Shangaan electro
| Shangaan Electro | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Electronic music, Tsonga disco, Kwaito, House music |
| Cultural origins | South Africa |
| Typical instruments | Synthesizer, drum machine, modified electronics, sampler, sequencer |
Shangaan Electro is a dance movement and musical style born from a 21st-century reboot of local folk traditions in South African townships, Tsonga Disco and Kwaito House. The movement has been spearheaded by the producer Nozinja in recent years, who has turned it into an iconic Afro-futurist strain of electronic dance music.
Previous to releases by Honest Jon's in the late 2000s, the Shangaan Electro movement has a vast catalogue of cassettes, CD-Rs and DVDs released locally in South Africa via Nozinja Productions. The style has since gained international attention through the release of the compilation Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa via Honest Jon's which showcased the production work of Nozinja and the vocal/dance crews he had established. The record and the attention it threw on various YouTube clips of the dancers in action led to a succession of performances at Sonar Festival, Berghain and elsewhere across Europe, Australia and Africa.
Shangaan Electro has found a particular kinship with other forward thinking electronic producers and DJs, including Caribou, The Knife, Mount Kimbie and Pearson Sound. A series of 12”s took these links with other electronic music styles further with Theo Parrish, Rashad & Spinn, Ricardo Villalobos, Hype Williams and others remixing Shangaan tracks. Then in 2013, two brand new Nozinja cuts (under various pseudonyms) followed on Dan Snaith's (Caribou, Daphni) Jiaolong label. In 2014, SHANGAANBANG, a UK-based label specializing in Shangaan Electro put out their first release 'Volume 1' from Limpopo-based artist Da Multi Snake.
The Guardian describes the music as a "harder, faster, electronicised" version of a traditional Shangaan music, itself characterised by fluid guitar lines and drumming popularised by artists such as Thomas Chauke and one-time Paul Simon collaborator General MD Shirinda, who appeared on 1986's Graceland.
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