#Amapiano sounds

[kimludcom]

OUR WEDDING DAY - MOSES & ANITA

from Phoenix Arizona to Indianapolis Minnesota back to Phoenix Arizona

[cuffedhubsessions]

Mdu aka Trp & Malemon - Bathi Yekeleni (Feat Hugo Dj)

[freshpoetbrand]

SEASON 1 of #ThePianoLifestyle by VAN ILLER (TSIKI MAYNE) A series of #amapiano mixtapes by the Sound Technologist THAPELO KOTLHAI aka VAN ILLER aka TSIKI MAYNE! Download the zip here https://www.mediafire.com/file/gi0yn5r18oe7i5k/%2523ThePianoLifestyle_Season_1_Mixtapes_%2523Amapiano_%2523Bacardi_%2523HipHouse_%2523AfroTech.zip/file

[bejahimself]

@bejahimself

[addiscohitzafrica]

GABANKI DROPS "CELEBRATE" - THE PERFECT FOLLOW UP AFTER HIS SMASH HIT 'KNACK' | LISTEN

GABANKI DROPS “CELEBRATE” – THE PERFECT FOLLOW UP AFTER HIS SMASH HIT ‘KNACK’ | LISTEN

The Amapiano craze has really registered some amazing new music from some budding and buzzing talents. (more…)

[kemetic-dreams]

Amapiano, a Nguni word loosely translated to "the pianos", is a South African subgenre of house music that emerged in South Africa in the mid-2010s. It is a hybrid of deep house, jazz, and lounge music characterized by synths and wide percussive basslines.

There is ambiguity and debate concerning its origins, with various accounts of the musical styles in the Johannesburg townships. Because it has a small similarities with Bacardi, some people assert the genre began in Pretoria but it remains uncertain. Various accounts as to who formed the popular genre make it impossible to accurately pinpoint its origins.

The word amapiano is a IsiZulu or IsiXhosa, or dipiano is a word loosely translated to "the pianos", The genre is mostly sang in Zulu and Xhosa, Sotho, Setswana, Xitsonga, one of South Africa's native tongues.

Amapiano is a subgenre of house and kwaito music. It is a hybrid of deep house, jazz, and lounge music characterised by synths and wide percussive basslines.

Amapiano is distinguished by high-pitched piano melodies, kwaito from South Africa basslines, low tempo 1990s South African house rhythms and percussions from another local subgenre of house known as tribal house.

An important element of the genre is the prevalent use of the "log drum", a wide percussive bassline, which was popularised by producer MDU aka TRP. According to amapiano pioneer Kabza De Small:

I don't know what happened. I don't know how he figured out the log drum. Amapiano music has always been there, but he's the one who came up with the log drum sound. These boys like experimenting. They always check out new plug-ins. So when MDU figured it out, he ran with it.

The use of percussive basslines in South African house music predates amapiano, and was possibly pioneered by kwaito producer M’Du (also known as Mdu Masilela.)

[lemonlyman-dotcom]

Hello hello Lemon!

Here is my nice ask for you: as a fellow enjoyer of non-English music, is there any music style from another country that is your favourite?

Hope you have a good day!

Thank you Dalawa!!!! I love this question!!!!!!

My favorite music genre, period, is cumbia!! Which is a style of dance music from Central & South America. I believe it originated in Colombia and I especially love Colombian cumbia!!! It’s very distinct because the beat sounds like it’s being played backwards!! Like, it’s slow and woozy and sexy. But it’s also upbeat and funky. It’s so tropical sounding, with the wooden flutes and other wind instruments. There are some really cool artists out there doing electra-cumbia and psych-cumbia. My favorite is tropical cumbia. I’m just obsessed.

I am also very very very into Afrobeats. My favorite is West African, the music coming out of Nigeria and Senegal right now is so amazing. But I also really love Amapiano, which is South African house music. It’s another genre where the beat is super distinct. It always starts out super slow and steady and then it builds and builds until it just takes over. It’s sooooo cool!!!

One other genre I really love is reggaeton, it’s a very very popular genre of music all across Latin America right now. It’s just Caribbean pop music!! I can’t handle it it’s so good.

Some song recs below the cut

[cat-boots]

What kind of music are you into?

Any band recommendations?

i listen to music by just hitting shuffle on my spotify likes, which has like 2000 songs on it I listen to over and over. I'll link a few here! sorry if you dont have spotify, you might be able to search em on youtube

E-L-R - Seeds - this is a track a friend sent me recently and i've just been listening to it on repeat. it's the kind of music I would wander around in a forest to, feeling slightly angsty but also chill as hell

Bathory - Foreverdark Woods - viking metal!! i love viking metal! imagine big handsome vikings riding horses around with big shields on their backs

Davido, Focalistic - Champion Sound - I got really into amapiano a couple years back. absolute bop

Amnesia Scanner - AS Too Wrong - this track sounds evil. I like music that sounds like there's just some evil men approaching me and I have to back away slowly

The Polish Ambassador - The Juiceman Cometh - just funky as hell, listen to that bouncing beat. makes me think of being really fat and jiggly and just walking along breasting boobily

TR/ST - Poorly Coward - I just love the way this guy sings and the dark electronica of it all.

Yuck - Operation - lo-fi indie rock kinda stuff? love it. reminds me of being back at college

Slugabed - Quantum Leap - chaotic electronic music with just loads of stuff going on. makes my brain explode (in a good way)

[kimludcom]

Kamo Mphela, Khalil Harrison & Tyler ICU - Dalie [Feat Baby S.O.N] (Official Music Video) - Amapiano

[golfgirlviva]

So 🤔🤔

Have you ever listen to Amapiano Music. Songs created by artist Kabza De Small & DJ Maphorisa.

Have you ever heard of South African 🇿🇦 amapiano artists, Kabza De Small & DJ Maphorisa

I don’t I think I have listened to them 🤔

But I will!!! It sounds very interesting, also like something Bruce might’ve listened to!!

[freshpoetbrand]

[namor-shuri]

Marvel Studios: Voices Rising - The Music Of Wakanda Forever [Series]

Episode #1: "Nigeria: Past is Present" [available on Disney +] [w/ time stamps to follow along]

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▻ "Soundtrack's like this just don't happen anymore, with the high percentage of the songs that are embedded in the movie, and to this level of cultural specificity." - Ryan Coogler [Director] [0:00]

▻ "Here you have a story that intertwines people [Wakandans & Talokanil] of beautiful, rich ethnicities. What do you do with that as a composer? You use it!” - Letitia Wright [Princess Shuri] [0:14]

▻ We learn that Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson first started off as friends, meeting one another at a film school [USC]. They then hit it off from their joint love of Swedish music. "They make magic together, and they seem to just pick up where the other has left off. They just have this seamless way of getting in each other's heads and hearts, and it ends up creating such incredible music.” - Lupita Nyong'o [Nakia] [1:51]

▻ The first Black Panther soundtrack is heavily inspired by Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther and his overall character. After his passing, they had to go back to square one. "I couldn't really imagine what the movie [soundtrack] would feel or look like without Chadwick in it. So, I'm basically going into this experience starting from scratch." - Ludwig Göransson [Composer] [2:42]

▻ They [Ryan and Ludwig] chose to go to Nigeria, Lagos to recruit artists and composers, it being a major hotspot for music in the world currently. "What Lagos is to music right now is what London was to music in its heyday. What New York was to hip-hop in the 90's. I genuinely believe the most exciting music in the world is being made in Lagos." - Seni Saraki [Music Consultant] [3:16]

▻ "Ludwig came to Lagos, because he, as a creative, understands the need to feed off of the energy of a particular place." - Fireboy DML [Artist] [4:04]

▻ There were a huge mixture of both contemporary artists [ie. singers, rappers, etc] and traditional artists [ie. musicians, instrumentalists for the score such as, but not limited to: Jedalo Percussion Ensemble, Fusion Nigeria] coming together to create this soundtrack. Instruments such as, but not limited to, the: sato drum, sakara drum, iyaálù bata, omele bata, kakaki horn, ojà flute, goje were all used on the traditional side. "Everyday we had different sessions with musicians that would come from different tribes from the Igbo, from the Hausa, from Yoruba and they would have their own instruments and different types of set of drums." - Ludwig Göransson [Composer] [5:57] Ryan and Ludwig are seen workshopping ideas of scenes and where musical segments may exist in the movie during these musical sessions [7:28]

▻ "He [Ludwig] and Ryan had been talking about it for years. ‘Let's write songs just for this film.’ There's no licensed tracks." - Monica Sonand [Score Supervisor] [9:39]

▻ “The generation that I'm in right now is speaking Afrobeats. We are all doing our own things individually, but as a unit together, we are pushing the culture. This is Afrobeats. This is Niger. This is Lagos. We're taking that old culture with us to the world." - Fireboy DML [Artist] [10:48] His song “Coming back for you" was used towards the end of the movie in the scene where Shuri is shown planting the heart-shaped herb [12:15]

▻ Ryan and Ludwig wanted to have artists who sang in Xhosa [the language of the Wakandans] so they did their research and flew out artists from South Africa to Nigeria to meet with them. The music style “Amapiano” had the sound that they were looking for, which plays on most South African radio. "It's so unique and it comes out of the club scene there [South Africa] and it makes you want to dance. What I love about that music [Amapiano] is that it feels futuristic to me." - Ludwig Göransson [Composer] [15:05]

▻ Ryan, Ludwig and artist Bloody Civilian are shown brainstorming Bloody’s beats pack she made for them, discussing where her track may exist. She showed them her song “How to kill a man. “I was very nervous, but the environment felt safe and everyone's creativity was just going. It didn't really feel like work at some point." - Bloody Civilian [Artist + Producer] [23:04] Her final track in the movie “Wake up" ft Rema is about "pushing yourself regardless of the things that try to pull you back." - Bloody Civilian [Artist + Producer] [24:33]

▻ Some of the African producers involved were ecstatic to have representation of a variety of African artists and sounds on this Marvel movie and it’s soundtrack. "I think the album sounds like Wakanda!" - Osarumen Osamuyi [Music Producer] [25:28]

▻ "I've been able to travel here [Nigeria] with Ryan, one of my closest friends. Doing something like this together where we can share this experience has been such a blessing." - Ludwig Göransson [Composer] [25:52] "It was really important for us [Ludwig and him] to come to West Africa. Myself being African-American, a lot of my heritage is from here like most African-Americans. The biggest take away for me is the personal connection that I have myself. I'm constantly looking at people saying ‘that person looks like my cousin, that person looks like my friend, that person looks like my brother.' That experience is one that's very different from being a black man that was born and raised in a predominantly white country. Folks born on the continent often take for granted to just walk down the street and everybody looks like them. That wasn't my truth. That wasn’t my reality. It's a very strange experience to fly for thousands of miles and land somewhere you've never been, but it feels like home. There's a beauty to that, but also a sadness that comes with it.” - Ryan Coogler [Director] [26:06]

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Soundtrack: [tracks referenced in this episode]

ʀɪʜᴀɴɴᴀ: ʟɪғᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴜᴘ / ʙᴜʀɴᴀ ʙᴏʏ: ᴀʟᴏɴᴇ / ғᴏᴜᴅᴇᴏ̨ᴜsʜ + ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ: ᴄᴏɴ ʟᴀ ʙʀɪsᴀ / ᴛᴇᴍs: ɴᴏ ᴡᴏᴍᴀɴ ɴᴏ ᴄʀʏ / ᴀᴅɴ ᴍᴀʏᴀ ᴄᴏʟᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴏ + ᴘᴀᴛ ʙᴏʏ: ʟᴀᴀʏʟɪ’ ᴋᴜxᴀ’ᴀɴᴏ’ᴏɴᴇ / ғɪʀᴇʙᴏʏ ᴅᴍʟ: ᴄᴏᴍɪɴɢ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ғᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ / ʙʟᴜᴇ ʀᴏᴊᴏ: ɪɴғʀᴀᴍᴜɴᴅᴏ / ʀɪʜᴀɴɴᴀ: ʙᴏʀɴ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ / ᴛᴏʙᴇ ɴᴡɪɢᴡᴇ + ғᴀᴛ ɴᴡɪɢᴡᴇ: ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ɪᴛ, ʙᴜᴛ ɴᴏ / ᴅʙɴ ɢᴏɢᴏ + sɪɴᴏ ᴍsᴏʟᴏ: ʟᴏᴠᴇ & ʟᴏʏᴀʟᴛʏ [ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ] / sɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀ ᴘʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛ + ᴇ-40: ʟᴀ ᴠɪᴅᴀ / ᴀᴍᴀᴀʀᴀᴇ: ᴀ ʙᴏᴅʏ, ᴀ ᴄᴏғғɪɴ / ᴠɪᴠɪʀ ᴏ̨ᴜɪɴᴛᴀɴᴀ: ᴀ́ʀʙᴏʟᴇs ʙᴀᴊᴏ ᴇʟ ᴍᴀʀ / sᴛᴏʀᴍᴢʏ: ɪɴᴛᴇʀʟᴜᴅᴇ / ᴏɢ ᴅᴀʏᴠ + ғᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ: ʟɪᴍᴏɴᴄᴇʟʟᴏ / ᴄᴋᴀʏ + ᴘɪɴᴋᴘᴀɴᴛʜᴇʀᴇss: ᴀɴʏᴀ ᴍᴍɪʀɪ / ʙʟᴏᴏᴅʏ ᴄɪᴠɪʟɪᴀɴ + ʀᴇᴍᴀ: ᴡᴀᴋᴇ ᴜᴘ / ᴀʟᴇᴍᴀ́ɴ + ʀᴇᴍᴀ: ᴘᴀɴᴛᴇʀᴀ / ᴅʙɴ ɢᴏɢᴏ + sɪɴᴏ ᴍsᴏʟᴏ: ᴊᴇʟᴇ / ᴄᴀʟʟᴇ x ᴠɪᴅᴀ + ғᴏᴜᴅᴇᴏ̨ᴜsʜ: ɴᴏ ᴅɪɢᴀs ᴍɪ ɴᴏᴍʙʀᴇ / ɢᴜᴀᴅᴀʟᴜᴘᴇ ᴅᴇ ᴊᴇsᴜ́s ᴄʜᴀɴ ᴘᴏᴏᴛ: ᴍɪ ᴘᴜᴇʙʟᴏ

Score: [tracks referenced in this episode]

ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ: ᴡᴀᴋᴀɴᴅᴀ ғᴏʀᴇᴠᴇʀ / ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ: ᴛ’ᴄʜᴀʟʟᴀ / ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ: ʏɪʙᴀᴍʙᴇ! / ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ: ɴᴀᴍᴏʀ / ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ + ʙᴀᴀʙᴀ ᴍᴀᴀʟ: ᴡᴇʟᴄᴏᴍᴇ ʜᴏᴍᴇ / ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ + ʙᴜsɪsᴡᴀ: ᴡᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡʜɪsᴘᴇʀ / ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ + ᴊᴏʀᴊᴀ sᴍɪᴛʜ: ʜᴇ ᴡᴀsɴ’ᴛ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ / ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ + ᴠɪᴠɪʀ ᴏ̨ᴜɪɴᴛᴀɴᴀ: sɪʀᴇɴs / ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ: ɴᴀᴍᴏʀ’s ᴛʜʀᴏɴᴇ / ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ: ʏᴜᴄᴀᴛᴀ́ɴ / ᴠɪᴠɪʀ ᴏ̨ᴜɪɴᴛᴀɴᴀ: ᴀ́ʀʙᴏʟᴇs ʙᴀᴊᴏ ᴇʟ ᴍᴀʀ [ғɪʟᴍ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ] / ғᴏᴜᴅᴇᴏ̨ᴜsʜ + ʟᴜᴅᴡɪɢ ɢᴏ̈ʀᴀɴssᴏɴ: ᴄᴏɴ ʟᴀ ʙʀɪsᴀ [ғɪʟᴍ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ]

Episodes: 1 2 3

[vybewitme]

If you enjoy Jersey Club, Kaytranada, Amapiano, R&B and are open to new sounds. Check me out on soundcloud. Rhythm &Flips Radio is Dropping New Mixies Every Thursday !!!!

[sherisse71]

Exciting news! My Afro fusion/Amapiano/R&B music is now live on Spotify! Stream my latest tracks to immerse yourself in a world of captivating sound, perfect for your daily soundtrack. Dive in and let the music sweep you away!

[afrobeatsindacity]

BURNA BOY REAFFIRMS HIS GREATNESS ONCE MORE WITH "I TOLD THEM..."

Ever since the stroke of luck or carefully planned commercial move that was the release of "Ye" in January of 2018, Burna Boy has not stopped rising. The song that led to his meteoric rise was a part of his album, Outside which marked his major label debut. With the success of the album shooting him into universal acclaim, he wasted no time in declaring himself the African Giant with a new album released in 2019. He kept with the pace by releasing his fifth studio album which he named, in true smug Burna fashion, Twice as Tall. Five years and a few weeks after that first alignment of stars, Burna is still steady on his grind and as confident as ever with his new body of work, I Told Them…, his fifth album in six years. The title is no doubt drawn from the same self-assured state of mind that the previous ones were. 

Burna's greatness shines through from the very beginning of the album as his unique artistry is put fully on display here. He begins with a palm wine music–inspired, slow tempo song with traditional percussion. "I told them", he says and he repeats it, and his delivery is very much "I told you so". It is a clear payback to all those who didn't believe in him. He sings his own praises, calling himself amongst other things; a genius, a giant, the master. GZA, of the legendary Wu Tang Clan, comes in at the end with a spoken word rendition. Burna's self proclaimed genius is evident not only in this song but in the entirety of the album which is a unique blend of different elements and influences, featuring snippets, excerpts and samples from other musical works, banter with friends and phone conversations all carefully curated to create an inimitable work of art. 

"On form" for instance, is both Afrobeat and Afrobeats and he mixes English with pidgin and Yoruba. "E no go tire me, nothing we never see", Burna sings, assuring us that he does not plan on quitting anytime soon. Burna travels through time in the earlier released "Sittin' on top of the world" which features a sample of Brandy's 1998 single, "Top of the world". It is a funky delight and a perfect throwback to the vibes of the late '90s and early 2000s.

Is it really a Burna Boy album if it doesn't feature a bit of political activism in some form?. On "Cheat on me", Burna takes a break from the focus on girls and money which occupied most of the earlier tracks, to pass a message about the prejudiced treatment of Africans by foreign governments; "Make embassy no deny my people visa/ No be Taliban, no be Al-Qaeda". Dave makes an appearance here but the potential of his verse is hindered by what could bluntly be described as lazy writing. He borrows multiple rhymes from Burna; "Believer", "Kilometer" and "Visa", using the last to end three different lines. Dave, also Nigerian, missed an opportunity to deliver a resonant, patriotic verse that could perhaps rival that of Skepta in "Dimension". On this song as well, Burna reworks a sample, this time from English singer Kwabs' "Cheating On Me", though this snippet bears only sonic but not thematic connection to Burna's new album. "Big 7" bears a similarity in rhythm to "Sittin' On Top Of The World", calling to mind early hip hop culture while Burna Boy grittily brags that he's been "Wavy since London, wavy since Berlin", referencing European cities from his tours on his journey to world domination. 

But despite all of this, Burna is not forgetting his home and people. He takes a quick trip back home with "Giza", an Amapiano track with Seyi Vibes that is simply perfection, beginning with the ethereal sound of the Ney, the Arabian flute, and followed by rapidly mounting, light percussion. Seyi begins the track with characteristic spoken-word rap, and Burna's deep bass glides so smoothly into the second verse that it might take you a second to notice when the baton was passed. On "If I'm lying" Burna returns to foreign soil, this time somber and sincere. His delivery is assisted only by a few guitar strings and toned down Middle Eastern vocalization that gives a naked poignant beauty to the RnB song. Burna puts on no airs here, baring himself to the world. "Everyday I just dey give thanks for life/ Know how to move 'cause I know sacrifice", he begins. Not long after he promises; "If you need a shoulder to cry, then I'll give you mine".

On the next song however, Burna draws from a completely opposite emotion—anger. "Is this the motherfucking thanks I get/ For making my people proud every chance I get", he begins furiously. Like the Dave assisted "Cheat on me", this song too is about his people, but where he had pled on their behalf for respect from the outside world on the previous song, on this one, he berates them for what he believes to be a gross ingratitude for his many gifts, including his founding of Afro Fusion and being the blueprint for other African acts seeking global fame. He confronts them with their accusations and claps back at their threats, sacrificing melody for message, so that the song is not as appealing as most others. "Thanks" features hip hop heavyweight, J. Cole, whose verse would have served better on one of the grander rap-leaning tracks rather than an Afrobeats track that fixes on a domestic squabble between a man and his people.

I Told Them… had been much anticipated since its announcement, but even more so in light of Burna's recent interview with Apple music where he made some controversial statements about Nigerian music's lack of substance. Ironically, many of the songs on his album centre on hedonistic pursuits - Afropop staples. There was talk of "Azul and champagne" in "City Boys", "Rocking your body" in "On Form" and in "Normal", he makes us know that none of this is excessive in his book. But this is Burna Boy, and flippant and dismissive comments are not a new thing coming from him. And perhaps he could be exonerated on the grounds that he is one of the few artists in the business who regularly ventures out of that banal box to create timeless pieces of art.

With I Told Them… Burna Boy manages to pull off what many African artists have failed and are still failing at; creating a sound that will tie two worlds together. He not only does this effortlessly but even manages to bring in slices of different subcultures - African-American hip hop, Afrobeat, Afrobeats, Reggae fusion, Amapiano and RnB. The album is a patchwork of cultures, it is Burna's journey through space and time collecting bits and pieces here and there for an enduring album. I Told Them… is Burna taking another giant step across continental waters to claim new territory whilst still managing to carry along his already conquered turfs, putting his versatility and ingenuity on full display for the world to see. The African Giant need not try to tell us of his greatness anymore as he has proven it to us time and time again. But knowing Burna, there is no doubt that he will continue to.

This article was written by Afrobeats City Contributor Prisca

Afrobeats City doesn’t own the right to the images

[thesinglesjukebox]

DLALA THUKZIN, ZABA & SYKES - "IPLAN"

Amapiano is probably our most consistently high-scoring genre. Joshua Kim explains how it's evolving...

[8.25]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: The greatest musical development in South Africa this year was 3-step, a style of house music coined by Thakzin that bridges AfroTech and amapiano. He isn't the first to have made songs in this zone (the earliest I've found is Prince Kaybee & Nokwazi's "Ebabayo" from 2021), but he did produce numerous tracks that made him its current poster boy. The genre's most clear, defining feature is the presence of a kick drum on the 1, 3, and 4 of a measure (and less commonly the 1, 2, and 3), which grants each song a more rigid foundation than the typical amapiano track. It's a perfect fit for Dlala Thukzin's "iPlan" and its hopeful lyrics. Zaba sings about not having money or a job, and his voice weaves in and out of the song, like the still-small voice inside your head that tells you to stay calm. And really, it's only fitting that "iPlan" functions as an EDM song without an all-consuming drop; what arrives instead is steady, comforting relief. Its clanging percussion has felt like a multitude of metaphors to me: the pounding beat of your heart, a sign that you're still alive; the sound of repetitive toil, like the promise of something coming from all your hard work; even a desire for reprieve amid life's constant suffering. Here is a song that acts as an invitation to grieve and to celebrate. The beat keeps going, and as I look back on another year, this serves as a nice reminder that somehow, miraculously, I'm still here too. [10]

Micha Cavaseno: I hit a place of personal burnout somewhere in the mid 2010s with the different regional dance scenes of the world made available for all of us by the internet breaking down geographic restriction. Part of it was the fast & loose fashion mentality that made sub-genres go from underrated to overrated within a span of mere weeks, and how any artist could go from essential to disposable before you'd truly had a chance to digest it. To this day, plenty of lingering questions haunt me: did I "miss out" when bubblin' was a thing (maybe)? Was Zomby right to get banned from a message board because people thought bassline and niche were the same (yes)? Did Resident Advisor's coverage specifically get worse when they eliminated the comment section and thus prevented proangelwings from lighting their ass up all the time for pedestrian summaries (no, but it didn't help)? Now I look at an artist like Dlala Thukzin and sigh that I can't in any good faith claim to have a real comprehension of the differences between gqom, afriampo, afrotech, kuduro, kwaito, so on and such... Though I know that it's there, and I need it in order to know what makes a song like this particularly good beyond how muscular yet gentle it is. It's great to admire something for spectacle, but I would like to know the brilliance (or even the clunkiness) of form one day. [8]

Ian Mathers: There's a pleasing graininess to some of the synths here that remind me of other amapiano I've heard, but I'm less familiar (but still taken) by the stiff percussion that sometimes sounds like it's slightly phasing in and out. Both play off the high, sometimes keening vocals very well. The end result is both propulsive and, especially on headphones, subtly disorienting - it can make your head feel like it's swirling. And I haven't even tried listening to it baked yet! [8]

Kat Stevens: Like finding a couple of ibuprofen in the drawer when you were looking for codeine: grateful they exist but missing that extra oomph. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: In isolation, this is a bit too muted for a desensitized tension-enjoyer like me to be drawn to. I'd probably love it in the right DJ set. [7]

Michelle Myers: Romanticized melancholy works beautifully in dance music. I want to cry in a club to this. [9]

David Moore: Just when I start to have a handle on some of the formal characteristics of South African dance music, it evolves again into 3-step. Thakzin describes adapting his AfroTech sound, broadly popular with international audiences, to South African audiences during the amapiano zeitgeist and hitting on a novel formula that involves a three-beat pattern. Anyway, that's as best as I can understand or describe it. Dlala Thukzin -- not to be confused with Thakzin (as the interviewer in the clip above jokes, but you should absolutely listen to Thakzin, too) -- created a wildly popular take on this sound, which ruled the South African charts for months starting in September. [8]

Nortey Dowuona: Zaba was hijacked, injured one of the robbers and escaped with his hand stabbed in June of this year. 3 months later this song goes number 1 on the Official South African Charts. Somebody was praying for that fool. [10]

Will Adams: Over the course of my dilettantish experience with amapiano, I've come to expect a few qualities: a) impossibly gorgeous; b) a luxurious slow build that carries the risk of; c) never fully reaching a destination. "iPlan" possesses all three, but has a bit more of Column C than usual, which keeps it at a mild distance. The low-mixed vocals might be to blame. [6]

Brad Shoup: I love how pensive this is, how Dlala Thukzin submerges the vocals until they're barely visible from the surface. It resists any easy soar the whole way through: a fantastic transition track, I'd imagine. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Less a song, more a full night on the dancefloor compressed into six minutes -- some artists' entire careers have fewer moments of transcendental jubilation than "iPlan." There's this tea kettle noise that Dlala Thukzin works in the second time Zaba & Sykes go through that chorus that feels like ascension -- and then the song keeps going for three more minutes! [9]

Frank Kogan: Halfway through a People's Pop Poll, when we've finally gotten through the quallies and into Round One, Tom will grab a sentence from every track's YouTube comments and tweet out four of them at a time, one for each track in a heat. Often he'll find comments that are hilariously obtuse, though sometimes they're poignant and evocative. Anyhow, for Emma Bunton's "Free Me" (you probably knew Emma as "Baby Spice") the YouTube comment that Tom lifted was, "It's very soothing and edgy." I stared at this for a minute's worth of nervous self-recognition and then tweeted back, "'It's very soothing and edgy' are what half my reviews come down to." So "iPlan" is cutting up beats in a way that pushes beyond amapiano but is also digging back into late '10s gqom, which is edgier and more driving and more gripping hence more soothing than amapiano, so's the same 90% overlap you get in amapiano's typical soothing-edgy Venn Diagram, but with a bigger circle. Is about dogged determination, is about gliding dance moves across shards of glass, dark beauty, sharp beats. [9]

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