Bryan Littles’ film «The African Cypher» portrays dance subcultures in South Africa of which some have close relationships to cars. For Eric Mandel, this is symbol of man and machine.
- Henriette GunkelWhat reads at first sight as a rather classic «coming out» story is not a linear narrative. In the music video «Magic Man» South African artist Umlilo and director Jasyn Howes produce a temporal and spatial disorder through fragments of moving images.
- Podcast by Leila Dee Dougan, UmliloFor rapper Umlilo music is freedom and therapy at the same time. In his music he addresses issues of homophobia and bends the common images of gender. «Gender has always been something very natural to me to fuck with», he explains his approach.
- Percy MabanduPercy Mabandu takes us through a maze of hit music videos to study the genre’s fascination with performed exotica. African clichés or a re-connection with tradition and the past by nostalgic modern taste-makers?
- Interview by Thomas BurkhalterWith his project Gazelle, Xander Ferreira aims to show the diversity of cultures in South Africa, and to translate the political strategies of African dictators to the world of pop music. Ferreira is white, which became an issue.
- Podcast by Thomas Burkhalter, Bit-Tuner, Daniel JakobGqom edit 004 / Experimenting with interview formats // We meet gqom producer Dominowe in his house in Newlands East in Durban to discuss what this dark electronic music genre is all about.
- Podcast by Thomas Burkhalter, Bit-Tuner, Daniel JakobGqom edit 003 / Experimenting with interview formats // We meet gqom producer Menchess in his house in Durban to discuss what this dark electronic music genre is all about.
- Podcast by Thomas Burkhalter, Bit-Tuner, Daniel JakobGqom edits 001/002 / Experimenting with interview formats // We meet gqom producer Citizen Boy and his grandmother in the Avoca Hills township of Durban to discuss about dark electronic gqom tracks.
- B CammingaIn Post Apartheid South Africa a new generation of young artists are drawing on the country’s idiosyncratic past and its unsettled present. They express queer visions for the future.
- B CammingaThe video of «Magic Man» of the south african musician Umlilo questions issues of race and masculinity and speaks to the constant negotiation that is the suffocating entanglement of past and present South Africa.
- Philipp WeichenriederSome call it a hybrid of breakbeat and house, some call it «apocalyptic riot music». But for the producers from the townships of Durban, South Africa, Gqom is more than a clubmusic style.
- Chris SaundersIn his photo series for the Norient book and exhibition «Seismographic Sounds», photographer Chris Saunders portrays the vivid and now exploding South African music scene. With Tshetsha Boys, Nozinja, DJ Spoko, DJ Invizable and Spoek Mathambo.
- Ben VerghesePresent day South African artists like Nozinja and Okmalumkoolkat let time and cultures collide, and in mixing languages, slangs, dances and rituals they create new homes. Commentary on the recent music video «Allblackblackcat» by the latter.
- Atiyyah KhanRapper Okmalumkoolkat channels his experiences from South Africa into his music with ease. He looks inward, back into the past, and forward to an imaginary future. In his video «Allblackblackkat» he mixes a variety of dreamlike elements.
- Interview by Jacek SzczepanekIn this second part of our short review from the Off Festival in Katovice, Poland, South African music producer John Wizards talks about his music and his producing process, geography and money.
- Interview by Jacek SzczepanekFirst part of a short festival review about Off, a three day long feast for lovers of alternative music, that takes place every year in Katowice in Southern Poland. Our author interviews DakhaBrakha, an ethno band from the Ukraine.
- Playlist by Georg MilzTo start the new year ethnologist and journalist Georg Milz sent us a list with five music videos from all around Africa. He shows us some really nice clips between pidgin pop, hip hop pantsula and house.
- Playlist by Aero ManyeloWatching this video list by South African house DJ Aero Manyelo we immediately remember, how he made us dancing to his beats at Norient Clubnight 2013. This list is shaped by South African house, called kwaito, which is currently ruling the townships.
- Florian SieversDer südafrikanische Musikproduzent Nozinja hat die traditionelle Musik seines Volks radikal entkernt, elektrifiziert und beschleunigt. Er bewahrt die Traditionen dadurch, dass er sie ständig verändert.
- Round Up by Theresa BeyerQueer hip hop clips are avalanches of images, beats and powerful words. Norient collected 17 of them and shows, how hip hop artists raise their voice for a queer consciousness and LGBTQI+ rights.
- Playlist by Xander FerreiraNorient asked me to send a collection of my favourite video clips from my home country South Africa. I offer you seven clips.
- Neelika JayawardaneHindu festival Holi has recently become popular outside of India, so in South Africa. But these huge open-airs haven't anything to do with adopted traditions, but with selling escapism to privileged white youths.
- Academic Text by Portia SeddonWithin the past decade, African-, Latin American-, and Caribbean-centered popular music weblogs have emerged as complex mediated spaces of cultural debate and transformation. // Notes on the Ethnography of Mediated Music.
- Wolfgang KönigSeit 13 Jahren ist es am letzten März-Wochenende in Kapstadt Zeit für «Africa’s Grandest Gathering», so die Selbstbeschreibung des Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
- Michael Spahr«Fokofpolisiekar» – ein Rockumentarfilm und eine Film über die Post-Apartheid-Gesellschaft in Südafrika.
- Thomas BurkhalterDas Kapstadter Kollektiv Die Antwoord hat sich dank seiner Schrägheit, Selbstironie via Facebook zur Kultband gemausert. Jetzt liegt das erste Album der Gruppe vor.
- Veit ArltGoema steht für den toxisch-ansteckenden Rhythmus des Kapstädter Karnevals der auf die Sklaven der Hafenstadt am Kap der Guten Hoffnung zurückgeht und Elemente aus Afrika, Südost-Asien und Amerika in sich vereint.
- Thomas BurkhalterDie politischen Botschaften von K'Naan sind normalerweise jenseits von Schwarz und Weiss. Bei der FIFA-WM sah das aber anders aus. Ein Augenschein bei einem Konzert in Zürich.
- Thomas BurkhalterDie rasend schnellen Melodie-Pattern dieser neu entdeckten Musik aus Südafrika werden mit der «Minimal Music» von Steve Reich verglichen. Sie klingen aber ganz anders.
- Georg MilzDie weltberühmte Sängerin Busi Mhlongo ist 2010 im Alter von 62 Jahren in Durban gestorben. Ende desselben Jahres erschien ihr viertes Album «Amakholwa – The Believers» postum.
- Podcast by Thomas BurkhalterEine kommentierte Hörrreise durch Südafrika: Von Klick-Lauten bis zum Kwaito-Beat – ein akustischer Steigerungslauf. Von Thomas Burkhalter.
- Georg MilzOuthere Records publishes Urban Music from South Africa.
- Thomas Burkhalter«Sorry Vater, ich muss die Farm verlassen, weil ich brauche die Disco-Luft»: Gazelle ist eine von verschiedenen Kunst-Ikonen und Trendsettern in Südafrika. An der Art Basel fährt er mit einem Mercedes vor und verteilt Schwarzgeld.
- Klaus RaabZola ist Südafrikas bekanntester Gangsta-Rapper, und gegen seine Biographie wirkt die des US-amerikanischen Rappers 50 Cent wie lauwarmer Hüttenkäse.