8 Tracks: Of South African audio With Matias Aguayo

Aero Manyelo is a very fine and talented gentleman from Ivory Park, Johannesburg. He has produced loads of tracks but I chose Tshunga as it represents his sonic side which I like most and also has this fun video where you can see him with his friends. It reminds me sometimes a little of the music of DJ Mbuso (“Soweto Funk”), but it sounds much more modern somehow and he has developed his very own style…

It is hard to choose from Gqom music as there are so many great tracks around, but then I decided to put Menchess’ Mitsubishi Song which is already something of a classic within that sound coming from Durban. Also check out the female Gqom producer Babes Wodumo, who is played out a lot a lot at the moment.

We need to mention Felix Laband if it comes to electronic music in South Africa, lately he has been working with recordings from news channels and radio, illustrating and commenting on political topics. He has a lot to tell and a rich discography.

You will see his name is spelled wrong here, and also you sometimes will find tracks where his name doesn’t even appear, like in Mujava’s “Township Funk”, or somebody called DJ Cee, etc… Spoko’s rhythms are some of my favourites on the dance floor in a long time, and I always felt very close to them, which obviously led me to working with him. He stands for a sound called “Bacardi” which comes from the township of Atteridgeville, Pretoria, MZO Bullet’s “Cassablanca” being another great track coming from there…

This is an old Kwaito classic that the great Kwaito connoisseur Spleef Mczaul (“I am Kwaaito”) played to me when we were recording an old school Kwaito set in Tshepang Ramoba’s studio. This is one of my favourite tracks now of any dance music genre and you can listen to the whole Spleef set.

It’s maybe strange to put a track of mine in a South African playlist, but I did this one with Lerato Khati long before I went to Johannesburg for the first time, and I know that it has been played regularly at the Bar known as Kitchener’s in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

I think I couldn’t have left out Brenda Fassie from this list because I noticed that the local djs still play her songs and that every time someone drops a Brenda Fassie track the crowd goes crazy! Here she apparently covered Jomanda (or was it the other way round?) – I could have put “Weekend Special” of course, too, but I chose this track, that was recommended to me by Ri from the local collective “Broaden A New Sound”

I very much recommend to listen to our show we did on Radio Cómeme with these queer musicians / artists / performers to listen to what they have to tell, as there’s no space here for really reflecting how beautiful and inspiring they are.