Odd Okoddo and Ogoya Nengo Give Their Dreamscape an Edge » PopMatters

Odd Okoddo and Ogoya Nengo, the artists behind the new album Palagoma, make for an eclectic combination. A Nairobi-based duo made up of German-born experimental drummer and producer Sven Kacirek and Kenyan-born dodo singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Olith Ratego, Odd Okoddo have been performing electrified interpretations of Luo folk music since 2018 to global acclaim.

After the pair’s first album tour was cut short by COVID-19, they returned in 2024 with a sophomore release featuring contributions from KMRU and Angel Bat Dawid. Also a singer in the dodo tradition, Ogoya Nengo has been performing since her childhood. At 83, she’s long been renowned in her home region as a party and event singer, but has only begun recording more globally accessible work in the last couple of decades.

Palagoma, though, is a dynamic joining of these very distinct artists’ skills. The group commands attention from the start, opening the album with deep pulses of electronic percussion and Ratego’s silvery vocalizations that quickly unfurl to fill tremendous space. Also, the title track, the first song, defines a palagoma as a champion, someone strong and ready to fight on behalf of others. The tone it sets–fierce, righteous–adds a keen moral edge to the album’s dreamy haze. 

Different combinations of Ratego’s and Ogoya Nengo’s spirited vocals and Kacirek’s often-piercing beats drive Palagoma as the album progresses. Single “Umanyo” follows, with both vocalists intensely present in the mix, at times engaging in the call-and-response patterns typical of dodo music as Kacirek combines acoustic and electric percussion. “Adhiambo” moves quickly, Kacirek’s blend of throbbing bass and melodic ostinati especially entrancing behind Ratego’s steadily swirling lyrics. Slower in exercising its hypnotic power is “Ji Kiyiere”, a full-ensemble piece eight minutes long, in which more and more interlocking elements emerge as the song progresses.

There’s a breakbeat-adjacent bite to frantic “Yore Yore” that suits Ratego’s deeply personal lyrics about feeling misunderstood, which he punctuates with quick growls. Ogoya Nengo takes the lead with rich vocal runs over plugged-in bounce on “Bara”, a song about a strong man of her youth. The story of “Sarah” lends itself well to sparser instrumentation, over which Ratego shines with some of his bluesiest tones. He opens “Nyiri Moko” with riffs on his self-constructed five-string Okodo, an instrument named for his great-grandfather, resulting in a lusher exploration of themes of love, longing, and infidelity. The record closes with the looser rhythms of “Demba”, a name Ogoya Nengo gives herself to describe her ability to spread joy through song.

Unpredictable and always an adventure, Palagoma brings together three individuals who, working together, make something far more than the sum of its parts. Each of the performers at hand is a well-trained innovator in their own right, but their work on Palagoma is genuine alchemy. Even in the ever-changing, ever-progressive realm of folktronica, the sounds of Odd Okoddo and Ogoya Nengo stand out here as exceptional. This bodes well not only for the artists but for Nairobi-based label From Cool Waters, for whom this is the very first release. Intriguing, grounded, and with a very sincere edge, Palagoma is worth many a spin.