Ratigan Era - Gan Dem

Phelimuncasi - Kolamula Ukusa (feat. DJ Ndaxy)

Otim Alpha - Lobo Olanya

One Djezz - Djelimandi

MC Yallah - No One Seems To Bother (feat. Lord Spikeheart)

Kidene Fighter - Ugai Gai

KABEAUSHÉ - ANDNOWAWORDFROMOURSPONSORS

Jay Mitta X Chrisman - Wakube

FLO - Baby

Ecko Bazz - Kowola

Boutross - Shrap Over The Rest

Aunty Rayzor - Tornado

Anti Vairas X Vampi - Kidogo

DIY synth builder and electronica experimentalist Brian Bamanya aka AFRORACK has only released two tracks so far, but his live sets at CTM, Nyege Nyege boiler room and Refractions festival have already made him a name as an unpredictable live electronics act that brings together so many influences, from jazz to techno and traditional Ugandan rhythms, all laced with the delicious textures that his home build machines create.

Afrorack - Trance

Video for 'I Don't Feel My Legs' youtu.be/FbdaNVrmHhE

In South Africa, the Ama Gogela is large bee known for its strength and ferociousness. Durban trio Phelimuncasi use this avatar as a metaphor for their music. "We believe our music is irresistible, you can't sleep or chill while it's playing," they explain. "The same thing happens when that bee hits you hard. Once it stings you, you can't manage it, it's painful. It's like our songs - once you listen, you can't stop."

"Ama Gogela" follows Phelimuncasi's acclaimed 2020 debut "2013-2019", and once again spotlights the dynamism of Durban's globally prestigious gqom scene. Based in the Mlaszi township, vocalists Malathon, Makan Nana and Khera initially came together in 2012, driven by a desire to illustrate and soundtrack their leftist activist work. Together with some of their neighborhood's most influential producers, they've become notorious for releasing some of Durban's most exceptional music, harnessing gqom's dancefloor futurism and South Africa's ancient theatrical and storytelling traditions simultaneously.

This comprehensive full-length again links Phelimuncasi with regular collaborators DJ MP3 and DJ Scoturn, adding locals DJ Nhlekzin, DJ Ndakx, and SVBKVLT-signed South Korean producer NET GALA as a wildcard. And despite the range of individual talent, the album is exceptionally cohesive, woven together by the trio's conversational call-and-response vocals and unforgettable energy. Phelimuncasi's philosophy is evident immediately on 'I don't feel like legs', as the three MCs alternate between their local language isiZulu and English over police sirens, thick bass and dense percussive chatter. It serves as a call to action for anyone listening, whether you're able to unpack the lyrics or not - like the album's namesake, it's got a sting that won't let you escape.

NET GALA's idiosyncratic sounds underpin the early highlight 'Ngiphupha Izinto', linking ballroom rhythms with early electronic squelches and psy-trance bass to accompany Phelimuncasi's dextrous lyrical back-and-forth. After that brief detour, we're back in Durban with the DJ Scoturn-produced 'Maka Nana', where throaty-voiced MC Bhejane joins the trio for his first guest spot, gurgling bafflingly over gqom staple syncopated toms and ruffled drones. DJ Ndaxy crafts sneak-attack hooks out of mbira clangs on 'Kolamula Ukusa', while Scoturn turns in an inverted bass-heavy slither on 'Uyaphi WeNano', allowing guest vocalist Mafethan the space to shine.

Phelimuncasi manage the impossible on "Ama Gogela", meticulously crafting music that's revolutionary and educational without losing sight of the dancefloor. It's party music that's addictive and indelible, fueled by opposition, dissent and a textured understanding of South Africa's artistic past, present and future.

Phelimuncasi - I Don't Feel My Legs (prod DJ Nhlekzin)

Since his first productions emerged back in 2010, Munchi has put his own spin on everything he's approached, bending moombahton into breakcore and creating moombahcore fusing skullstep and trap and making skulltrap, and curving bachata and merengue … . A voracious listener, he's been able to absorb sounds from across the diaspora - from reggeton and baile funk to Dutch bubbling and Chicago juke - and effortlessly engineer his own twist, creating tracks and mixes with a journalistic hunger for storytelling and contextual deconstruction. Blogger and musicologist Wayne Marshall even coined a separate genre for Munchi's diverse spread of genre-agnostic productions back in 2010: Munchiton. Since then, Munchi has worked with M.I.A. and Pharell Williams among others, and remixed everyone from Skrillex to Nguzunguzu, Noisia to Buraka.


 "I Love Mambo" was put together in 2010 for Dave Quam's notorious It's After The End Of The World blog. It was Munchi's first proper mixtape, and matched a handful of his original productions with his favorite tracks from the Dominican Mambo canon, that had evolved throughout the 2000’s after merengue ... even got more stripped down with live instruments replaced with digital sounds with the use of daws like fl studio. Munchi was fascinated by this music at the time, downloading everything he could get his hands on, scraping the internet's darkest corners for "the cheapest, cheesiest, dirtiest, most Fruityloops-ish" tracks. He laments that this era has come and gone, leaving "polished, pretentious and almost soulless" reggaeton to dominate the landscape. "At least when the rhythms were extremely raw you could feel the energy and spirit in it," he says. "It felt like it was alive and breathing." Listening now, the mix sounds as raw, fresh and vital as it did back then, brushing the dust off an often forgotten and certainly misunderstood moment in the history of Dominican music. At any moment the tracks sound so brittle they could collapse completely, only to be bolstered by a swift beat flip, vocal chop or cheeky bass drop. Over the course of an hour, Munchi accompanies us on a thrill ride through a genre that's left an indelible mark on dance music throughout the Caribbean and further afield. … "I Love Mambo" serves as a critical missing link. Munchi's "Detonao EP" is a collection of unreleased material recorded in Rotterdam between 2008 and 2010, and is among the most experimental, minimal and uptempo material Munchi has put his name to. Here he purposefully approximates the kind of jerky, plasticated speed dance that used to dominate the Dominican scene, offering his own spin on the mambo sound. Each track is unsettlingly clean, assembled from detuned toybox pianos, radio sting voices and cheap, groggy horns: opening track 'Damu Mambo' crashes into view thru hollow clunks, horror movie voices, pained air horns, glass smashes and rolling snares before ceding to looped vocals and "X-Files" whistles.In the wrong hands, this chaotic assemblage would be as playable as nails on a chalkboard, but Munchi's genius lies in his ability to massage almost anything into a coherent groove. There are even parallels to be drawn with Portugal's wiry batida sound, and Tanzania's hi-nrg singeli (just check those pacy percussive sounds on 'Comenzo El Party'). There's a sense that Munchi is aware of everything existing in the same continuum, shuffling through Dutch bubbling scrapes and bassline womps on 'Luis Esta Seguroski VIP', and mind-altering 'Percolator' trills on the hypnotic 'Ayoba Mambo'. A history lesson and wild-eyed cultural mashup that'll leave you breathless, "Detonao" is proof that Munchi is operating in a league of his own.

Klk Frutilu

Ayoba Mambo

Luis Esta Seguroski VIP

Tamo En Olla, Pero Hay Mambo

Comenzo El Party

Que Maldito Disco

Damu Mambo

** Boomkat Product Review **

DJ 0.000001 runs stacks of unreleased Shangaan missiles in a heat-seeking throwdown for leaders of the African new school, Nyege Nyege Tapes.

Giving us flashbacks to the heat of Honest Jon’s legendary 2010 compilation and its corresponding tours feat Shangaan disco dynamo Nozinja and dancers from Limpopo, DJ 0.000001’s mixtape hustles x-amount of exclusives that harness the sound’s galloping 180BPM energy in myriad mutations made between 2015-2022.

With energetic parallels in Tanzanian singeli and the Balani mix style of Mali’s DJ Diaki, Shangaan Electro is the incendiary and up-for-it party sound of Limpopo, a region of South Africa whose sound famously sped up over the decades to its breakneck current iteration, demanding ever more intricate and spellbinding footwork from its dancers. DJ 0.000001’s summary of Shangaan thru its remixes forms a party-ready rush spanning what sounds like Rian Treanor galvanising the sound with insectoid algorithms, to the adaption of RP Boo’s frenetic Chicago footwork, and punkish spins from the fringes of Nyege Nyege Tapes’ swelling number.

Releases March 15th 2023

All remixes previously unreleased. Recombined between 2015 and 2022 by Jonah Mociun. Special thanks to Thomas Chauke, Nozinja, Mualusie, Tshe-Tsha Boys, RP Boo, BBC, Nkata Mawewe, & GT Sikizia.

Artwork by Kid Gringo
Mastered by Declared Sound

DJ 0.000001 - Recombinant Shangaan Mixtape - Sampler

Boomkat Product Review:

Heavy-duty Indian soundsystem carnage by its leading proponent DJ Smiley Bobby, on Uganda’s immense NNT - unmissable for anyone wowed by recent videos of Indian sound clashes, priming the label for incoming heat by DJ TSR.

A proper mazza from Maharashtra State in Western India, DJ Smiley Bobby’s ‘Dhol Tasha Drum Exercises’ presents nearly an hour of up-to-the-second, electronic re-interpretations of ceremonial drums. It’s a full-frontal example of the rave energies in BRIC countries currently catching fire internationally, paralleling innovative mutations of Baile funk in Brazil or from the Svbkvlt lot in China with a ruthlessly rough brand of dancefloor discipline that sharply bends tradition into the hot present. Yr ears will not deceive you - DJ Smiley Bobby’s gear is frankly some of the sickest we’ve heard in a minute and we expect this introduction to be prized by any ravers unsatisfied with Western club music’s increasing tendencies to imitate-not-innovate.

First formed by the late Shri Appasaheb Pendse in the ‘60s, Dhol Tasha Drum exercises were originally performed on a sort of acoustic kettle drum but became electronically adapted in recent years thanks to the likes of DJ Smiley Bobby and peers including DJ Aasif, DJ Ammy, and DJ TSR, the latter of whom is due to drop an album with NNT this year. DJ Smiley Bobby’s introductory session finds the sound at its stripped down and breathless best with a ceaseless battery of drums and percussive madness that truly puts willing bodies thru their paces as the mixtape steps from side A’s 90-110bpm workout to its 150bpm ‘Hard Drum Sound System’ on the flip.

Also kinda mirroring the way DJ Plead has flipped Arabic drum styles, how Bilou XIV have transposed Senegalese mbalax drum patterns onto machine grids, or DJ Diaki’s Malian balani knee-ups, we’re certain this one will light up the pleasure centres of proper dancers everywhere, and dovetail with the sort of thing Beatrice Dillon makes, or anyone who’s been scouting zones where Indian bhangra and UK rave music bump fists, a la Mick St. Clair’s remixes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Un-fucking-missable!!!

DJ SMILEY BOBBY - Dhol Tasha Drum Exercises from Maharashtra (sampler)

Welcome to the world of NIHILOXICA. A darker take on traditional Bugandan drumming. Comprised of seven percussionists, one kit drummer combined with an analog synth player. Recorded live in single takes at Boutiq Studios in Kampala, Uganda between the 26th and 29th of August 2017.

All tracks written by Jacob Maskell-Key and Peter Jones alongside Nilotica Cultural Ensemble
All tracks mastered at Declared Sound
Engineered by Ben Beheshty and Pete Jones at Boutiq Studios
Mixed by Peter Jones 
Graphics by Aleczandah

Mwanje Jamiru - Djembe
Kasooma Henry - Namunjoloba (Small Tom Drums)
Aineomugisha Alimansi - Shakers
Isabirye Henry - Bakisimba Drums (Bass Drums)
Kalanda Peter - Binghi
Galabuzi Edward - Engalabi (Long Drum)
Kayondo Herbert - Engalabi
Peter Jones - Synthesizers, Shaker, Cowbell
Jacob Maskell-Key - Drum Kit

Nihiloxica

Nihiloxica - 03 - Endongo

Jumanne Ramadhani Zegge a.k.a. Bamba Pana is one of the core producers, alongside Jay Mitta and Sisso himself, of the Sisso studio - a central hub for MCs and producers of the Singeli scene in the Mburahati ghetto on the outskirts of Dar Es Salaam. Along with his peers, Bamba Pana uses a laptop and software to update the local, usually acoustic and instrumental style of Singeli, computerizing its hyper rhythms and zinging melodies for the needs of younger, contemporary crowds in an upfront, direct way that has translated far beyond its East African roots.

Poaa

Agaba Kibati

Next level digital tribalism from roving Punk ethno-musicologist and label boss of the archival re-issue label petPets' tapes , Julien Hairon. After spending the past 6 years recording soundscapes and traditional musicians across Asia, Oceania and Africa, he moved to Tanzania in 2017. Inspired by the sounds he heard around him and field recordings he made over the past couple of years during his stay their, Judgitzu was born. Umeme Kelele represents his debut release and his first foray into electronic music production.

Umemekelele

Umemekele

NNT017 Preview  Judgitzu : Umeme

Lithium Blast

Hunter

Bursting Thru The Gates

Absolutely fire showcase of St. Lucia’s Kuduro Soca or “Dennery Segment” sound, a local style notorious for slack lyrics and its hi-NRG pace, here served up spicy as fuck by one of the Caribbean island’s premiere DJs for Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Tapes.

Packing pure heat from the town of Dennery in St. Lucia’s Mabouya Valley, DJ Chengz’ mixtape extends an unmissable introduction to Dennery Segment, a fast and grimy offshoot of the Angola “Hard ass” style of Kurudo that’s been banned in the region for its blend of salacious lyrics and rave-inciting rhythms. Also incorporating strong influence from Zouk and Lucian drums, Dennery Segment is a super strong example of punkishly road level party music from the Afro-Caribbean diaspora that highlights the pronounced, technoid Portuguese accent dominating global dancefloor dialogues right now.

Catching 67 minutes of rudely stripped down drum loops and hooks locked with MCs chatting sexually charged filth in Kwéyòl (Saint Lucian Creole), the mix arguably recalls the energy of Carnival as much as the grime and Soca that went into UKF, and bristles with the electric rawness of early Marfox and classic Príncipe. But the defining feature is really the raunchy lyrical content, working in a long tradition of XXX-rated Soca styles but with a bang up-to-the-second sense of economy and directness touching on everything from alcohol problems to “Sex like spaghetti”, and galvanised by the jabbing, gruffly rhythmelodic urgency of the productions.

Little known beyond the region, perhaps aside from diaspora carnivals in US and EU, the infectious percolations of Dennery Segment are bound to incite fervent reactions with all discerning dancers and listeners who love it as rugged and rawly stylish as it comes. DJ Chengz’ expertly selected and blended mixtape is the ideal entry point to Kuduro’s latest mutation for anyone with hips and ears attuned to thrilling new music from the tropics.

DJ CHENGZ LUCIAN KUDUROS MIX TAPE SIDE A

Nyege Nyege Tapes is a Kampala based label exploring, producing and releasing outsider music from around the region.

For bookings email: tapes@nyegenyege.com

Popular tracks by Nyege Nyege Tapes