South African Gqom Pushes Limits

Podcast

Gqom from Durban is being added to our Norient playlists for quite a while now. On our recent South African tour we finally met some of the producers of this deep and dark electronic music in different townships around Durban. We interviewed them, and edited, mixed and manipulated their voices and music. Second take of our gqom edits: Menzi Ntuli, aka Menchess, co-founder of the RudeBoyz, one of the pioneers of the genre. Co-produced by Thomas Burkhalter, Bit-Tuner and Dejot. Upcoming gqom-takes will feature Dominowe. Check also edit 01: Citizen Boy.

[Gqom] Edits - Interview with Menchess [Free Download]

#minibuses #taxi

«Every time when you are in a [minibus] taxi They would play […] bass music. That's how they attract people to get into the taxis. So when I used to go to school I would listen to this music, I say hey man, hey, like how do I try and make this music? How do people produce this music?»

Menchess, 2016

#Durban #recognition

«[Gqom] didn’t pick up, until it went outside Durban.»

Menchess, 2016

#masculinity

«Gqom mentality hey, it’s […] a man mentality, it’s a masculine mentality.»

Menchess, 2016

#innovation #future

«What I’m scared about is that if I buy those new gears, maybe MIDI programs and stuff and big sounds and new programs, that gqom will lose the authenticity that it has. Because in order to produce gqom, I think you have to be from Durban, like you have to be in this kind of environment […] I could go to a professional studio, maybe sit there and try to produce gqom, I don’t know, maybe it won’t sound – it will sound too clean […] it won’t be so much […] raw and stuff.»

Menchess, 2016

Impressions

Menchess in his bedroom studio (photo: Thomas Burkhalter)

#democratization #production

«I’m making music here in my house, in my bedroom, [a friend told me]. Bedroom? And I was like let me see man, and he showed me a program […] Fruity Loops. […] I was so surprised in how easy this was to put loops, put beats together […] I went home and cried […] for my mother to buy me a computer.»

Menchess, 2016

#travelling #Johannesburg #dreams

«If I wasn’t a gqom producer, until now I would not have made it to Johannesburg […] the place is so […] close but if I wasn’t a DJ I wouldn’t.»

Menchess, 2016

Menchess in front of his home (photo: Thomas Burkhalter)

#parents #Apartheid #poverty

«Firstly, […] my parents were […] against me, […] against music because that’s how parents are here in South Africa, mostly to the young children because they grew up hard like because of Apartheid and stuff so […] black people, what they know is a child must study, must become a doctor, he must become a lawyer, that’s the only way to make it here in this country because of poverty and stuff. […] but I continued to do it anyways. I said oh, I’m going to show you.»

Menchess, 2016

Gqom Edit Series

Biography

Dr. Thomas Burkhalter is an anthropologist/ethnomusicologist, AV-artist, and writer from Bern (Switzerland). He is the founder and director of Norient and the Norient Festival (NF), co-directed AV-performances and documentary films (e.g. «Contradict», Berner Filmpreis 2020 + Al-Jazeera Witness), and is the author and co-editor of several books (e.g., «Local Music Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut», Routledge, «The Arab Avant Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East», Wesleyan University Press). He teaches regularly at universities, and runs workshops for arts institutions. Since 2022 he produces the Norient Mixtape for Swiss National Radio SRF3. Currently, he is working on his new music duo «Melodies In My Head», and on the podcast series «Long Take: Life as an Artist». Follow him on Instagram, Research Gate, Academia.edu, Bandcamp, Spotify, or Meta.

Biography

Bit-Tuner aka Marcel Gschwend, born 1978 in St. Gallen, lives and works in Zürich, Switzerland Born and raised in St. Gallen, Bit-Tuner works and lives in Zürich today. He's been producing electronic music with computers, mpcs, synthesizers, bass guitars and a fleet of analogue effect gear. He has a fondness for samples from old records, movies and has also been discovering field recording. Bit-Tuner works with heavy beats, blown up bass sounds, gloomy athmospheres, acid-driven melodies and uproaring soundscapes. His musical field of expression reaches from experimental hip hop to electronica, from bass music to noise, theatre productions, fashion shows, and shortfilm soundtracks. Follow him on Youtube, Spotify, X, Facebook, SoundCloud, or on his Website.

Biography

Dejot aka Daniel Jakob (aka Dubokaj) is a Swiss electronica producer, film composer based in the city of Bern. Follow him on Spotify, Facebook, or Instagram.

Published on May 10, 2017

Last updated on August 11, 2020

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Lost in Translation – Toiret Status

Interview

by Thomas Burkhalter

Toiret Status from Japan came to my attention a while ago thanks to his rough mixing of samples, drum-beats, fun effects and field recordings. For my new series «A Portrait Of – Experimenting with Interview Formats» I sent out an email with questions to him and received his answers in Japanese. Using Google Translator, I mixed this podcast with his voice, music and sounds.

The E-Mail Interview (Non Japanese speakers please use Google Translator)

[Thomas Burkhalter]: How do you produce your sounds and beats - how much is pre-sets, samples, FX, …?

[Toiret Status]: toiret statusではipadのGrageBandというアプリを使用して音やビートを作っています。私の曲を構成する音は主にサンプリングが多いです。ネット上に散らばる様々な音を採取し、加工して面白い音になるようにしています。また、iPhoneで録音した環境音を使用することもあります。最近は、サンプリングが多いですが、曲によってはプリセットの音を使用することもあります。私は2016年まで、友人たちと様々なバンド活動をやっていました。私はドラマーでした。LIGHTNING BOLTのようなベースとドラムの二人組のバンドをやったり。大所帯でノイズバンドをやったり、そしてThe Locustのような複雑なハードコアバンドもやったりしていました。そのため、リズムやビートは直観的にiPadの画面をドラムのように叩いて作ることが多いです。

[TB]: How do you edit the tracks? How much time you need for one track?

[TS]: 最終的な編集はAbletonのLIVEを使用します。そこで、色々なエフェクトを施していきます。面白くて奇妙な音が好きなので、色々なエフェクトの組み合わせを試しながら制作します。曲によって違いますが、制作には1週間ぐらい必要です。

[TB]: How should your music sound in the future?

[TS]: 奇妙だけどポップのように聴こえたら、僕は嬉しいですね。僕の音楽を聴いて、驚いてくれたり楽しんでくれる人がいることを望んでいます。

Toiret Status – ◎omaru◎

◎omaru◎ by toiret status

«There is something unimaginable happening here: blast-beats, toilet sounds, sonic manipulation, and a wild imagination for experimental beat. ◎omaru◎ is such a huge surprise to listen through even now because of how silly yet emotionally rewarding the progressions become on each track. I believe this to be one of the most entertaining and underlooked releases one will find, but I'm glad it's hear for the world to eventually recognize~ Favorite track: #31 feat. DJWWWW.»

Dave H.

Biography

Published on June 02, 2017

Last updated on October 26, 2020

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Sampling

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India’s Experimental Underground Vol. 1

Playlist

by Rana Ghose

Producer and curator Rana Ghose is an important reference point of New Delhi's nascent underground scene. He is part of the collective REProduce and organizes Listening Room Sessions: interventions in non traditional spaces as former mills, bakeries, hotels or abandoned places. With the SoundCloud Playlist he curated for Norient, he introduces a new generation of exciting artists from New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore between noise, electronic music and experimental.

Over the course of curating and producing a series called REProduce Listening Room, I’ve had the good fortune of being sent music spanning all kinds of genres on a fairly regular basis. Here’s an attempt at providing some examples of what comes my way. Most (but not all) of these acts are either quite young or yet to enter the mainstream booking circuit. On the one hand, I don’t think any of them are really in a position to play it safe artistically to get the kinds of gigs that dominate the nascent «scene» here. Also, most people haven’t heard these artists and have no idea who many of them are. Though, I suppose that will change. Most shows are still going down at what are essentially restaurants, spaces that cater to a certain clientele and «safe» expectation in terms of music. But of course, whatever «safe» may present is, thankfully, always up for reassessment. There is a certain momentum of people putting on their own shows outside of these spaces, and in doing so, there is a sort of new confidence that younger artists possess. Many of the acts here come from those arenas. Consider this a kind of insight into a distinct generation; the process of becoming jaded due to commercial artistic compromise is not reflected here.

Rana Ghose about why musicians in Delhi need a space to experiment as the Listening Room:

Rana Ghose about creating an audience and a community by organizing the Listening Room sessions – and why he trusts the power of pop culture:

Collage with artists who performed at Listening Room Session organized by Rana Ghose

Biography

Rana Ghose is a curator, economist, writer, and filmmaker. He steers the REProduce collective, a group of twelve musicians that mostly perform in the context of electronic music production. His current focus is REProduce Listening Room, a series of interventions in non traditional spaces that engages with music and video in modular, sequential plays – taking advantage of the aesthetics of spaces as varied as former mills, bakeries, and hotels and producing them into five hour embedded experiences where up to eight different performances unfold. His doctoral research was on risk constructions in a regulatory context, and the underlying dynamics of how we explore uncertainty. The theoretical framework of this research underpins his explorations in performative spaces and the capital intensive model that generates arenas that may or may not suit the wide range of artistic expression that a country like India increasingly generates, and how patrons and sponsorship models interact within the uncertainty that the resultant incentives present. He is based in New Delhi, India. Follow him on LinkedIn.

Published on May 03, 2017

Last updated on August 11, 2020

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South African Gqom Pushes Limits

Biography

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Lost in Translation – Toiret Status

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India’s Experimental Underground Vol. 1

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