XA

After the release of his acclaimed album Barely Making Much and a string of self-released projects, Ugandan artist Masaka Masaka returns with XA. Referring to both "Extended Architecture" and "Extreme Aspherical", the three-track EP opens a new chapter in his singular musical identity.

More than a title, XA operates as a guiding principle. Written between Kampala and Switzerland during Masaka Masaka's visit to Bern for Norient Festival and the recording of his Creaked Radio live session in early 2026, the EP embraces constant transformation. Techno slips into off-kilter hip-hop rhythms, hypnotic percussion gives way to weightless atmospheres, while synthetic textures blur the boundaries between melody, noise and voice.

Free from fixed structures, each composition evolves through subtle shifts and unexpected turns. Rhythms splinter and reconnect, momentum fades before resurfacing elsewhere, inviting new ways of listening as much as new ways of moving. The music remains grounded in pulse while continually reshaping its own internal architecture.

The EP's only voice appears on "MXL", featuring Hibotep, a Kampala-based artist of Somali ancestry who was born and raised in Ethiopia. Processed until it becomes inseparable from the surrounding electronics, her vocals drift between intimacy and machine-like abstraction, functioning as texture as much as expression within Masaka Masaka's ever-evolving musical landscape.

Drawing from techno, trap, grime, jungle and deconstructed club without belonging entirely to any of them, XA treats genres as fluid material, moving beyond fixed destinations. Tension and release, softness and abrasion, the human and the synthetic coexist throughout, allowing each track to move freely between contrasting emotional and rhythmic states.

The artwork, created by Nigerian visual artist A'isha Usman-Mu'azu, extends this approach through layered self-portraits conceived in direct response to the music. Suspended between presence and disappearance, the images mirror the EP's fascination with movement, multiplicity and evolving forms.

Open-ended by design, XA leaves space for movement, ambiguity and possibility, affirming Masaka Masaka's distinctive artistic universe, where experimentation remains inseparable from emotion.