It’s been 14 years since the iconic kwaito pioneers Bongo Maffin last released a full-length album but the quartet hasn’t missed a step with From Bongo with Love. Now, I get that for some of you, Bongo Maffin is Van Halen and you’re Billie Eilish, but whether you grew up with them or whether this…
Taken from DJ Lag’s Grammy considered EP Uhuru, “Amanikiniki” is a collaboration with Newlands West-based Unticipated Soundz. The track, whose music video was directed by Christ Kets, like the rest of the Uhuru EP is a return to the early, raw sounds of gqom with “Amanikiniki” in particular referencing the uThayela sound which Unticipated Soundz…
Hailing from Durban but based in Cape Town, Aryu Jassika is a producer with a deep house background that, more recently, has found sonic freedom and is pushing himself and his sound beyond established genres and into a space of self-expression, creating what he feels sounds good. Getting his start in the early 2000s, it…
DJ Lag is quickly becoming a household name internationally, with the last few years seeing him touring overseas regularly and more recently co-producing the track “My Power” for the Beyoncé-curated Lion King soundtrack. July 19th saw the release of his latest EP ‘Steam Rooms’ produced in collaboration with OKzharp from the British label Hyperdub, which…
Pietermaritzburg born Xenlaii is more than a rapper, with the multiskilled artist having dipped his toes in design as well. However, it is his sonic diversity that shines through brightest on the ‘Surf: Am EP’. Sounds range from LoFi beat loops, Trap bangers and production that sounds distinctly West Coast. Thematically as one may assume,…
Smasheriico looks up to DJs like unclepartytime and DJ Speedsta with their street chic and ability to make dance floors turn up more than just a notch. His love for music persuaded him to eventually position himself behind the decks and format dancefloors by throwing down smash hit after hit from his trap, Gqom and alternative selections….
Having released his BBC Radio 1 Essential mix in January, stalwart of the gqom scene, DJ Lag kicked the year off with a bang. The pioneering producer and DJ from Clermont in KwaZulu-Natal has gone from strength to strength with increased international and local interest in his driving gqom sound. Currently he is preparing for…
When I first opened the link to The Temple’s new EP Lusaka, I was blown away by the effervescence of their music. While the release harkened back to the optimistic beat of 1990’s Kwaito, it’s dense, swirling production is utterly contemporary, clearly in conversation with the hardness of Trap and Gqom. But unlike those intense,…
Can you tell us a bit about DJ Bigger? I, Makabongwe Nzuza, popularly known as “Dj Bigger” was born on the 6th of April in the Southern township of Durban – KwaMashu, M Section. I attended Sondelani Primary School in eNtuzuma, where I was a leader of an ‘’Isicathamiya” group, part of a gospel group as well as…
It is fitting that the first AFROPUNK Festival to be held in South Africa took place on the historically significant Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The festival, inspired by the documentary ‘Afro-Punk’, which spotlighted black punks in America, was first held in 2005 in New York City’s Brooklyn. Originally aiming to help black people build a…
Lelo What’s Good is a Johannesburg-based multidisciplinary creative that got into DJing unexpectedly. He met FAKA‘s Desire Marea while living in Durban. Upon returning to Johannesburg to study, he got to know Fela Gucci who invited him to play at Cunty Power. “I decided to come through and play. That’s when it started. After that…
Zer021 is an inclusive queer club in Cape Town, and will be the host of Ses’fikile – siwu mndeni on the 20th of July. Translating to ‘we’re here; we’re family’ in English, the name of the event speaks to the importance of queer people celebrating the presence of spaces such as Zer021 as well as the…
