"I can’t explain what attracts me to drums and percussion. I just love rhythm. It feels so natural for me"
British-Mauritian music producer, Joseph Deenmamode also known as Mo Kolours has released three successful EPs and is coming to Tel Aviv on the verge of launching his debut album – and we predict, his breakthrough.
Mo creates music which combines hip-hop, dub, using electronic sounds and reggae with African motifs and Sega music – the traditional sounds of his island roots.
He says of his identity "I've never really felt like I've had a home, I never really feel like I'm a certain race, never really felt like I'm from a certain background. I can't identify with black culture necessarily, not wholly, and I can't identify with white culture wholly. I don't put myself anywhere as a person and I think that just comes through in my music"
In 2011 he released his first EP "Drum Talking" under the label "One-Handed Music". The influence of Sega music is clearly audible with hand-drum, rattles and a triangle cutting through.
Mo’s second EP showed how he was developing as a music producer "A few gigs after the first EP, I realised I want to make people dance. I like dancing myself and I like to see people move to the music. […] But I'm not a massive fan of dance music in general. I'd like to try and explore music to dance to rather than dance music – stuff that I'd dance to because I dance to jazz and I dance to James Brown. People don't consider that dance music".
The EP trilogy, made with exquisite art and design, has received recognition from notable music professionals, including Gilles Peterson and Paul Lester. Lester's recent review of Mo Kolours in The Guardian compares him to musical greats: "…a meeting between Lee Perry and Curtis Mayfield in London in 1973".
Mo will show his groove, depth and tendency to the bizarre in his first visit to Tel Aviv as part of Rewind.