“I’m not gonna be that artist that’s gonna put out the same body of work until I die, because that’s probably gonna be the reason I die — ’cause that sounds boring.” Sudan Archives Signed to Stones Throw Records in LA; Sudan Archives released her debut studio album Athena in 2019; an immense body of…
“It’s not as if we have a shortage of music coming out of South Africa”. A truer statement than this one by Rose Bonica/Natalie-Rose Perel is hard to find, that’s for sure. It’s unreal, the sheer volume of high quality, boundary-pushing music that has come out of Mzansi in recent memory and there’s no sign…
To South African listeners the hypnotising droning of a dembow rhythm might seem as foreign as they come. In fact Reggaeton and its signature rhythmic structure is not really something heard all that often within a South African context or at least, so I thought, but let’s just say that the popularity of Reggaeton isn’t…
There’s a particular genealogy of hip hop music that feels and sounds like your head bopping real cool on a honeydew sunny day as you bounce down the block; a particular iteration of hip hop that sounds and feels like “back in the day when things were cool”. I’m talking about the space of hip…
While Amarekere is ASAP Shembe’s debut album, he’s already earned a name and loyal following from himself with his Inkinga EP and by picking interesting songs to feature on. Pretty much everything about ASAP Shembe’s music is interesting, to me at least. He positions his sound as “a 90’s stimulated South African sound with ultramodern…
I was taken by the hauntingly innocent, yet, lethal way in which Sevdaliza gave deliverance of her art, after watching the AI Goddess inspired video for “Marilyn Monroe” a few years ago. The output of her essence, firmly elucidated a realm beyond what my limited senses could perceive – and I remember feeling softly called…
Comprising of Nokana ‘Dodo’ Mojapelo and Hakim Malema; Mansa Musa was formed in 2016, back when the duo needed a name to house their debut, ‘post break up fashion EP’ Booty Call. “The idea of the distribution of mental wealth and Mansa Musa as a [historical figure], the wealthiest person in human history, a black…
“The quality of being is what soul is, or what a soul is. What is the quality of your being?” This is the question Amiri Baraka puts before us in 1966, in The Burton Greene Affair. If we are to read his essay skeptically (as we should read the Liberal turned Black Nationalist turned Marxist…
Virginia-born, New York-based producer, songwriter and singer Ntu’s upcoming EP Perfect Blue, is the artist’s debut and sees the 20 year old explore the boundaries of traditional RnB by incorporating influences that range from Arca to Velvet Rope-era Janet Jackson. “I think through listening to Arca, I’ve finally understood how I wanted to go about…
“Courage is very important!” This nugget of wisdom was buried at the end of Sam Turpin’s answer to a question about the incredible short film/music video that he and Katya Abedian created together for his song, “Sahara Flow”. It’s not easy to be courageous (as a certain cowardly dog knows all too well), however, the…
“Spinning Bottle“, the latest single from Ex Olympic and Roxy Caroline was released this past Wednesday on the 13th of May and the song sees the pair in their first musical creative collaboration. Multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer Nicolaas Van Reenen’s artistic evolution can be sonically mapped from his time making music as a part of…
SURF : AM, is independent musician, performer, artists and graphic designer Xolani Mchunu’s aka Xenlaii’s debut sonic “story of extreme highs and lows, like the tide dancing to the gravitational pull of the moon.” Growing up in the small town of Pietermaritzburg, a mere 30 min drive from the warm coast of KwaZulu Natal, had…
