When Mr. Raoul K left his Ivory Coast home for much colder territory (Germany to be precise), it appears he brought some West African warmth along with him and has been skillfully injecting it into his tracks ever since. “The African Government” is a perfect example of Mr. Raoul K’s familiarity with sun-soaked regions, one in which he manipulates traditional instruments of his former continent into a blissful deep house tune, building and looping layers of some far-off African stringed instrument into a hypnotic state of repetition. His German influences stay in the background, showing themselves less in the particular sounds utilized by the producer and more in the structure of the composition, a classic 7-plus minute techno movement full of the usual build-ups and breakdowns honed throughout the years by Europe’s techno pioneers. Mr. Raoul K has been running his own imprint, Baobab, for quite some time now, but “The African Government” will be found on his first release for the Mule Musiq imprint, Introducing My World (artwork above), when it’s released on May 16.

The African Government