TAG: Soweto

Sep02

Spoek Mathambo – Mishini Wam (Review)

Spoek Mathambo

Mishini Wam

Released by BBE


Spoek Mathambo is a 24 year old post-Apartheid jack of all trades (rapper/DJ and graphic designer/illustrator) from Soweto. Through his Afro-futurism Spoek sees himself as a part of a new wave of energy in Africa, where a new breed of African artists are progressive while maintaining a pride in culture. As front-man for electrorap outfits Sweat X and Playdoe, Spoek has risen to become one of the foremost recognized exporters of the new South African club music (which he has coined as Township Tech). “Spoek” is South African slang ...

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Mar04

Next Stop… Soweto – Township Sounds From The Golden Age Of Mbaqanga (Review)

Township Sounds From The Golden Age Of Mbaqanga

NEXT STOP... SOWETO



With Next Stop... Soweto, Strut trace some of the amazing music that often only appeared on short run 45s at the time; rare lost gems deftly culled from the '60s + '70s South African "township jive sound." Featuring music recorded primarily for the local market, the album takes the listener far beyond the accepted township jive template into fusions with jazz, gospel, rumba, funk and traditional mining songs. It delves into the golden age of mbaqanga. Jazz had been a fixture in South African music since the ‘50s and jive (or mbaqanga) initially emerged a decade later as a fusion combining elements of rural Zulu music and harmony vocal styles with Western instrumentation. You can hear influences from American R&B and '60s rock and surf, in the same way ska and rocksteady developed in Jamaica. And if you like desert blues from Sahara, you will also like the fusion of mbaqanga.

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