Loose Egusi 003 - Swazi Soul, Indie-Disco, and Afro Boogie

Featuring amapiano-rap, soul-disco classics, a bevvy of highlife bangers, and house-inspired indie deep cuts. And we're keeping our Ear To The Ground of Eswatini!

Welcome if you’re new, welcome back to returning crew! This month is a dancefloor heavy mix, I was channelling and recycling the first spring rays of sunshine, and it shows in the selections. I’ve also been inspired by phenomenal DJ Lynée Denise’s mission statement ‘Entertainment With A Thesis’ to think deeper about my methods of track selection, exhibition, and celebration so expect some changes across the next months to reflect this. This ongoing blog and mix series is now an exercise in DJ Scholarship. As a DJ, I believe my role isn’t just to rock parties and provide music on tap but to be an archivist, historian, and scholar of the music I love. I’m borrowing my methods of studying music from Denise herself; chasing samples, digging in the sonic/literary crates, liner note criticism, and album artwork analysis. With that new foundation established, let’s depart on a journey into the groove…

(sadly, Substack doesn’t allow for embedded Mixcloud links, so please click the link below to listen to the show - it’ll open in a new tab)

Liner Notes - LG003

We get started with a rageful and distorted cover of War Pigs, with T-Pain laying his definitive vocal production style over psychedelic-funk-metal, then take it to percussion & bass driven highlife and Afro-disco with African Head Charge, Kokoroko, and Bunny Mack. Next is a smattering of synth-forward, house-inspired, indie-disco cuts from Hot Chip & Jack Penate alongside funk polyrhythms and afro-cuban patterns from Geraldo Pino & The Heartbeats, and shining borga highlife from Nana Adomako Nyamekye before calming it down with ballads from The Peace, and the plucked melodic percussive sounds from Fabiano Do Nascimento. The perfect mix for a crisp but sunny spring morning.

And for the last half hour, we place our ear to the ground of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and it’s all in the soul! Bholoja kicks us off with Mbombela, a tune emblematic of Swazi-Soul introducing us to the siSwati language and the beautiful melodies spread across voice, guitar, and warm bass. Manana reps the new school r’n’b with a meditative love letter, and the South African/German/Swazi group Seba Kaapstad bring in lush neo-soul with gospel overtones and multi-lingual rap, before we bring it back to the dancefloor one last time with Hanwah, and Amapiano rising star Uncle Waffles with rappers in tow.

Tracklist - LG003

T-Pain - War Pigs [Nappy Boy Ent]
Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free [Warner]
African Head Charge - Pot To Cook [Bonjo I Records]
Kokoroko - We Give Thanks [Brownswood]
Bunny Mack - Let Me Love You [Rokel]
Hot Chip - Don’t Deny Your Heart [Domino]
Nana Adomako Nyamekye - Ano Plan [Super Kaas Music Production]
The Clash - Overpowered By Funk [Sony]
Geraldo Pino & The Heartbeats - Heavy Heavy Heavy [Kona Records / Strut]
Kashif - Stone Love [Arista]
The Revolution Of St. Vincent - The Little You Say [WIRL]
Jack Peñate - Tonight’s Today (Extended Mix) [XL Recordings]
The Peace - I Need Mercy [Zambia Music Parlour / Now-Again]
Fabiano Do Nascimento - Ewe [Now-Again Records]

Bholoja - Mbombela [Gallo Record Company]
Manana - Pulchritudinous [Self-Released]
Seba Kaapstad - Home [Mello Music Group]
Velemsini - Come Alive [Self-Released]
Hanwah & Qibho Intalektual - Let Me In [Conjunct Recordings]
Uncle Waffles - Morrocco (ft. Milkiee & Sumie) [Ko-Sign PTY]

RBPicks - LG003

Seba Kaapstad - Home. The satisfying cadences of the piano could be lifted from any African Methodist or Southern Baptist church, there’s funky clean guitar harmonies everywhere and right where they need to be, and the warm bass is complimented by hand-claps punctuating the rhythm; all making a perfect neo-soul bop background for verses in English and Swazi, reminding us that ‘nothing feels like home’. 

Hot Chip - Don’t Deny Your Heart

An ever-reliable dancefloor filler inspired by Prince’s I Wanna Be Your Lover, and a gem from the severely underrated disco/electro pop/house-inspired subset of bands that grew beyond the mid-late 2000s UK indie music boom. Also, the music video is the band playing Pro Evo, complete with halftime dance section and that blocky PS2 animation style that makes everyone look like Lego Beavis & Butthead or alarmingly angular giant bobbleheads, so 3 extra points there. Also features a filthy percussion break.

Bholoja - Mbombela

Definitive Swazi-Soul track, from the 2009 album that popularised the genre, and the name.  Sang in Swazi, with airy but driving polyrhythms spread across Bholoja’s repeating verses and choruses, on top of arpeggiating electric basslines and the shuffling shekere and intersecting guitar riffs. Deceptively intricate, lush, contemporary soul from eSwatini. 

Art Corner (will return next month)
(Credit: Bisa Butler - Kindred)

THANKS FOR READING - NEXT EPISODE WILL BE MAY 3RD

Next Up - Ghana, the Black Stars!

Sources - 

https://www.djlynneedenise.com/bio
https://www.okayafrica.com/sands-swazi-singer-tigi-siswati-fashionable/
https://www.womex.com/virtual/bushfire_festival/bholoja
https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/26950
https://www.artsychowroamer.com/blog/2020/12/7/bisa-butler-giving-back-identity-history-and-legacy