NGOMA 14 – DRUM

DRUM_600

This edition in the Ngoma Mix Series focuses on new 125 bpm African Electronic Dance Music.  As i have argued in the “Real Roots of Kwaito” piece for This Is Africa, American and European Disco, House, and Hiphop were crucially influential in the beginning stages of development of post-Apartheid South African urban music, but since then SA House and Kwaito have matured and grown into its own skin, much more an extension of indigenous rhythm cultures than related to “Western” dance music.  For example the beat patterns in these tracks are distinctly different: the constant off-beat high hats found in the US and Europe are almsot entirely absent; and with much more rich and developed rhythm elements and very different emphasis, this music should probably be thought of as simply new African dance music, with not much to do with what is traditionally known as “House” or “Techno” at all.  

OR: STREAM: MIXCLOUD //// DOWNLOAD: ZIPPY OR MEDIAFIRE

Selections come mainly from South Africa and Angola, with lots of percussion, many balafons, a touch of jazz, some diasporic elements from Cuba and Colombia, couple tunes made in Spain, and a  shot of Nigerian Pop at the peak.  This is the first part, relatively bright in feel:  stay tuned for DRUM 2 – the dark side.

01 Dj Shimza & Cuebur Ft 340ml – Let The Sunshine (Reprise)
02 Invaders Of Africa – Impi Yamakhanda
03 Culoe De Song – Tsonga Song
04 Pro Tee – Thee Broken Keys
05 Dj Small Jon – Return Of the Drum
06 Black Motion feat. Nqobi  – Second Thoughts
07 Dr Ada T feat. Muzaic – Ewe
08 Jason Cheiron – Primal
09 Monocles, Slezz – Umba Kayo (Dj Alpha Kazu Dub)
10 Mbuandje – Mbuandja (Reprise) + Zozo – Totos Dance
11 Pablo Fierro – Agua (Nuevayorkquinas Mix)
12 Pablo Fierro – Sandulivi
13 Kosha Roots – Revival
14 Homeboyz Muzik – Samburu (Jungle Drums Original)
15 Dj Ad feat ZB E PJ – Patagoloza
16 Heavy K feat. Sarah Webster- The Gun Song (A Lesson Twice Learned Edit)
17 Lvovo – Original
18 3G Music – Vagabos
19 Pinto Dos Santos – Ma’e
20 Dj Kapiro & Mad Aksoul – Akanela (Oliver Twist Theme) + Estelle ft. D’banj – Oliver Twist (Remix)
21 Big Nuz – Rockafella
22 Franklin Rodriques – Para Na Wey
23 The Busy Twist – LDN Luanda
24 Dj Satellite & Dj Patrick – Malembe, Malembe
25 Boddhi Satva feat. Mangala Camara – Nankoumandjan (Dekalstrumental Mix)

Sonic Liberation Front

Made this for ultra cool international / art / architecture / concept / urbanism / fashion / music / design organization Platoon: United rhythms towards a borderless future: African House and European Acid, Hungarian Folk and Korean Pop, Cumbia Electro and Arabic Techno, Avant Jazz and Street Bass – international beats for dance floors and head space – against prejudice and xenophobia.  DOWNLOAD:  mediafire

2 new bangers

during the past month or so these recent mash edits have been dropped on unsuspecting dancers Germany to Johannesburg, every time followed by lots of jumping and screaming.

Burundi drums so ill…

more coming soon :)

this is of course the all time classic from Nigeria, fixed with some additional bass and treble – rocks a modern dance floor like nobody’s business.

NGOMA MIX 13 – Juju-Juke

Ever since drums were banned on most slave plantations in N. America during the 1600s, after the masters discovering that the slaves organized revolts with their talking drums, the expression of poly-rhythms in N. American popular music has primarily been through use of the voice.  This is the reason music in the US is typified by the simple 1-2 “dupple” rhythm, in contrast to more complex beat patterns in South-America or the Caribbean (which kept their drums).  Thus the evolution of all subsequent Afro-North-American music was profoundly shaped, from Blues to Funk to Disco:  kick on the 1, and snare on the 2; all the way down to the late 20th Century – complex poly-rhythms in hiphop is produced with rap, and the drums remain a skeletal, minimalistic boom-bap, as if just to mark time.

Now in the 21st Century a renewed sense of rhythmic complexity returns to  Afro-North-American dance music in the form of Juke/Footwork in Chicago: interlocking 2s and 3s form intricate beat structures, unmistakeably related to many forms of percussion styles in the motherland (but still often keeping that N. American hard snare on the 2).

OR: STREAM: MIXCLOUD //// DOWNLOAD: SEPARATE TRACKS OR SINGLE TRACK

This NGOMA volume demonstrates this reconnection, after centuries of separation, between African tradition and Afro-Diaspora:  between Nigerian Juju/Fuji music and Chicago Juke/Footwork, between Ethiopian dance styles and Detroit Ghetto-Tech, between Iberian trad-modern street sounds and American R’n'B/Pop, between Afro-Punk and Club Music, between Congolese Mbira workouts and Hiphop, between Ghanaian and Senegalese drumming and Urban Bass Pressure.   Let us pump up the volume and remember the power and spirit of rhythm which survives every hardship, cruelty, and oppression, and rejoice in the timeless Music Of the Drums.

big thanks to Keith Jones for knowledge passing, Itzi Nallah, Sonic Diaspora and states side massive for making the Juju-Juke tour possible, my B-girls Jessi and Maya for support.Juju-Juke Tour kick off in Belgrade

I have played this set a few times now during the Serbia, Germany, and US East Coast tour  a few weeks ago, and crowds have gone completely BONKERS as the energy went straight through the roof: 500 screaming people and massive MOSH PIT at 3AM during Mikser Festival Belgrade; club crowd which refused to leave, clapping and hollering for 20 minutes after lights went up and sound was turned off at The Shrine Chicago.  I guess the world is more than ready for 160 BPM Afro-Footwork pressure!!!

and here is that adrenaline fueled misanthropic juke edit of South African punk rockers Koos by itself (download and drop into your set if you are wo/man enough :D ):