https://www.rrr.org.au/subscriber-giveaways/owelu-dreamhouseCloses 15 February 2026, 11 pm
AOTW Giveaway for Owelu Dreamhouse's self-titled debut
Owelu Dreamhouse is the self-titled debut album from vocalist Nkechi Anele and arranger Nic Ryan-Glenie, released via Hopestreet Recordings. The pair first played together in Melbourne soul group Saskwatch, who released four albums, toured internationally, and supported acts like Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and Earth, Wind and Fire. The band wrapped in 2019, and it was five years before Anele returned to music. She and Ryan-Glenie, who lived nearby, began exchanging ideas - Anele wanting to explore her Nigerian heritage, Ryan-Glenie open to new production approaches.
The resulting album draws on Afrobeat, West African highlife, psychedelic soul, and 90s R&B, recorded with a ten-piece ensemble and co-produced by Henry Jenkins (Karate Boogaloo, Surprise Chef). Guests include singer Ella Thompson, guzheng player Mindy Meng Wang, and hip-hop artist N'fa Jones on the highlife-influenced track 'Coffees & Milk'. Across twelve tracks, horn lines move over grooving bass and shifting rhythms, with Anele's vocals carrying deep emotion. 'Owerri Disco' draws on the history of the Biafran War and what Anele calls "female rage around male accountability," while 'Tourist' captures the "tender dissonance felt as a third-culture kid", returning home to a place that still feels unfamiliar.
The band takes its name from Owaelu, Anele's grandmother's village in Nigeria. Anele is Nigerian-Irish, and has spoken about growing up in predominantly white Australia with a hesitation around expressing her African identity. The album works through that tension directly, touching on intergenerational ties, displacement, and belonging.
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