Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Township Funk

This track is Township Funk by DJ Mugava (pointed to by Lower End Spasm). Sheffield's Warp Records are releasing this in the UK.

I don't know much about DJ Mujava - apparently he's from Pretoria in South Africa and his real name is Elvis Maswanganyi. Fact is I know very little about African takes on house music like Kwaito and Mzansi House from South Africa or Kuduro from Angola, but I am happy to know they exist and would like to find out more. There's a fair amount of the music and dance around on Youtube and elsewhere, but I would also like to know more about the scenes, what are the parties like, where do they have them, who goes to them, what do people wear etc.

Any good blogs/sites out there covering this sort of stuff? So far I've come across Kuduro Files and Kwaito.co.uk.

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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous20 August 2008 at 12:37

    Top stuff - Warp know what they're doing, don't they?

    I can't help you with any sites but I can recommend a kwaito band called Bongo Maffin who a mate brought over to Manchester 5 or 6 years ago.

    Like everyone says about kwaito, their stuff was very much like slowed down house but with a big hip hop and reggae influence and African syncopation over the top. It was really hypnotic but very danceable too.

    They had a great singer called Thandie somethinthing who I think has gone solo. She could worth checking out too.

    I'm glad that kwaito is getting more exposure over here - although to be honest, I haven't really been paying much attention.

    I'm sure there was some press at the time so I'll have a word with my mate and see what I can dig up for you.

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  2. Birdseed20 August 2008 at 19:49

    Another genre I can totally recommend in this vein is Tanzanian/Kenyan/Ugandan Takeu which at least in part totally ventures into house-like territory. If you're willing to do North African there's also Sha3bi, which of course has plenty more interesting cultural connotations.

    As for blogs, you've got the Kuduro Files blog I use and there are only a scant couple of other Kwaito blogs I've seen, none of them good. An alternative is subscribing to the blogs of foreigners who're into the stuff, like wayneandwax (by a boston ethnomusicologist) and DJ Chief Boima, a great diasporadic DJ (although he mostly does west african). One more: perhaps the best site in general for African music, though hellishly hard to navigate properly, is Museke, which is very insightful on loads of topics including African house.

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  3. bob21 August 2008 at 14:14

    Neil, You should check out:

    fat planet

    mudd up!

    MASALA

    GHETTO BASSQUAKE

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  4. .24 August 2008 at 10:05

    Thanks for these suggestions, will check them out when I get back from holiday.

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  5. Anonymous31 December 2008 at 17:11

    Thanks to Warp for promoting South African Music - we have plenty more coming
    http://groups.to/facessa/
    More info at vukuzenzele@gmail.com

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