I made a DJ mix of my current favourite lofi house and classic 90s house tracks for a lekker summer vibe in Cape Town.

Ice cream photograph by @carey-claire-chanquin

Summer lofi house mix

This is a lo-fi house song with elements of amapiano. I originally wrote it as an RnB ballad and recorded my friend Lokukwazi, singing it in a bedroom closet. My friends then recommended I make it much faster. That worked, becoming a house track.

Mixed by @josh-luke-berry
Mastered by Vicente Espi 
Cover artwork illustrated by @vanschalky and printed on risograph at Dream Press

Sink to the Bottom (feat. Lokukwazi)

This is my Christmas gift to you all 🎄🎁

Kaap Krismis Mix

I wrote this track imagining a nighttime scene at a South African music festival where revelers dance barefoot on sand. It’s a downtempo house track, featuring kalimba, synths, flute, and some kroboto drums. The album artwork is a risograph illustration by the talented @vanschalky depicting the San folk hero ǀKaggen, the Mantis.

Mixed by @josh-luke-berry
Mastered by Vicente Espi

Boegoe Cave

Vocals by Lokukwazi
Composed and produced by Bottils
Mixed and mastered by Fin Mastering https://www.behance.net/finck
Artwork by Christi du Toit https://www.behance.net/christidutoit

Download and use under Creative Commons.

End of the Continent

To Return (feat. Lokukwazi)

In my mind, each instrument in the song represents an animal that the explorer hears in the forest. I did field recordings of birds in the Cederberg years ago. I then cut up one bird’s call and fed it through my vocoder to make that melodic tweet pattern. For the stomping drums and growling bass, I see that as an exaggeration of what a herd of Moschops would sound like.

Album artwork is illustrated by Christi du Toit
Vocals by Amina Maikori
Mayur Vallabhjee appears as guest guitarist on the track
Composition, lyrics and production by Bottils
Mixing and mastering by Ross Finck

Moschops

Moschops (feat. Amina Maikori)

I made Steenbras Road with the desire to capture the mood of traveling along the cliffs on the eastern side of False Bay. It’s an ambient electronic track with piano elements influenced by Cape Jazz. 

Cover artwork by http://www.colinlaurel.com/ 
Mixing and mastering by https://www.christianduka.com/ 
Valuable feedback on the composition from Merton Barrow at the Jazz Workshop.

Steenbras Road

I was inspired to create this joyful track about a galaxy after taking a road trip to the Tankwa Karoo desert and visiting the South African Astronomical Observatory in Sutherland. I imagine it being the sound of driving through a desert at sunset or traveling through the stars. The composition is influenced by New Order, Deep House and gospel chords. 

Credits are:

Mixed by Josh Berry 
Mastered by Jay Hodgson
The cover art was painted by Portland-based artist Colin Laurel.

End of the Continent – Part One

Large Magellanic Cloud

I think this is the closest I’ve come to capturing the essence of a creature in sound. Jellyfish are very strange beings. When you see them at the aquarium they look so tranquil. But when there’s a bloom of jellyfish it becomes a gelatinous cloud, an immortal mass, expanding and contracting without a mind. Just imagine the billions of innocent microscopic harpoons, primed with venom.

Credits:

Mixed by @dvka
Mastering by Jay Hodgson
Cover art illustrated by https://ren-graham.com/

Jellyfish Bloom

I made this especially for @TDOCassettes’ annual forest radio broadcast. It contains a field recording I made in an Afromontane forest in the Western Cape. 

Credits on track are:

Mixed by @kinkym
Mastering by Jay Hodgson
Cover art illustrated by https://ren-graham.com/

A Circle of Kamassi Trees

A Circle Of Kamassi Trees

I set out to make something bleak that you could listen to while reading.

Credits on track are:

Mixed by @dvka
Mastering by Jay Hodgson
Cover art illustrated by https://ren-graham.com/

As If It Was Happening For The First Time

The central sound is made by a Roland Jupiter 4 going through an Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man.

Credits on track are:

Recording of vocals engineered by @martin-mezzabotta
Mixed by @dvka
Mastering by Jay Hodgson
Cover art illustrated by https://ren-graham.com/

Lyrics: 

"January, became unknown to myself
With a wound that spread out
like moss from the cells.
January, I knew it wouldn't last. 
I just hoped to walk back the Touw River Pass.

I drifted back to those woods, ja.
But I didn't recognize the place.
I could map the whole Outeniqua.
But it’s the memories, I can't trace.

January, this is my only wish
To have the ferns wrap round my limbs 
If a lourie comes to make her home,
could you leave my bones there?"

January

I make electronic music inspired by nature around Cape Town. I also DJ lo-fi house and downtempo. DM for bookings.

Upcoming gigs:

26.11.2023 @ Eternal Garden's EP launch (Woodstock, Cape Town)
1.12.2023 @ Off the Ground at Ground Culture (Obs, Cape Town)

Bottils

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