African house

Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
(Zhao this thread is surely your time to shine :D ).
House music in Africa is something that is being talked about a reasonable ammount at the music, but is something I know next to nothing about. My current knowledge literally ammounts to Township Funk and a couple of DJ Cleo bits. Could someone who is more in the know please point me towards some good current stuff? Partly because I want to see if it actually sounds much like UK funky, but mainly 'cause I suspect that I'll quite like it.
Obviously the fact that I'm using a phrase as vague as 'African house' shows how little I know so far - I mean, it's a whole fucking continent, there's quite likely to be a whole bunch of different regional styles. So if we could outline that side of things too then that would be useful too. And if people want then we can go on to talk about African stuff that relates more to techno or other dance styles. But let's start with the house.
 
R

routes

we can delay.ay.ay...
all 5 of Dj Cleo's Eskhaleni mixtapes have good tings on em, and his label 'Will of Steel' has also done some good stuff, Bleksem, Dj What What, etc.. i've got some good bits by Dj Bongz, some of it is rather nyeurgh cheerful noodly jazzy but his moodier, dancing stuff is pretty cool. looking forward to going back to South Africa in December...
compared to UK funky, i'd say african house tends to be kinda slower, looser, sunnier, less edgy and sophisticated... unhelpful generalizations! i'll dig out some stuff, also just check this one, a percy!
 
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slackk

slackk

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In vinyl hunting, I've begin to make the decision that Funky's got a lot more in common with French house than African house. Not just the usual suspects like DJ Gregory, either, I mean there are so many records from 2003-2006 that sound just like funky.

Hold tight Greenwich Vinyl Exchange, I have actually cleared you out I think.

You should check out the Africanism label in terms of the exact crosspoint between the two.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
Tentative Andy said:
( I want to see if it actually sounds much like UK funky
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at times of course there are similarities but often fundamentally different approaches to production makes the 2 sounds quite distinctive from each other...

from what i've heard a lot of UK house can be really skeletal, whereas typical SA house is usually much more full bodied with loads of synths and intricate percussion elements...

names i would recommend are pretty much all on the Ngoma mixes... dj clock, dj bobo, etc., etc.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
There's also a mzansi house show on

http://www.futureradio.co.uk/

which has some good tunes on it to check out, a fair bit of talking too though which you can skip on the player.

http://www.kwaito.co.uk/

has a few good pointers but it's a sparse site, and don't go to any of the gigs they advertise, they aren't getting the names over here they say they are.

Most recent - certainly South African - house is very lush in production, if you're going for a more urban sound then you may want to check out earlier kwaito music which is much grimier.
 
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F

franz

Well-known member
is it possible to keep up with this stuff semi-regularly? where should i be looking to hear new tracks?
 
M

mms

sometimes
zhao said:
at times of course there are similarities but often fundamentally different approaches to production makes the 2 sounds quite distinctive from each other...

from what i've heard a lot of UK house can be really skeletal, whereas typical SA house is usually much more full bodied with loads of synths and intricate percussion elements...

names i would recommend are pretty much all on the Ngoma mixes... dj clock, dj bobo, etc., etc.
Click to expand...

it's not got the beat science of funky, and its quite alot slower bpm wise, alot of s a house works along a 4 / 4 pulse rather than straight in with the more broken beats.

Also quite alot of straight house trancey synths and house influences. Friends n south africa say that there are two kinda types really there is the more sophisticated maw style house stuff which has all the trappings of upward mobility and then there is a more ghetto style which is more raw and rhythmic.

anyway this is my favorite by far of the recent tracks, i got sent a load of stuff from a friend over there, but so little of it was actually very exciting to me, as it sounded like generic Us house but thinner, some of the older stuff is better, also there is some mad stuff thats not kwaito, from the shagaans this kind of budget techno stuff that sounds like the music of derrick mays dreams, the tse tse boys

tse tse boys





seducer fave house track.
mad what happened when mujava came over to europe, he was set to work with jack penate in the studio for a day. He was meant to be working with mia but mia was having a baby, so she couldn't do it, there was a bit of a reshuffle so the people at xl thought penate could do with a bit of what they saw as fashionable at the time. Ahh the cold blade of the cutting edge, i wonder if any of that music will see the light or if mujava and sa house's glimpse of the intermational limelight has now been snuffed out.
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
franz said:
is it possible to keep up with this stuff semi-regularly? where should i be looking to hear new tracks?
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It's kinda hard, I don't really know to be honest, I get all my stuff off saving and going to SA maybe every two years. It's a long way to go record shopping, but everyone I know out there kinda listens to, um, Ronan Keating and Take That so I can't really ask them to get stuff for me and send it over.

That mzansi show might be a good pointer - I've certainly got some tunes off of it. I random search youtube maybe once a month and write down some names.

A good site is
http://www.afrodesiamp3.com/catalog/

which Stelfox pointed me towards, but I find it unbearably hard to do that sort of trawling. That Mujava track came off Gavin finding it on youtube and posting it up here and the record company picking it up, so there are gems there.

DJ Edu on 1Xtra sometimes plays some good stuff, and has got better, but there's something about his selections that I just don't like, though I maybe don't give him enough credit for what he's been doing. He always seems to be quite behind the times, which I guess given the pan-African stance is going to be inevitable. He gives tracklistings though
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/djedu/

There used to be a good show on Resonance called African Essence by Anne Wanjie and DJ Debbie which was good, it might be worth checking with them and seeing what they're up to. Also http://www.africaninternetradio.com/ but it doesn't work sometimes.

Zhao maybe knows some others?
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
mms said:
i'd love to know what all the fake bellys and asses and the funny masks and hair are all about, really odd!
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It beggars belief, dunnit? They probably thought the costumes were fresh or something, and they kinda are, it's all a bit killer klowns...which sort of fits with the krumping thing as well...god, where's Greil Marcus when you need him? I bet he could fit it all together.

I love it though, thanks, that's my annoy the neighbours tune down pat for this week :)
 
F

franz

Well-known member
well the beat is pretty boring, but that DJ Cleo tune Ruthless is all kinds of synth crazy, huh?

even if i'm coming into it late, wealth is wealth... so thanks for uploading all those tracks.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
Culoe De Song seems to be getting some love out there. anyone feeling his sound? i did like his "Forest" EP a lot. really polished and streamlined, perhaps with more of a euro bent than typical SA production... but the rhythm roots are unmistakenly african.
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
zhao said:
Culoe De Song seems to be getting some love out there. anyone feeling his sound? i did like his "Forest" EP a lot. really polished and streamlined, perhaps with more of a euro bent than typical SA production... but the rhythm roots are unmistakenly african.
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Yeah he's a bit Peter Gabriel, don't like the vocal samples. Live I wouldn't say no though, this looks good

 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
funny i just used "peter gabriel" in exact same fashion on another board this morning...
 
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