He remains a contemporary touchstone for Afrobeat, but as our featured track ‘Too Much Information’ demonstrates, that classic sound can easily be remixed into a dancefloor killer – another gem from the Innervisions stable. London-born but of Nigerian heritage, Dele Sosimi toured both with the legendary Fela Kuti, and then his son Femi. Our next two choices both exemplify this happy conundrum. This makes it pleasingly difficult to pigeonhole. To sit alongside it, we have chosen Mobi Dixon’s ‘City Rains’ (also 2015), whose gently plucked guitars and soulful vocals will wash over you.Īfrican house music draws inspiration from every corner of this multi-faceted genre, but its artists emphasise the spirit of their home continent in an ever-present way in their music. Black Coffee undoubtedly draws on it, as evidenced in our second pick from the main man, his 2015 collaboration with Monique Bingham, ‘Deep in the Bottom (of Africa)’ – Monique has guested with a who’s who of house producers, another sign of Black Coffee’s exalted position in the global scene. However, what is not open to debate is its enduring influence on South African producers, so it is no surprise that many of them have put their own twist on the style. Many now consider deep house to be a conflicted term, one of several dance music sub-genres whose original meaning is now shrouded in a mist of differing definitions. The two fine examples we feature here, both from 2013, are the percussive madness of ‘Matimba’ by Angola’s HomeBoyz Muzik featuring Zulu Naja and ‘No Doubt’, a Defected gem from South Africa’s Cuebur, where ethereal pads and the plaintive vocals of Marissa Guzman both ride the intoxicating rhythm.įrom Larry Heard’s groundbreaking 1980s releases onwards, there is a rich catalogue of deep house music. The sound of the drums is at the very heart of African culture, so it is no surprise that it was to the fore in the 2010s as the continent’s dance music grew in influence throughout the decade. However, our pick ‘African Subway’, where a simple but insistent piano motif sits atop a funky, tribal workout, was released on Dixon & Ame’s influential Innervisions label. A year later, Culoe de Song became one of the premier producers on Black Coffee’s Soulistic imprint. From the island of Manda, just off the Kenyan coast, Afefe Iku is a protégé of Osunlade, whose Defected-supported label Yoruba unleashed the instantly recognisable vibes of ‘Mirror Dance’ in 2008. The 2000s were a decade when African house slowly begun to seep into the global consciousness, with our next two choices part of that process. The percussion-led number features a tour de force vocal performance from the late South African singer Busi Mhlongo. Our first cut goes back to 2007, and the opening track of his second album Have Another One. Black Coffee, Hï Ibiza’s Saturday selector, is one of them. Only a handful of DJs can headline an Ibiza superclub season-long residency with their own name as the brand. Fifteen years on from launching his Soulistic label with his self-titled debut album, Nkosinathi Maphumulo, better known as Black Coffee, bestrides the African house scene like a colossus. So, while doffing a collective cap to those forward-looking house masters such as DJ Gregory, Osunlade, Louie Vega and Bob Sinclar who have frequently both shone a light on and worked with African artists, every featured track here bears the Made in Africa stamp. Arguably the term has also lost its cachet somewhat as an ever-expanding array of tracks from all manner of artists / countries are collected under the banner. The term ‘afro house’ now seems woefully inadequate to cover the depth and breadth of house and electronic music being produced in this continent of 50+ countries and over a billion citizens. Not only have we witnessed exhilarating performances from both Black Motion and Themba, but many tracks of African origin have featured (for example the warmly received Simon Dunmore / Dunmore Brothers 90 minute set which kicked off Defected Virtual Festival 4.0 was bookended with African productions). Defected’s Virtual Festival series has been a timely reminder of the pre-eminence of African artists and DJs (especially those from South Africa) in the 2020 house music landscape.
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