Euphoric and organic fusion of African, Afro-American, and Afro-European rhythmic sensibilities and production styles... Africa is the Future.

AFROTEK 1

AFROTEK 2

Amapiano connected to many other styles at around 114 bpm

3 AmaRainbow

Amapiano emerged out of Soweto in Johannesburg in the recent 5 years, popularised in the legendary Poniaza club. 

Musically, it is a reaction against the previous sound to dominate the South African scene for some years, Gqom, an intense and heavy Afro-rave music defined by a relentless and repetitive energy, which evolved out of the rougher side of Durban House.  

Amapiano swings the vibes hammer all the way in the other direction: toward more musicality, more melody, more conventionally pleasing sounds, and drops the BPM from 130 down to exactly 114. 

A vision of African Futurism decidedly the opposite of European sonic futurism:  

The music featured in the prestigious European showcase festivals has been and is primarily about a rejection of history: minimalist bleeps and bloops, noise and bass, that comprise attempts at divorce from past movements and genres, at destruction of music as we know it. 

In stark contrast, Amapiano embraces all of the past styles as it is informed by pre-modern traditions: recognisable influences from Jazz, Reggae, Dancehall, Hip Hop, R'n'B, Disco, House, Electro, even vocal chart Pop, all held together by re-emergent ancestral polyrhythms finding new expression with a signature percussive bass.  

At the same time as it is “accessible”, Amapiano is revolutionary in a formal sense.  The very structure of dance music is radically transformed as the relationship between bass and melody, between lows and highs, is flipped. 

In Western (Afro-American) modern dance music, the bass kick provides a constant repeating pattern on top of which higher frequencies float, doing variations within sameness.  

The central passages of Amapiano tracks turns this on its head: the constant repeating patterns are done with the highs, such as melodic refrains, and it is the BASS which does variations within the sameness, recalling the Mama Ngoma drum of the Congo, largest and heaviest of the family of drums, always doing the solos.

With radical innovation happening in many places all over the mother continent every few years, Amapiano is only 1 wave in the ocean of living, constantly evolving rhythm culture.   But it clearly demonstrates a modus operandi that is both very different from Western approaches, as well as an exponentially more vast knowledge and conceptual base on which new configurations can arise.

2 AmaStorm

1 AmaSunshine

Pak Arman Idris plays a longer, more traditional Batang Hari Sembilan piece in his home near Pagaralam, South Sumatra.

Arman Idris - Nasib Melarat

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

NUNO BEATS "Sai do Coração" Mini LP (P055, June 21 of 2024)

Orders: https://principediscos.bandcamp.com/album/sai-do-cora-o

NUNO BEATS - Sai do Coração

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

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.  Instead, 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. 

It is an unstoppable African hyper-modern DIY rave-virus full of raw, relentless energy, spreading through the streets of West African cities like a pandemic of boisterous sonic thrills and frenzied footwork.  

Punk With African Characteristics isn't full of impotent, directionless and misdirected rage; instead, rhythmic adventure, sonic surprises, ecstatic euphoria, and a deep sense of joy, celebration, and, at least I hear it, optimism. 

Clocking in on average at 1 or 2 minutes in length, the songs are not really “songs” as much as modular pieces to be combined in infinite potential configurations.  The supreme elegance and integrity of this music is in its rigorous adherence to pure functionality:  above all other concerns, the central objective is to dancing; and the producers never lose sight of it.    

But there is also something else, a central element of the human creativity since the very advent of poetry and song, which has been almost entirely missing from European and USAmerican classical OR social music in the modern period and even for much longer:  humour.

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 Asia and Africa, acoustic and electronic, traditional and hyper-modern.

Select Past Performances:
———————————
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) 

———————————
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, 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) 

———————————
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

Mara Cruise

djzhao

Recent comments

Kostis Michelakis

Related tracks