Gqom

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Alright I need this to be great somebody told me gqom is as good as UK funky was and I need that kind of goodness in my life
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
The reason I haven't really got into Gqom so far is the lack of what (i think?) Reynolds calls "flava". It's all felt like an interesting basis for a genre, just needs some elements added for me to enjoy it. Adding MC's is definitely a step in the right direction.

Optimists out there might compare this to the point when UK MC's started toasting over US garage tunes; the first step of the mutation of a foreign music into a new UK sound.
 

jackjambie

Voodoo Priest
gqom bangs.

i've been hoarding this stuff for a while now. the weird sustained-one-synth-note that's in virtually every song put me off trawling through tracks online for while, but it is amazing. the massive tom rolls, the spooky reverb. seriously percussive shit and really atmospheric.

saw Moleskin do a set of it out as well as Kode9 and it obviously sounds amazing on a half decent rig so v happy to see it catching on amongst DJs in london atm.

the first thing that it reminded me of was Shackleton tbh...
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
One thing that really appeals to me about it from the mix mistersloane posted is that it sounds cheap as fuck. Bring back cheap sounding music IMO
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
One thing that really appeals to me about it from the mix mistersloane posted is that it sounds cheap as fuck. Bring back cheap sounding music IMO

I was going to say, the scratchiness definitely appeals to me, reminds of of old pirate radio.
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
Alright I need this to be great somebody told me gqom is as good as UK funky was and I need that kind of goodness in my life

I think you might like this one. Reminds me of those sparse, early-UK Funky tracks from 2007-2008 (Geeneus- Make Me, etc.)

 
anyone still checking for this? It's so hard to trawl through the gqom fb groups and whatsapp chats to find the good stuff....like, a lot of the really fucked up, forward-sounding gqom is mixed in with boring, standard house tracks. I know there's been a few releases on gqom oh!, but when I was doing some digging last year I found really great, unreleased tracks through kasimp3....such a chore slogging through it tho
 

mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
I think the reality is, despite the fact Western media keep describing the gqom scene as "thriving", most people have moved on to sghubu, which is basically the standard afro house stuff you mention (some of it can be good though e.g. some DJ Lazz tracks). There are a few exceptions, but a lot of the gqom I find now is so badly produced it is basically unplayable. It was always rough around the edges and that was part of the charm, but there comes a point where it's too much. I think maybe in Durban people don't make quite such a distinction between gqom, sghubu, core tribe, etc., but it is there. I interviewed a few people for an article last year which really emphasised the shift to sghubu for me. Basically a lot of money has come into it with Babes Wodumo, Distruction Boyz and so on and inevitably that's changed people's focus.
 
I think the reality is, despite the fact Western media keep describing the gqom scene as "thriving", most people have moved on to sghubu, which is basically the standard afro house stuff you mention (some of it can be good though e.g. some DJ Lazz tracks). There are a few exceptions, but a lot of the gqom I find now is so badly produced it is basically unplayable. It was always rough around the edges and that was part of the charm, but there comes a point where it's too much. I think maybe in Durban people don't make quite such a distinction between gqom, sghubu, core tribe, etc., but it is there. I interviewed a few people for an article last year which really emphasised the shift to sghubu for me. Basically a lot of money has come into it with Babes Wodumo, Distruction Boyz and so on and inevitably that's changed people's focus.

Yeah a lot of the stuff that was labelled as Gqom in the whatsapp groups and fb pages ended up just being sghubu, which was hella annoying cos tbh sghubu all sounds the same to me. I always got the impression that gqom was a development from sghubu, but if it isn't and people have moved on to making sghubu it would be a shame. It's hard to get a feel for the 'scene' too cos most of the articles written in western publications are 'primer' articles introducing people to gqom.

It gets kinda frustrating to see genres like Shangaan, gqom, kuduro and (to an extent) footwork get picked up by western DJs and magazines and then dropped 15 minutes later...
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Its almost as if these DJs/Magazines/Websites should have international coverage so they could help scenes in places like Africa manifest... *Hmm Emoji*
 

yyaldrin

in je ogen waait de wind
i can recommend this mix if you feel like dancing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0006syp
DJ Lag & OKZharp celebrate their new Steam Rooms EP release by going in the mix exclusively for Diplo and friends - only on 1Xtra and Radio 1... Expect brand new and exclusive music from the likes of Newlands Finest, Rude Boyz, Bennelux, Major Notes, TSVI, Scratchclart, Aybee, Nkisi and loads more!!
 
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