Various Artists // Amapiano Now (NTS)

#1

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date: 2021-07-23
catalog #: [none]
genre: Amapiano! The New Dance Sound of Johannesburg

tracklist:
1. Caltonic SA feat. DJ Buckz & Thabz Le Madonga — Super Star
2. DBN Gogo, Musa Keys & Dinho feat. Koek Sista, Optimist Music SA, Makhanj & Lebza TheVillain — Possible
3. Alfa Kat & TidoSoul — Sip Sip
4. MachiinaSA — James Bond
5. Gaba Cannal feat. E_Clips Mzansi — Shona Le
6. King Jazz — Lockdown
7. Teno Afrika — Power Station
8. MaWhoo feat. DJ Obza & Bongo Beats — Mswapheni
9. Kamo Mphela — Thula Thula
10. Mr JazziQ & Mphow69 — Stuff Room
11. Vigro Deep — Groove
12. Unlimited Soul — Utlwa
13. DBN Gogo & Felo Le Tee — Shuck n Jive
14. Entity MusiQ — 10111
15. DJ Nasty KG & VinoSA feat. Teedo — Imali
16. Eminent Boyz & Sisters On Vocal — Mabena
17. Vusinator — It’s Never Too Late

new compilation by NTS focusing on this new subgenre of (post-)house coming from the big SA. imagine the funky rhythms of gqom, slow them down to 120 to 110 (or even 100), and remove the military industrial klang and replace it with the subtle trancy jazzyness of late 90s new york deep prog house (Deep Dish et al). and if you want, pepper a bit in of modern atlanta r&b to taste. probs the sexiest dance comp u’ll hear all year. equally made for grinding on ur partner (of whatever gender) in the middle of the dance floor and for nodding ur head and smoking a roll of weed in the back. this shit can only get bigger, im sure, and im here for it


#2

this shit is the absolute best. SA leading again.

You described it pretty well. It’s sort of in that SA “slow house” tradition like Kwaito. The biggest thing for me is that there are like, NO kick drums. It’s all bass stabs, snares, and toms that carry it.

Its sort of like how there was a weightless grime movement a few years back. This is pretty much that, but just “weightless” R+B based slow house

#3

wait no bandcamp???

#4

the lack of kick drums is something i didnt even notice until u mentioned it! it is very jazz-like there too, with hats and cymbals being the basis of rhythm rather then kick drums

and yeah i dont know why the folks at NTS havent bothered to put it up on BC. oh well, its on boomkat at least

#5

I’ve been hearing a lot about this but haven’t really followed it up.

I like it - I like the slinkiness and the kind of pad sound in that song linked. I enjoyed gqom but the clang of it and the relative sameyness of the sonics made me lose interest (I was never an obsessive fan so was probably just scratching the surface). I reckon they could be put together quite well in a mix - the rhythms are similar and you could introduce a bit of light and shade which I like in a mix. You could get some good whiplash moments. Start slow and build momentum up till you’re pitching it up a bit (I wouldn’t really enjoy stuff as slow as 100-110 for a whole mix).

I wonder what it is about SA that makes it such fertile ground for this kind of thing? Or I wonder why the anglophone world is beginning to pick it up and focus on it now.

#6

Check this out: