A Guide to South African EDM

It may have taken outrageous Zef rappers Ninja and Yo-landi Vi$$er of Die Antwoord to first make the world sit up and take notice, but more and more S

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Complex Original

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It may have taken outrageous Zef rappers Ninja and Yo-landi Vi$$er of Die Antwoord to first make the world sit up and take notice, but more and more South African music is making its way into international ears – and, as it turns out, their EDM scene is blowing up at the moment, too, particularly in Cape Town. Recent touring artists to South Africa have included Skrillex, Diplo, and Deadmau5, as well as Modeselektor, Richie Hawtin, and Hudson Mohawke. South African DJs and producers aren’t content to simply follow international trends, however – they’re also pioneering their own unique sounds and homegrown brand of cool. Cape Town local Annie Brookstone shares a few of the awesome South African EDM acts she reckons you should know about…

Haezer

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After releasing his The Wrong Kid Died EP on Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records last year, Haezer has fast become one of South Africa’s biggest EDM exports. He recently rocked the Dim Mak "Up All Night" stage at Beatpatrol, played alongside the likes of Flosstradamus and Major Lazer at Zurich’s Future Sound Festival, and remixed Proxy (as well as having been remixed by the likes of F.O.O.L). His sound, which he says is primarily influenced by music from outside the EDM spectrum, is a genre-straddling, engineered-for-the-dancefloor take on trash/electro, tending towards outright bangers that always get the drop just right.

Sibot

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Sibot is possibly the most revered man in the South African EDM scene today. He first made a name for himself with hip-hop act Max Normal (with Waddy Jones aka Ninja from Die Antwoord), later joining The Real Estate Agents, and then the critically acclaimed Play Doe with Spoek Mathambo. Usually performing in his signature "eye"-dotted bodysuit, his sets are a glitch-riddled, trap-saturated hybrid of hip-hop and techno influences. We know what you're saying: "Whoa." Yes, all of that. Last year he released his Magnet Jam EP on Mad Decent’s Jeffree's imprint, where it was described as being "packed with weird but catchy futuristic beats from a maniacal beathead genius." Yup, that sounds about right.

THE MYSTERIOUS MASKED MEN OF EDM

Mr. Sakitumi

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Mr Sakitumi is what you’d call a musical virtuoso – put an instrument in front of him and chances are he can play it. But the multi-instrumentalist’s superhuman skills when it comes to tunes don’t stop there; as he’s proven with his upbeat and playful take on electronic music, whether creating original tracks or remixing the music of others. His quirky character does little to hide the fact that this dude’s a heavyweight when it comes to South African EDM, with a formidable understanding of music and more than two decades’ involvement in the scene behind him. With his partner in crime and VJ collaborator The Grrrl alongside him, his live shows consist largely of live looping drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, samplers and scratching, with off-the-wall visuals to make for some (not so) serious audiovisual adventuring.

Veranda Panda

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Three words: electro with violins. It’s a surprising recipe, but somehow the comboof banging bass and, well, some killer violin seamlessly stirred into the mix seems to work for Durban-based duo, Liam Magner and Jane Baillie, aka Veranda Panda. Their vibe is a funky, sticky jam of dub, hip-hop influences, funk, and fun. Oh yeah, and that violin. Slap it on thick at one of their live sets (which also includes samplers, effects processors, and synthesizers), and you’d think that this is what every night in the tropical city of Durban ought to sound like.

Das Kapital

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Despite being one of the youngest producers in the South African EDM scene, Das Kapital is also fast becoming one of the most popular. Most people’s first taste of just what this talented 22-year-old is capable of came with his 2010 bootleg of Bon Iver’s "Skinny Love," on the back of which there have been further official remixes for the likes of Rob Zombie and Laidback Luke. Like most progressive producers, he rejects being classified into any single genre (as his most recent All Trades EP which drew inspiration in a variety of genres from house to hip-hop demonstrates), but a common thread of complex percussion and dark, driving basslines do make for some undeniably danceable beats. It’s pretty clear why he’s a club favorite in his hometown of Cape Town.

Narch

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Best known as the beats behind PHFat (but otherwise the "quiet guy" in the group), Narch has a knack for laying down mad tracks for wicked raps. While hip-hop offers a solid foundation for his style, he throws in enough glitch, trap and bass to rearrange your synapses with instrumentals that veer towards the dark and the hypnotic, grabbing you somewhere around the solar plexus and then squeezing tightly. PHFat have just released their new album Happiness Machines (which you can grab via their website), which was made using a variety of analogue synths, allowing Narch to create music in an entirely different way to most modern-day producers. He’s also part of the *gravy collective, which is a platform to showcase artists pioneering electronic music in South Africa.

Richard the 3rd

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Richard the Third is a Cape Town-based DJ and producer who by night does his thing for the scene with his own brand of African-flavoured humid-nightsand-killer-bass electro, and is just as instrumental in developing South African EDM by day, in his capacity as manager of the Red Bull Studio Cape Town; a space dedicated to exploring South Africa’s musical potential, fostering talent and growing the local music scene. He calls his sound "a rollercoaster ride of the best of modern bass music: Grinding 4/4’s, Future Kwaito, Rinsing Bass and everything in between," and he recently released his 10-track album Left of Center on African Dope Records.

Niskerone

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Niskerone is one of the biggest names in the South African drum & bass scene, not only as a producer/DJ, but also as organizer of one of the longest running weekly drum & bass parties in Cape Town, It Came From the Jungle. He’s known for his energetic and immaculate sets, innovative style and, of course, his trademark dreadlocks, and has earned himself headlining slots at all the major South African festivals, as well as a place at numerous major European festivals, most recently Monegros in Spain. He recently dropped a three-track collaboration EP with fellow dnb stalwart SFR called Memories.

Felix Laband

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Like Sibot, Felix Laband is one of the pioneers of the South African electro scene and while maybe less prolific than he was a decade ago, is no less relevant. His sound is difficult to categorize: he is a master of creating aural collages (and, as a side note, visual ones too, which provide an interesting addition to his live sets) which merge and juxtapose electronica, folk and indie elements, classical and jazz samples, post rock and ambient fuzz, sometimes resulting in pure joy and other times giving you shivers. Either way, it’s a sound that envelops and entrances you. He recently released a batch of new tracks via the Red Bull Studio Cape Town SoundCloud, which are pure aural seduction.

DANk

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DANk aka DJ Caviar aka Ricky Spanish, depending on which one of his many musical ventures you’re listening to/dancing your ass of to at one of the Mother City’s many electronic music-focused parties, is – as you might have guessed from his many monikers – a man with a lot on the go. Think dark funk, analogue beats, glitch-hop, and wobbly bass and you’ll get an idea of what DANk serves up. His current collaborative projects include the rap-and-beats badassery of Sedge Warbler, and SE∆FOOD with fellow *gravy crew DJ, Card On Spokes.

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