Bubblegum Club

Tag: south african music

  • “The Greatest of A-Town”: Khenji Releases His Debut Album “Notes”

    Lately, I’ve been getting so tired of my own music. My friends and I came to the conclusion that TikTok, and all its slowed and reverb versions of mainstream (often good) songs that are used in viral trends, is the reason that new music doesn’t hit the same anymore. So, naturally, I’m always interested when I come across an underground artist that mimics mainstream music genres, but in some way, adds their own ‘character’ or ‘interpretation’ to the generic to create something that will stand out more- and it’s even better when it’s a South African artist!

    In my pursuit of discovering new music, I came across a Twitter account owned by Thato Mashigo (Khenji) a Musician, Writer and Producer from Alexandra, Gauteng. He recently released his debut album “Notes”, a 12-track celebration, which he describes in an article as “a brief record of points or ideas written down as an aid to memory.”

    More times than others, I think we fail to call out musicians for creating albums that sometimes fall short of manifesting clear purpose or intent. I find it so enlightening listening to an album that sounds like a clear lived experience of someone- and I think this is where this album wins and makes it a project worth listening to. 

    Khenji

    Along with the announcement of the album on X, Mashigo unironically shared a couple of key takeaways from the album; notes of what the album is made of, what it represents and how it should be received by listeners. 

    “Notes is more than a story, it’s my perspective of Life”- Khenji/@SolarKhenji 

    Along with the Khenji, the album was produced by Lucas Mathule, an Alexandra-based producer. 

    As much as I do appreciate a solo album, featured artists on a tracklist always take an already good project to the next level, and that’s what happened here. I can hear from songs such as Plenty and Too Long that this album evokes so many feelings about community and the essence of one’s upbringing. In terms of its production value and artistic appeal, the album is an impressive way of characterising Alexandra’s music scene.

    There’s all those present elements for the album to qualify as an alternative R&B album, but there’s also so many elements that make it a perfect blend of R&B, Hip-Hop and Jazz- Oh and those beats of drums just enhance the overall vibrancy that the music in this album reflects. 

    While I will admit that prior to this, I had never listened to local musicians’ albums from front to back (without skips), this was really fun to listen to. The album stands as a type of homage to the rawness of youth, but within that rawness, Khenji’s use of lyrics implies faith in one’s present state and hopes for one’s future. 

    You know what I like about @SolarKhenji music? You can hear the fun in his music. I can tell broer was having the time of his life in the studio. 

    A tweet by @master_rxph 

    Quite excited to see how far this emerging South African artist goes! 

    Khenji

  • Ray-Ban Reinvention on Air campaign – The Clubmaster

    Ray-Ban Reinvention on Air campaign – The Clubmaster

    On the 7 March 2018, the first Ray-Ban Reinvention on Air performance and opinion platform for the future of South African music took place at Milk Bar, Keyes Avenue in Rosebank. For 4 consecutive weeks 8 artists will be celebrated over Thursdays and Fridays in conjunction with celebrating 4 of Ray-Ban’s iconic frames. The third week celebrated the Clubmaster.

    DJ, cinematographer and co-founder of weheartbeat Sims Phakisi joined host Reason in conversation and performance. When asked about our music industry Sims shared that, “South Africa is in an interesting time. One, everything in the world has been done except here. So everybody is trying to get here.”

    To catch up on the third conversation and performance at Milk Bar, have a listen to the podcast below.

  • Ray-Ban Reinvention on Air campaign – The Aviator

    Ray-Ban Reinvention on Air campaign – The Aviator

    On the 22 February 2018, the first Ray-Ban Reinvention on Air performance and opinion platform for the future of South African music took place at Milk Bar, Keyes Avenue in Rosebank. For 4 consecutive weeks 8 artists will be celebrated over Thursdays and Fridays in conjunction with celebrating 4 of Ray-Ban’s iconic frames. The first week celebrated the Aviator.

    Hosted by musician Reason, the first artists to join him in conversation and performance were 2Leestark and Langa Mavuso. In thinking about the connection between artists and Ray-Ban Reason expressed that, “Eyewear is just an accessory to some, but to us as artists it speaks a lot about who we are in a particular time or moment.” 

    To catch up on the first conversation and performance at Milk Bar, have a listen to the podcast below.

  • Fela Gucci’s ‘Diphala’ – archiving black sonic magic

    Multifaceted black queer wonder, Fela Gucci’s fascination for South African electronic music led to a reliable music store in Jeppestown in early 2016. Since then Fela has been building a collection of interesting sounds that you will probably not hear on your favourite radio station.

    Thankfully, Fela created a harmonious mix called Diphala and we can now all indulge in the vibrant sounds of DJ Cee, Mujava, Bojo Mujo, DJ Call Me, Halata na titlakuseni magaza, Nozinja, DJ Leostic, DJ Target, DJ Epic and Illumination Boyz.

    “These artists go undocumented and what I’m trying to do with my mixes is create some sort of archival project and hopefully by me sharing this music with people, some sort of awareness could be made to their work”, said Fela.

    It is the magical music produced from these artists and how their music is testament to the resilience of the black spirit that captivates Fela.

    “I feel the resilience in the sound”, said Fela, “I would like to emphasize that this music is created often times by disadvantaged black people who create magic from the little resources they have and through this music they are able to empower and express themselves.”

    Check out the mix on Fela’s Soundcloud

     

  • Everybody knows but nobody talks

    “Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

    Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed

    Everybody knows that the war is over

    Everybody knows the good guys lost

    Everybody knows the fight was fixed

    The poor stay poor, the rich get rich

    That’s how it goes

    Everybody knows.”

    Everybody Knows – Leonard Cohen.

    Last week Saturday, Riky Rick, in his acceptance speech for winning best single at The Metro FM  Music Awards, gave a shout out to “all the kids who couldn’t get their songs on radio because they don’t have enough money, to all the kids who make music videos that never get their music videos on TV because they don’t have the money.” He then followed up by  saying “There’s a lot of people who are struggling to put out music in this country and I feel like there are too many structures that are blocking people from putting out the dopest music. 90% of the shit I hear on radio is garbage. The stuff is living on the Internet, everything is living on the internet right now. So if you’re a kid, and you’re watching this right now, forget radio. If they don’t let you play on radio, you better go to the internet  and make your songs pop on the internet.” It was at this point that Riky’s mic got cut off.

    Riky then took twitter with “STOP PLAYING WITH THE PEOPLE… WE NOT STUPID” and quoted his own lyrics to the song that won best single ‘Sidlukotini’, “If niggaz can pay for these fucking awards then my nigga I don’t want them.” Black Coffee then backed him up and for a few days, musicians from around the country were singing Riky’s praises for exposing the unfairness of the awards and the industry as a whole. The irony of some of them being award-winning millionaires was lost.

    Riky is right: The system is closed off to many artists. If you don’t have money or the right contacts, getting on radio can be hard. Getting an award? Even harder. Riky could have been referring to the SMS system of voting, which is just another way of taxing fans who want to see their favourite artists shine. The system is easily riggable by those with enough resources, and could be why Babes Wodumo and Kwesta left empty handed despite having 2 of the biggest songs of the year. Oddly enough, it was Riky’s Mabala Noise label mate Nasty C who took home the most awards.

    Judging from the fallout though, it appears that what Riky was referring to is Payola. A corrupt system of getting airplay that has been hated by artists since as far back as 2007, but more recently was investigated in 2015 by ENCA and last year DJ Vukani Masinga was fired for accepting bribes to play music on Ukhozi FM. Basically, it’s when artists or their management giving DJs and playlisters money to play their songs. If you’ve ever thought to yourself “Wow, this song is kak. I wonder how much they paid to get it played.” You were probably on the right track.

    Radio and TV will always be out of reach for many artists because of resources, but adding corruption to the mix only continues to make it harder for those deserving a break. After grinding to pay for studio time and getting songs mixed and mastered, now artists must line the pockets of professionals in the industry just to get heard? Fuck that noise.

    While Riky is right that young artists should use the internet to it’s full potential, it’s not always enough to sustain a career. One radio hit can help launch a career and the exposure radio and TV give artists is immense. It’s not enough for artists to make vague references to the system but rather, them and their management, those who have experienced this corruption first hand, need to expose those behind the system. It’s easy enough to call out the system but without taking any actions, what will change?

     

  • Big Space Put Out 52 Remixes Last Year. What Did You Do?

    If you want to get good at something, you have to do it a lot. The cliche is to say something like 10 000 hours of practice but putting out 52 remixes in a year isn’t a bad way to go about it either. Last year Big Space aka Montle Moorosi put out a remix a week and learned a few things. “I learned that I hate social media, I learned I hate my friends, but I learned how to fucking make music super quickly. I learned technical, musical nerd shit.” So hey, if you don’t really care for social media or your friends, might be worth trying for yourself. If you really want it, you’ll sacrifice for your art.

    The project wasn’t all just about working on his skills but also served as a creative release valve. I asked Montle why he did and he told me “I wanted a way to keep releasing music for free but without the mental burden of worrying whether people will buy it or not or even care if it exists. So Natalie Perel (Rose Bonica) came up with the idea of doing a remix a week. That way I can just release the stuff because I don’t own the rights and its keeps me producing. Natalie also designed the site and many of the artworks so that kept her busy throughout the year too.”

    Big space 4

    From what I’ve seen online and experienced in a brief Skype session, Big Space is a bit of an eccentric cat so it makes sense that the songs he chooses to mix are an eclectic bunch. There’s a broad mix of South African representation with the first release being a dark rendition of Slyza Tsotsi, The Frown make multiple appearances, so does Sibot, there’s the Gumbo Ya-Ya’s, MUJAVA, and  Batuk round out the collection. On the international front, Yours Truly icon Mac De Marco kicks things off versing off with Father who also makes it onto a few tracks. Then Santigold and iLovemakonnen’s “Who Be Loving Me” get’s a dreamy rework that I’m going to play on Virtual DJ at a party because Big Space hates those DJs but also because people will think I’m great at mixing. Actually, a lot of these flow like live mixes – each layer building with repetition then whilst subtly changing into something completely different with the beat holding everything together. I’m not the most knowledgeable house music guy but Big Space seems to have a pretty good handle on it.

    Big space 2

    Montle’s favourite of the 52  remixes is his take on Jumping Back Slash’s Soft Slumps although I’m quite partial to his mashup of The Gumbo Ya-Yas and Talking Heads. I’m still making my way through the whole list, so far, I’ve mostly just picked out what I know and a few others that looked interesting. That’s the thing with remixes, I guess. Sometimes you pick a song because it’s familiar to people and you want to put your take on it, other times you do it because you want to expose your audience to something different, and put your take on it. I asked him what the challenges are in remixing that are different to producing your own work and he explained “The challenges are drawing the line between your work and another person’s work and where it transitions into an original piece of music.” Which he jokingly followed up with “The other challenge is telling yourself you’re not just one of those beatport edm producers who have a built a career on doing remixes only.”

    Putting out a remix a week takes discipline and dedication and now Big Space has a solid body of work and some technical nerd knowledge to show for it.