Tag: sama

Bongeziwe Mabandla aims to Inspire with Mangaliso

5 years after releasing his critically acclaimed debut album Umlilo, Bongeziwe Mabandla is back from touring the world and the SAMA nominated afro-folk musician is eager for you to hear his sophomore offering, Mangaliso. Mangaliso means “marvel” or “miracle” in Xhosa and it’s meant to represent the highs and lows Bongeziwe has experienced since his last release.

Like many South African artists who go against the grain, Bongeziwe has had to venture overseas to find audiences who appreciate his art. Some of his best gigs have been in Canada, Australia, and Japan. I asked him how the love compares at home to overseas. “I find that sometimes there’s a bigger appreciation in other places for the kind of music I do. I mean, it’s kind of refreshing, you know? The difference I find when I play in Joburg or South Africa, I’m always trying to convince people, a lot, about the kind of work I’m doing. Whereas I find that people are more open to the kind of sound that I’m bringing in Canada. It’s such a folk music kind of country.” But being away from home is tough and some of the lowest moments for Bongeziwe were “being away for so long and not having the right opportunity to make new music.”

With Mangaliso, Bongeziwe certainly has had the right opportunity to make new music. Bongeziwe has signed to Universal and teamed up with Tiago, you know, the legend from 340ml and Tumi and The Volume, on production (Spoek Mathambo is the lone feature). For a young musician, an opportunity to work with someone so talented and experienced is a game changer. I enquired about the process and what it was like working with Tiago, “I had these songs written on guitar, very much in a folk type of space, so when I met with Tiago, we wanted to make them more interesting and more to what the world is kind of doing at this point in time. Kind of mixing genres, a very folk sound with a very urban, electro, hip-hop sound. He’s such a creative and hardworking guy and he puts those kinds of aspects in me. Getting to work with him was very exciting. As soon as we started to work on the songs, we knew that there was something special in the studio.”

Growing up being inspired by the likes of Tracy Chapman and Jabu Khanyile, Bongeziwe aims to do the same with his own music. “I guess, you know, the kind of music I listen to has always been inspiration music, and so I wanted to have something like that in my music. Music is about storytelling and very much about figuring life out and understanding life better, so I’ve always wanted to do that with music,” he explains. “As I grow older, I understand life better, I understand myself better and I always try and put those life lessons and what I know about the world into my music.”

Since Bongeziwe wants to inspire others, I asked what inspires him? “I’m inspired by everyday situations. I don’t think inspiration is something specific. Sometimes you’ll hear something, like somebody speaking to another person, so it’s kind of, hard to be specific. But I’m really inspired by hopeful stories, by resilience, and specifically for this album, I was very inspired by people that are able to shift their life directions and change their circumstances.”

While I don’t understand Xhosa, after listening to Bongeziwe’s music, reading translated lyrics and chatting to him, I got the feeling that there are spiritual aspects to his music so I asked him about it, “Yeah, definitely, especially this album. This whole album is very much about the spiritual revival I’ve gone through in the past two years, trying to search within myself and to look for answers in a much deeper way. So definitely that came into the music. It’s what’s really inspired this new album.”

His first single off the new album, Ndokulandela, is a testament to this. “The song is very special and I guess the best way I can explain it is that it’s about starting afresh.” Ndokulandela means “I will follow you”, and the song is written about Bongeziwe’s own life and the kind of direction where he wants to go when starting a new journey.

Bongeziwe starts a new journey on the 5th of May as he releases Mangaliso. The realease will see Bongeziwe touring his new live show with a new band on the festival circuit in Africa and later Europe. Thankfully there are festivals like Sakifo, Bushfire, and Zakifo in Southern Africa that cater to alternative artists like Bongeziwe, and slowly but surely other bookers are catching on, but the industry is still lacking in its support of these artists. I asked Bongeziwe what he’d like to change in the industry and he told me “I think what I find is lacking in South African music is that music is often viewed in one way. That it should always be dancey and loud, but it would be great to understand that there’s different music for different situations. People do not just have one emotion. I think we should be open enough to understand different genres and understand more different styles of music.” I can’t help but agree.

Towards the end of our Skype session, I asked Bongeziwe what he wants people to take from Mangaliso? “The last thing is that the album is really about hope and finding the sense of hope within us that sometimes can disappear. It’s about keeping it alive. That’s the kind of message I want.”

24 March 2017
On-Air Entertainment: A Look Into Johannesburg’s After-Dark Film Reel

Photographs have become indispensable to our nightlife: there’s no party unless it’s pictured. Amid the lazer beams, and tri-coloured stage lights, is the cacophony of tiny camera-phone flashes, setting off about the crowd. Snapping images is part of what it means to share, enjoy and curate our after-dark experiences. A night on the town clusters around various photo opportunities: getting dressed, meeting up with friends, the taxi ride, the big arrival, the bathroom graffiti, the pavement banter, the ride home, maybe even a selfie before bed. It’s a life documented, a record of existence.

Although we are now all Insta-photographers, we are not simply interested in being seen and recorded: we also hope to be captured well. If anything, an Insta-culture has attuned our eyes to quality lighting, design and composition. We are an aesthetically discerning generation, concerned with packaging our lives with the right colour schemes and filters: the quotidian as art.

Curating our visual record becomes far more difficult after dark. Phone cameras flail in a low-light environment. Increasingly, nightlife promoters are recognising that part of what makes an event ‘lit’ is expert photography. That has been the business of On-Air Entertainment.

On-Air is comprised of young photographers. Nights spent taking pictures in clubs soon flourished into a business. Entirely self-taught, the crew accumulated more and more gear as they continued to work. In their early twenties, they established a company. ‘Over the years you get your style’ Leander explains. ‘That’s how you know that’s the shot you need to take. Your creativity comes out in that space’.

On-Air have now been in the business for eight years, splintering into corporate work, fashion shoots, photo-booths, social uploading, videography and an array of events photography. Their newly renovated studio is tucked away in a suburban area in Montgomery Park. Simply driving past, one would have no idea that behind the neat lawns and flower beds, were three of the biggest events photographers in the game, who spend their nights capturing sound, light and bodies at high velocity.

Amid the lightning-fast traffic of uploaded night-photography, On-Air recurs again and again in the image peripheries. Jo’burg’s nocturnal city is being captured by their lenses. From Black City and Pop Bottles, to J-Cole at the dome, massive Zone 6 gigs, and the most recent SAMA Awards.

Scan through an On-Air catalogue and it’s difficult to miss their sharp-lens perspective: a top-lit crowd receding into a horizon of smoke and spotlight; a DJ ascending from the decks, basking in purple light; a sea of heads arched in submission towards the stage lights. Despite the dark room and crowd current, bodies are captured and suspended in perfect technicolour. On-Air are shaping how we remember our nights on the city. Their photographs, astutely composed and lit, offer a shortcut to nostalgia.

There’s a now well-known idiom: ‘Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like’. And that is what On Air have done: pictures of awe, power, ecstasy, release, and solidarity. Through these selective images, audiences are able to extract blissful moments from the long hours spent waiting in line, the drinks spilled, the desperate scrambles towards the stage, the broken glass. The carefully chosen images tease out these transcendent moments from the negatives, re-enchanting us, keeping us coming back.

15 July 2016
Petite Noir – Future Wave

The media coverage of last weekend’s South African Music Awards has been dominated by Riky Rick and AKA’s petulant responses to not winning any awards. Basically, they feel that they were snubbed. Shame. Unfortunately this has overshadowed how another of the night’s winners- Petite Noir’s La Vie Est Belle/Life is Beautiful (which won in the best alternative category) is one of the most innovative and sophisticated albums to have come out of South Africa in years. Released through UK label Domino , Petite Noir (aka Yannick Ilunga) has been touring the world and winning critical acclaim for his pioneering ‘Noirwave’ style.

On Life is Beautiful the ghosts of 80’s new wave artists like Depeche Mode and The Cure are mixed with contemporary SA electronic production and Afrobeat drums to produce elegant songs of romantic regret and personal disillusionment. ‘Freedom’ stabs like ice shards to the heart, while ‘Just Breathe’ is warm and elegiac. The wildly infectious ‘Down’ sounds like a lost collaboration between Fela Kuti and The Talking Heads.

Petite Noir’s closet contemporaries are bands like TV on The Radio and Wild Beasts, who trawl the sounds of Europe, America and Africa’s recent past to make cosmopolitan rock for the present. But the ‘Noirwave’ tag goes beyond just a sound- Ilunga sees it as complete aesthetic. Defying backward or rustic sterotypes, Petite Noir creates a kind of retro Afrofuturism. This is showcased on the music video for ‘Best’, in which mythological imagery runs riot. As the notes for the video describe it ‘ Best’ ‘’ looks at how only through visiting the continent can anyone gain a sense of one of its most fascinating features, that of its split identity; how incredibly and indescribably beautiful it is on the one hand, yet on the other hand, how raw and unforgiving it can be.’’ And aided by the imagery created by his collaborator and partner Rharha Nembhard, Petite Noir is taking Noirwave to the world- a style with no boundaries, at home everywhere.

8 June 2016
Rharha Nembhard; NoirWave’s visual powerhouse

The Drone Goddess is on a mission to live her truth, using her gifts to obliterate boundaries and silence stereotypes. The curator of NoirWave, one RhaRha Nembhard, is home in South Africa on a break from her Masters degree in museums, galleries and contemporary culture. But to her a break includes so much work and travel that it reveals her drive and passion to be a working artist and contribute to the world with a progressive and powerful message. I had the opportunity to talk to her about everything from her inspirations to her upcoming projects but the crux of it is clear; her work engenders transformation and changes perceptions within institutions, art and culture to represent Africa and Africans as we are and have been. She formed NoirWave with her partner Yannick Illunga a.k.a Petite Noir and their message is finally being embraced in SA, with a SAMA nod for Yannick and both of them featured on the cover of Sunday Times Lifestyle, NoirWave is finally growing roots on homeground.

NoirWave is telling the story of black glory through art. The hermetic principles and traditional themes referenced in the imagery of the movement are balanced by the perspective that the world is comprised of billions of people and we influence one another through travel and now the internet. ‘We are all hybrids of some shape or form’, Rharha says in reference to her broad perspective on identity and culture. Rharha was born in Jamaica, raised in SA and did her undergraduate degree in Bangkok. Having lived in Africa, Asia and Europe, she has come into contact with the world’s major civillisations and is able to draw touches of them into what she does. Pulling seemingly disparate pieces together to tell a new story about the millenial age and represent blackness within the context of futurism, high art and global connectivity.

Traditional broadcast and mass media misrepresent the black experience. But the 21st century has brought us black superheroes, a black American President and rap in African accents. The Winds of Change are blowing and the anachronisms around Africa are being swept away. Rharha travels the continent extensively and her work references all the beauty and richness she comes into contact with. Yet, the messages proliferated about living here are often pervaded by negative sentiment, and while much of Africa’s reality is informed by conflict and the effects of imperialism this is also a vibrant, abundant place and our role within the global space is not that which is defined by the West but rather as the founders of civillisation and forebearers of modern science, astronomy, literature and religion.Colonialism obliterated African history and impressed falsehoods upon Africa of barbarism and ignorance. As movements like NoirWave gain traction, new stories about Africans by Africans gain prominence; we are travellers and artists and activists and curators and writers and scientists, our brilliance is beginning to be liberated from the imperial gaze as we come to understand all that our continent and people contribute to the world. Africa’s resources have been used to build so many major cities; London and Paris were nothing before brutally snatching Africa’s wealth and America would be a wasteland without the stolen labour of slavery. These are facts, and we are here to rewrite the story about this continent and its children.

The substance of NoirWave; the looks, the visual story is the vision of Rharha; her construction of imagery translates cultural knowledge into a modern landscape. Her collaboration with Lina Viktor and Petite Noir produced the striking imagery for La Vie est Belle and her art direction is behind the stunning videos for the album as well. Their shared objective of representing and bringing reverence and regalia to African experiences has produced stunning, emotionally stirring art. The imagery the produced for La Vie Est Belle projects the power and poetry in blackness and the abundant beauty of Africa.

Rharha, the mother of all that is NoirWave, curates the movement with a cohesive and consistent message; Black is beautiful, deal with it.

1 June 2016
The rise and rise of Moonchild Sanelly

My first meeting with Moonchild was in Cape Town, she performed at the legendary Cold Turkey and won me over with her energy and openness. Her performance was electrifying and I’ve watched her grow from strength to strength in every facet of her creative output. Now some four years later I sit opposite a SAMA nominated artist, an established fashion designer and the person responsible for the proliferation of coloured woollen hairstyles. The opportunity to connect with someone at such an critical moment in their career is beautiful, Moonchild’s energy and love for her work is palpable, her ambition supported by a steel will and drive to make people dance and sing and celebrate. She’s on the road at the moment, about to perform at Zafiko festival in Durban and Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.

Moonchild is on a roll; The New York Times featured her in a photo diary by Chris Saunders that revealed her perspective and hustle in GoliWood, she’s going on a national tour with Red Bull soon and she is currently nominated for one of the nation’s highest musical honours. The SAMA nomination is a nod from people within the music industry, people who run record companies and make it their business to invest in new talent and artistry. “The nomination has opened a lot of doors for me, people actually respond to me emails now ” she says with the sweetest smile. ” I don’t know if it’s hit me yet, and I’ll be travelling when the ceremony is on but I do hope I win “. Her competition is stiff but anything is possible, so we await June 4th with bated breath. This nomination reflects the establishment taking note of alternative and independent artists, the people who run the streets and contribute to urban culture are finally being recognized in the upper echelons of the creative industries.

Creativity is a beautiful gift and meeting it with professionalism and productivity makes it powerful. This is the power Moonchild exudes, ‘I want to be exhausted, I’m just tired now’ she says in reference to her touring schedule for the coming months. Her dreams are big and her passion spills out in the conversation about recording and singing. And after 7 years in this city, these accolades and opportunities are well deserved, it really is inspiring to see things come together for such a talented, ambitious human, I tell her this, she smiles that same sweet smile and says, ‘I want a lot, I’m on my way to getting it’.

Moonchild’s latest single Fox With That, produced by her long time collaborator Maramza is available on iTunes and currently rising up local charts. Follow her @Moonchild_SA and watch out for her performing somewhere near you, soon.

Words by Oratile Mashazi @Oracle254

27 May 2016
Lenny-Dee: Brightness and Darkness

For her cover feature with BubblegumClub Lenny-Dee Doucha, the lead singer and keyboardist of Bye Beneco, wanted to mix the contemporary and the traditional. Photographed by Charlemagne Oliver at the National School of Arts Campus in Braamfontein, the concept was to merge Art Deco and Japanese motifs. The Art Deco style speaks to glamorous modernism with a focus on precise design and elegant geometry. The photographs convey this through Lenny’s subtly glamorous accoutrements- the snow white sunglasses, the stem of the cocktail glass. This is complemented by her floral shawl and scarf, which hint at the Japanese influence. Flowers have a particular importance in Japanese aesthetics, with their rich pallet of colours conveying a powerful spectrum of emotion.

The photos also speak to Lenny-Dee’s broader artistic project ‘’ The shoot merges a classical time with the now, which is kinda where I see myself.’’ Bye Beneco was established in 2012, ‘’ The story of the name is based on an enigmatic fictional character we once wrote about.’’ They released their debut album Space Elephant in 2014, which was recognized with a SAMA nomination for best alternative album. The group’s line up also consists of Bergen Nielson (drums, guitar) and Matthew Watson (guitar) and they describe their style as ‘’eclectic dream-pop with a dark underlying spirit.’’ They are currently working on a EP which will be released next month as a taster for their second album.

The group is inspired by a diverse set of artists, but ‘’ we do all have one thing in common – we’re kids of the 90s.’’ Growing up in that decade meant that rock, rap and electronic music were all part of the cultural menu. Bye Beneco reflect this heritage with their mixing of guitar and drums with synthetic beats. One of the highlights on Space Elephant is Witch Port, which combines a loop which sounds like a less clinically depressed version of The Weeknd’s The Party & The After Party with gentle percussion. They cannily use melody to smuggle in a darker agenda, like on Vampire in which dejected lyrics are combined with a sparkling melody and rousing outro. Lenny suggests that they are closest in spirit to a hybrid of chill wave and hip hop. In a similar vein to Animal Collective or Neon Indian they work experimental sounds into their pop hooks. Although their hip hop influence isn’t overt, it’s clearly there in the use of repetition and incorporation of diverse styles.

Bye Beneco also project a powerful visual identity. As titles like Witch hint at there is dark undertone to their music and they have regularly played this up in music videos which are as she puts it ‘’ mind pools of cult craziness.’’ The visuals for On The Line are colourful but speak to a midnight world of dark forests, weird rites under the moon and non-human forces. Like some occult ritual it’s both alluring and disorientating, coming from a right brain realm of myth and symbols. This approach gets especially feverish in the all-out surrealism of Chemirocha, which mixes Frida Khalo, UFOs and other unexpected elements. As Lenny-Dee told us, the song itself has quite the history:

The story of Chemirocha is a remarkable one. I came across the original traditional arrangement whilst recording Space Elephant and naturally did some more research on it. The recording dates back to WWII when an ethnomusicologist traveled to Kenya. He had records of popular American yodeler, Jimmie Rodgers which he played on a gramophone for the Kipsigi Tribe. The villagers were taken by the music and started worshipping Rodgers as their ‘half antelope-half human’ God. They called him ‘Chemirocha’. The original song is sung by the young girls of the village. We loved the story and loved the song and wanted to do something with it. Nothing will ever match the original composition but we couldn’t resist taking it on.

With such a strongly defined sonic and visual aesthetic in place Bye Beneco will soon be exporting their vision abroad. Next month, they will be taking their unique vision to Germany, Switzerland, Amsterdam and the UK.

Credits:

Photographer: Charlemagne Olivier

Styled by: Lenny-Dee Doucha

Make-up: Orli Oh Meiri

Location: National School of Arts

19 May 2016
pH, A sound connoisseur expanding the boundaries of urban African music

Raw X studios is where the magic happens, where pH has produced and recorded some seminal South African works. The esteemed producer dropped his solo effort, From Giyani with Love last year to astounding success. I sat down with him to review his recording career, and delve into the world of a brilliant beatmaker.

My first interaction with pH was the rapper launching his album at Koolin Out, the city’s premier live hip hop event and showcase. The magic of this moment was palpable in the presentation of his debut. And the performance was incredibly special, offering insight into the rapper’s journey while delivering live energy and raw lyricism.

From Giyani with Love proved to be a really successful project, with features from Yanga, Reason, Thandiswa and AKA the album offered a range of sounds and stories to connect too. The rapper provided a fresh perspective for hip hop in the country and through identifying himself as Shangaan, from Giyani and using the language in his work, pH made a contribution to cultural pride in his community, a necessary contribution in a country where much ignorance and insecurity abounds around Tsonga people. The album is an excellent introduction into the expansive beats and languid lyricism from this artist. And a follow up is already on the way; D2 is to be dropped sometime this year, and he’s is excited about the progress he’s made as a rapper, finally feeling himself in the medium. pH details the tricky process of finding his voice as a rapper, the dedication and preparation that goes into being able to express yourself in rhythm and poetry.

Lost in Time, is as much a Khuli Chana album as it is a pH production. The two made the album together and through the special musical connection they shared, they made a classic, critically acclaimed album. It produced the hits Tswa Daar, Hape pt 1 and Hazzadaz Move. It went on to be the first hip hop album to win the SAMA for Album of the Year and it projected its protagonists, Khuli and pH into the upper echelons of the music industry. It also introduces pH as a rapper, on Chillin’ the world got to know the voice behind the beats and the confidence from the album pushed him to begin work on his solo effort.

‘Once you can create, you should be doing that everyday’, the words of a committed creative, a person consistently pushing their craft and career. A sound connoisseur working to expand the boundaries of urban African sounds. pH’s love of music, pride in his cultural heritage and pure talent comes together in the music that provides references from the continent whilst understanding the universal appeal of homegrown sounds. An artist to watch and appreciate as he continues to create music that holds the tension between the urban and the traditional; a beautiful balancing act.

4 April 2016