Music to die for, in celebration of life and a bright future for West Asia. These 3 mixes in the series were inspired by the rapproachement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the movement towards rapproachement between Syria and Turkey, and the recent developments in West Asia towards peace and stability after 40 years of continuing foreign invasions and bombs which destroyed hundreds of cities, killed tens of millions of civilians, and created hundreds of millions refugees.

PEACE IN WEST ASIA 2

Futurism in Europe, the sonic avant garde, for the past half century or more, has proceeded on a total rejection of tradition.  A cultural product of post-modernism and historical nihilism, the assumption rested upon is that the past is only shit and must be destroyed, wiped clean, to have tabula rasa - which is nothing but a fantasy, never mind the result of false understanding.   So what we end up with at Atonal or Transmediale is an aversion to melody, a rejection of musicality, thousands of artists making bleeps, bloops, rigid,  mechanical, inhuman forms, all of which mono-cultural, mono-rhythmic, and deeply pessimistic.  But in the end, contemporary European electronic music, for all its rhetoric and pretence at "futurity", fails to innovate, and is today in 2024 still near entirely reliant on innovations made 40+ years ago in Detroit and Dusseldorf -- clubs are mostly still playing the exact same single  untz untz rhythm pattern. 

Futurism in the Global South is the opposite.  

Firstly there is a formal revolution every few years in which new palettes, new rhythm patterns, and new dynamics emerge.  In South Africa alone, we have seen radical new styles like Gqom and Amapiano within just the past decades.   

Secondly, contemporary African electronic music is characterised by an EMBRACE of tradition, and not only those of the music makers themselves.  In a heavy bass number, all of a suddent bursts of ecstatic deep jazz saxophone.  Forms like Samba, Jamaican dancehall, etc., etc., are often alluded to and paid respect or re-interpreted.  Angolan Kuduro often references Brazillian music as well as include Portugese influences; Amapiano encompasses near everything that has happened in not only African but also African American music during the past century, from jazz to house to hip hop and reggae, but done in unmistakeably South African ways.  There is no allergy to melody, no fear of musicality, no aversion to sentiment -- and it is often the contrast between challenging and even abrasive timbres and bits of traditionalism that sometimes even celebrates dripping wet romanticism that gives the music that much more progressive power.

_____________________

The horrors unfolding around the world today in 2023 can be seen as the birth pangs of a new, more just and peaceful world to come.  

Along with the final and real removal of colonial forces and increased cooperation with the multipolar world, we will see, are already seeing, authentic economic development, connection, and integration in and of the motherland.  In the next decades to century or more, the humanist technologies of the Global South will thrive, multiply, and cross pollinate.  

Now is a time to mourn, to struggle, as well as to celebrate the deep, world historic changes taking place, and what is to come.

We should dance not despite, not in trying to forget, the violence and sadness of current conflicts, but in the realisation that this is the end of the imperialist era; and in solidarity with the rise of multi-polarity, envisioning a bright future for the formerly colonised.

Futurism with African Characteristics ONE

Futurism With African Characteristics TWO

Gqom is South African rhythm tradition shaped by the social reality of neoliberalism under a corrupted ANC, after Mandela having had to make major concessions to foreign pressure, unable to carry out the land and property reforms that were central to his post-independence program --- high crime rates, high levels of social tension and conflict, high levels of discontent and anxiety.

Gqom is ancestral Southern African rhythm heritage refracted through the lens of late capitalism, both expressing how we feel in this chaotic era as shaped by the objective conditions of social conflict, as well as to the deeper, timeless collective culture that is our common inheritance.

GQOM: Class War

21st Century African Futurism, steeped in tradition and cross pollinated with many other strands of global dance music.

GQOM: UNITY

Predominantly Muslim music from Palestinians, Algerians, Moroccans, Syrians, Pakistani, Egyptians, Indians, Hausa, and Mongolians seamlessly mixed and juxtaposed as not only a tapestry of cultural cross pollination but a vision of future regional and cultural integration and unity.

1 of 3 in a series of hypnotic and ecstatic Rhythms and melodies in anticipation of increased West Asian, South Asian, South East Asian, East Asian, and African cooperation in matters of culture as well as economy, diplomacy, security.  A sonic vision of a potential Asian Union as part of BRICS and rising multipolarity.

قطة

Predominantly Muslim music from Palestinians, Algerians, Moroccans, Syrians, Pakistani, Egyptians, Indians, Hausa, and Mongolians seamlessly mixed and juxtaposed as not only a tapestry of cultural cross pollination but a vision of future regional and cultural integration and unity.

2 of 3 in a series of hypnotic and ecstatic Rhythms and melodies in anticipation of increased West Asian, South Asian, South East Asian, East Asian, and African cooperation in matters of culture as well as economy, diplomacy, security. A sonic vision of a potential Asian Union as part of BRICS and rising multipolarity.

الشجرة

Predominantly Muslim music from Palestinians, Algerians, Moroccans, Syrians, Pakistani, Egyptians, Indians, and Hausa seamlessly woven and juxtaposed as not only a tapestry of cultural cross pollination but a vision of future regional, cultural integration and unity.

3 of 3 in a series of hypnotic and ecstatic Rhythms and melodies in anticipation of increased West Asian, South Asian, South East Asian, East Asian, and African cooperation in matters of rhythmelody as well as economy, diplomacy, security. A sonic vision of a potential Asian Union as part of BRICS and rising multipolarity.

قمر

In Lagos slang, "mara" means "crazy, wild", and "cruise" means "fun, a good time".  

The loosely defined but at the same time distinct fresh style of music known as “Cruise Beat” or “Free Beat” began to spread from Lagos on TikTok and other social media in Nigeria around 3 or 4 years ago.  

A kind of “Anti-Afrobeats”, Cruisebeat is largely a reaction against the by now ubiquitous and internationally popularised sound of Naija Pop with its slower tempos and languid, introspective, romantic themes reminiscent of Zouk/Kizomba.  In sharp contrast, the younger generation is making music at much higher tempos, with cocophonous use of samples and an irreverent, rebellious, riotous modus operandi.  

Cruisebeat is the new Punk. 


Continue reading:  https://ngomasound.com/2025/05/13/mara-cruise

Mara Cruise

Born in Beijing and based in Berlin, Dj Zhao brings a poly-cultural understanding of polyrhythm to dance floors all over the world, and applies historical materialist analysis to the study of social music.  Not restricted by style and convention, Dj Zhao's deeply percussive sets span across genres and draws from wildly different times and places, connecting Africa, Asia, and South America, acoustic and electronic, traditional and hyper-modern.

Select Past Performances:
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FESTIVALS

Nyege Nyege (Uganda) 
Fusion Festival (Germany) 
Incubate (Holland) 
Odunde (USA)
EXIT Festival (Serbia) 
Sondeka (Kenya) 
Club Trans Mediale (Germany) 
Sziget Festival (Hungary)
Tribal Gathering (Panama) 
Ethnoport (Poland) 
Worldtronics (Germany) 
Fest de Bestuiving (Holland) 
Sineztezija (Montenegro) 
Sonar Festival (Germany) 
MišMaš (Czech Republic) 
Solar Weekend (Holland) 
Mikser (Serbia) 
Treffpunkt Afrika (Austria) 
Decoloniale (Germany)
At.Tension (Germany) 
Hakuna Matata (Germany) 
Art Lake (Germany) 

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CLUBS

Berghain (Berlin, DE)
Ponyaza (Johannesburg, SA)
Ritter Butzke (Berlin, DE)
La Riviera (Madrid, SP)
About://Blank (Berlin, DE)
Nuba (Paris, FR)
Palác Akropolis (Prague, CZ)
Watergate (Berlin, DE)
Radialsystem (Berlin, DE)
Danse Danse! (Amsterdam, NL)
Andel music Club (Prague, CZ)
Rich Mix (London, UK)
HKW (Berlin, DE)
UT Connewitz (Leipzig, DE)
Opium (Vilnius, LT)
The Shrine (NYC, US)
Gretchen (Berlin, DE)
Klub Fabryka (Krakow, PL)
Leopold Museum (Vienna, AT)
Floripa (London, UK)
Treehouse (Nairobi, KE)
YAAM (Berlin, DE)
Red Cat (Mainz, DE)
Coup D'Etat, Chicago (US)



Capital Pub (Kampala, UG)
Vacca Matta (Johannesburg, SA)
Occii (Amsterdam, NL)
Club 414 (London, UK)
WonderBar (Boston, US)
Noize Fabrik (Berlin, DE)
Lipsiusbau (Dresden, DE)
La Dame De Canton (Paris, FR)
Karlstorbahnhof (Heidelberg, DE)
Zeba Washington (Washington DC, US)
Guanabara (London, UK)
Shikisha (Johannesburg, SA)
Passing Clouds (London, UK)
Urban Spree (Berlin, DE)
ACUD Macht Neu (Berlin, DE)
Panke (Berlin, DE)
Take Five (Bristol, UK)
Badehaus (Berlin, DE)
Bi Nuu (Berlin, DE)
Cookies (Berlin, DE)
Confessions (Prague, CZ)
Bohannon (Berlin, DE)
Tausend (Berlin, DE)

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LECTURES

“Forbidden Drums: The Secret History of Modern Social Music”
Untitled Gallery, Berlin, DE 

“Altered Beats: Transatlantic Rhythmic Cross-Pollination” 
Festival de Bestuiving / Utrecht, NL 

“Forged in Pain: The Colonial Process of Musical Development”
Sound System Culture, Berlin, DE

“Legacy of Rhythm: From Biology to Culture” 
Mutant Rhythms Conference, Berlin, DE 

“Reconstructed Cultures and Music from Memory” 
Voneinander Lernen- interkulturelle, Gaziantep, Turkiye 

“Ancient Futurism: Racing The Rhythm Lineage of Modernity” 
Centrum Sonic Lecture Series / Berlin, DE 

“Deep Roots: African Sonic Heritage Today” 
THE SPACE BETWEEN US Music Convention / Berlin, DE

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