The minimalist house music that comes with its own unique dance style,bhenga, that’s Durban’s retort to Chicago footworkRaw, or cutting-edge electronic music,made on cheap drum machines and uploaded to file-sharing sites has long been a product of South Africa’s townships. Kwaito house and Shangaan electro are just two of the recent genres to catch on, and the latest is gqom – pronounced qwom – a visceral, or rough-edged,minimal form of house music crafted by a gaggle of young beatmakers such as DJ Mata, Cruel Boyz and DJ Lusiman.
Unlike glossy, or more mainstream kwaito house,which has lost much of its original appeal by recycling the more hackneyed elements of US pop and hip-hop, gqom is an authentic form of expression. It’s dark and realistic, and with an array of hollow drum sounds spun into jerky rhythms using FruityLoops software,and droning synths and ghostly one-note samples creeping in over the top.
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Source: theguardian.com