Gqom is South African rhythm tradition shaped by and reflecting the social reality of neoliberalism under a corrupted ANC, after Mandela having had to make major concessions to foreign pressure, unable to carry out the land and property reforms that were central to his post-independence program — high crime rates, high levels of social tension and conflict, high levels of discontent and anxiety.

As manic, brooding, and heavy as the best doom metal, but you know, FUNKY. Some real scrunch-face type stuff with relentless energy; most definitely not for the faint of heart.

The structure of the music is just as crazy, in terms of innovation: almost no straight 4/4 patterns, instead, all triplets like house-tempo Juke/Footwork; sometimes there are major drum sounds that happen only once in a track (!!!); the drum rolls are often placed at the BEGINNING of bars rather than the end (!!!!!!); the 1 actually comes at 1.5 (!!!!!!!!).

I am super jealous of you: wish I was hearing this mix for the first time 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘