was amazing — and he’s such a relaxed person. When you see him at the hotel in the morning, you would never say he’s that big star. Really amazing person — and he’s the mastermind of all this crazy crew that is happening.
Galzu: And MC Yallah — did you watch her?
Flo Moon: Yes! She’s amazing.
Galzu: It was fabulous how she had the crowd. For us it’s very important — we’re extremely happy that you could make the mixtape, because we really want to see that we are not only having male producers on the label. It should be like 50/50, because this is the only way you can do it. I think it changes the crowd too, if you have a lot of female DJs playing.
Flo Moon: It changes the crowd — the energy is different.
Galzu: So we are very happy that we start off the label with a mixtape by you.
Flo Moon: Do you sometimes organize parties?
Galzu: Not yet — but we should. I’m thinking about leaving Switzerland for Italy, and as soon as I’m down there I want to go into promotion, even doing small festivals. But changing your life is difficult. I have a studio here, a good recording space with lots of synthesizers, drums and guitars, and I want to move it down — it will maybe take me a year and a half. In Switzerland it’s very difficult: you need a lot of money, the cities are so small. It’s not that you cannot do it, but it is all very organized, not very open. I would love it to be a little more open, a little more punk.
Flo Moon: I’ll pray for you — you will pass through it. (laughs) We just need to go forward, don’t look back.
Galzu: My record is mastered in Mexico City now, and then we’re doing the CD — and we will certainly try to do a release party for the tape and the CD together. If you’re in Europe, of course we’ll try to get you.
Flo Moon: If it doesn’t happen this year, maybe next year. When I’m in Europe it’s easier for me to move around. Everything will be in the right time. If you don’t stress, then everything happens — when you don’t rush it, it comes perfect. When you rush, it breaks.
Galzu: I’m glad we had this conversation.
Flo Moon: Me as well. And I tell you — the tape is absolutely killer. When I meet you, I’ll get a tape. I’ll just keep it in my house, like a decoration.
Galzu: Of course. And I’ll see if I can find you one of these old Sony Walkmans. I think there are now new ones from China that work perfectly fine. Let me have a look into this.
Flo Moon: Thank you. Okay — talk soon. Have a good day!
Kampala Night Tape by DJ Flo Moon is out now on Atmosferal — ATM-001, cassette, edition of 75.