shangaan stuff

honest jon's have surprised and delighted me with this: http://www.honestjons.com/shop.php?pid=36711

i thought it was going to remain just an amazing thing on youtube which i'd never be able to listen to in a better format. nor probably know much about. this is the only journalism on it i've found: http://www.thefader.com/2010/02/24/...yles-shangaan-electro-south-africa-road-epic/

do these tunes really really push anyone else's buttons? i've honestly decided it's some of the best music ever. i'm surprised there isn't already a post.

i'm not the kind of person who patronisingly thinks music is more wonderful because it doesn't come from a developed western nation, either.

ps is honest jon's giving anyone else fearsome cognitive dissonance with its recent activities? sorry but there's just something so repulsive and earthy/worthy/boring about the name and everything.

edit: this isn't intended to be a dig at listening to music from around the world or anything like that. it's just that if i hadn't heard any of the tracks i probably wouldn't be filled with desire after reading the blurb. and wrong as it may be i'd be more inclined to take the recommendation from someone who wasn't into it. i'm sure the idea and packaging of so-called world music is an old debate. and i'm sure honest jon's would deny that it's their deal, but to be honest i think the release is packaged like that a bit. almost like you're expected to find it cute, pretty horrible.

bandshell said:

Shades of RDJ in this tune.

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or eg the transmat relics compilation on 45! i think the weirdly melancholy marimbas are a lot to do with it.

it feels like jungle too, there's the tempo obviously but it's more the same way the tunes are so absorbing as texture. you catch yourself daydreaming. i suppose it's analogous to how visually focussing on the small details of something is can be really transporting, make you feel miles away. (i'll admit i'm particularly thinking about hallucinogenic drugs here, ha!)

the prosthetic bellies and arses are quite odd. it's not like the men are in drag but there are obvious feminine connotations. possibly just a laugh to amuse the kids i guess.

zhao said:

i don't think this kind of complete fusion of rhythm and melody into one, as if they were never torn apart in the first place, has not yet happened in modern dance music. excuse the cliches but i think this is the future.

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well you know, i feel like letting you have that one not sure if it's the future but on the other hand i guess i wouldn't place it behind anything else in that race if it exists. and i dunno if fusing rhythm and melody hasn't already happened at least a bit but i agree that is a cool thing about it.

zhao said:

pretty sure that's just something one band does, the tshetsha boys, and not a practice wide spread in the scene (though the idea of afro-krump does appeal).

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yeah they're the only people i've noticed doing it. (although i'm no expert)

at the risk of sounding pompously ethnographic i wonder if they took inspiration from some much more trad imagery relating to fertility.

it just made me think of iconography which celebrates that, probably from various places, in my vague ignorant way. bulging bellies.