At Notting Hill carnival this weekend you’ll hear the sound of bouyon and dennery segment, mutated subgenres full of sexualised lyrics. The creators explain how this deliriously fun music went viral
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t this year’s Fête de la Musique in Paris, British ravers who had streamed over to enjoy the annual street party – think Notting Hill carnival without the procession – found themselves hearing, and then swiftly dancing to, a wildly uptempo tune called Bouwéy.
Built from a languid vocal at odds with clattering African percussion, the track bowled out from sound systems and car windows, quite unlike anything else: a defining song of the summer. Made by Guadeloupean act 1T1, Bouwéy has now hit 12m views on YouTube. But its frenetic pace and startling synth work haven’t arrived in a vacuum – instead it is the vanguard of a sound known as bouyon, part of a whirlwind of dance genres leaping out from the Caribbean to the world, including at Notting Hill carnival this weekend.
“The bouyon is a faster riddim,” chuckles Hillary “Tilly” Thomas over the phone. “You have to drink some rum – it’s carnival music, not everyone can handle it. You have to be crazy!”
