Sarz — the Nigerian super-producer behind hits for Wizkid, Niniola and a sizeable chunk of contemporary African pop — needs no introduction on the continent, but Sweetness finds him working in a far more intimate register than his hit-making résumé suggests. Teaming up with London-based vocalist Obongjayar, the four-track EP, released on Metallic Music / 1789, is a woozy, electronic-leaning slice of Afro-fusion that gives the singer room to stretch his remarkable voice across some of Sarz’s airiest production to date.
The title track sets the tone beautifully. Sweetness opens on a soft, mid-tempo pulse — featherweight percussion, a bassline that rolls rather than thumps, and synth pads shimmering at the edges — whilst Obongjayar glides over the top, honeyed and unhurried. Nothing here is forced; the restraint is the point. It’s easy to hear why Pitchfork crowned it Best New Track, because the chorus settles in like a hook you’ve known for years.
Gone Girl quickens the pace with a swaggering bounce, its rubbery bassline and clipped guitar stabs nodding to the club-ready side of Afrobeat whilst Obongjayar slips between spoken-sung verses and a soaring, pleading chorus. If You Say is the EP’s most intimate moment — just voice, keys and a skittering drum pattern, the space between the notes doing as much work as the notes themselves. Closer Nobody rounds things off with a spacious, late-night groove, echoing percussion and a vocal drenched in reverb that fades out leaving you wanting more.
Across just four tracks, Sweetness feels effortless in the way only carefully made records do. Sarz’s production is characteristically clean — every sound in its place, nothing cluttered — but it’s Obongjayar’s voice that gives the EP its soul: warm, unplaceable, equally at home in Lagos or London. A short, sweet collaboration that deserves to linger long after its twenty-odd minutes are up.
