Honest Jon’s Present Shangaan Electro

Written by the B&B Crew

With the world cup in full effect, label Honest Jon's are bringing the next best thing from South Africa at the moment: Shangaan!

With the world cup in full effect, the London based label Honest Jon's are bringing the next best thing from South Africa at the moment: Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa. 

The compilation consists out of so called Shangaan music, which is described as an electronically enhanced form of South African traditional music which originates somewhere between Johannesburg, Limpopo and Mozambique.

Shangaan music is incredibly uptempo with rhythms not rarely reaching 180 BPM. Shangaan Electro was compiled by label boss Mark Ainley and former Basic Channel member Mark Ernestus. The 12 tracks have been recorded at Nozinja's studio in Johannesburg between 2006 and 2009. To get a taste of what Shangaan is all about, check the clips below and read the introduction to Shangaan by Nozinja.

My name is Richard, my stage name is Nozinja, from Nozinja Music Productions. I'm from Giyani in Limpopo.
I'm an engineer, I'm a producer, I'm a composer. It's my record label. I'm the marketing manager. I transport them — I've got a micro-bus. I do everything on my own. I've got manufacturing. I buy CDs, I will silk-screen myself. I sing, too.

I'm a scout for talent. When you look at the person, you must see the artist. He or she must be able to dance. If you can dance, you can sell. Shangaan dancers, they dance, they can go on for almost an hour with that speed, without getting tired. When you see them dance you feel like they have got no bones. It's similar to the Zulus, but faster and we put a lot of style inside. There's disco in there, we use Pantsula moves.

We don't use the sounds of the hip-hop guys, or the afro-pop, or whatever, we're using Shangaan sounds. The traditional Shangaan music is fast. You play it slow, they won't dance.

Firstly it was played with bass and lead guitar. I'm the one revolutionized it, because when I came I didn't use any guitar or any bass, I just used marimba and the organs. We are not using the live bass, we are using the marimba bass which is played from the organ. A small sample of voices, that's what I specialize in. We use them in English. Those are the new aspects they never had before. At first people thought I was mad, and now it's the in-thing. You can play that music with bass, that's the old-timer music.

Shangaan is fast. While others play at 110, we are at 180, 182, 183. And when you hear those marimba beats and that live guitar through the keyboard, you know it's Shangaan. You hear those toms, then you know, this is Shangaan music.

Shangaans don't typically love Joburg. They work in Joburg, but their heart is in Limpopo. People want to go back to the country and to their families. Limpopo is rural. It's hot, very hot and vibey. Shangaan music is about love. It's about a wife and a husband. We are family-oriented musicians.

Now Shangaan music is both, rural and urban. We jumped the boundaries by changing that bass into playing with the marimba, that's when we touched the nerves, and now it's all over.
(To Wills Glasspiegel, January 2010.)

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