THE HOUSE OF SUN-EL: Sun-El Musician, Simmy, Mlindo The Vocalist, and other related artists

Cool, thanks a bunch! If you do manage to find it, just email me at tuomast DOT alho AT gmail DOT com (yes, it's "tuomast" with a "t" in the end) and I'll pay for you for everything.

Will do!

ufo, how do you feel about changing the thread title? You started this thread after all. Are you okay with it?

And what should the new title be? Keep it basic and just add “ + Simmy - Tugela Fairy”, or expand it a little?

I was thinking of “THE HOUSE OF SUN-EL: Sun-El Musician, Simmy, Mlindo The Vocalist, and other related artists”
(most of the Mlindo talk has been on the Rolling thread, but it would be a good fit obviously - and Samthing Soweto has an album coming out soon too, as someone mentioned on the roll out thread)

Or we could just go for “Sun-El and Simmy-lar stuff” lol

Any thoughts?

changing the title to include Simmy seems like a sensible idea and i'm all for it, but if we want a thread to encompass the broader scene then maybe making a new rolling south african pop thread to encompass this stuff as well as gqom etc. would be a good idea? that's up to you though, since that'd be splitting off from the afropop thread where that discussion's mostly taken place up until now.

I think this is a decent sleeper shout to top the albums poll this year, there are a lot of records that are in with a shout but the love this one generates is huge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGurSnJozu4

anyway with the title change, here's "Mobi Dixon - Abantu ft. Samthing Soweto". going to have to check out Mobi Dixon's album from last year based on this, it's very upbeat afrohouse

Cool! I actually like that this thread is kind of limited in scope. In a perfect ILM world we would have separate Rolling South African, Rolling Nigerian, Rolling Ghanaian, Rolling East African, etc etc threads, but with the current level of participation/enthusiasm being what it is, one catch-all Rolling Afropop thread is enough imho. We do branch out a bit when necessary with things like the Wizkid and Burna threads anyway (and with this one obviously).

like the new thread title

the mobi dixon track is really nice, reminds me a lot of mj though i'm not sure why. i like pretty much everything that comes out of this scene, even though i tend to be hit and miss on afrobeats in general

Useful (and possibly overlooked) post by kruezer2 on the Top 77 Tracks rollout thread:

"akanamali" definitely crossed over from tsj. the discussion on his album's thread has been reasonably active all year so i think simmy's music must have come up there quite shortly after being released, no tsj-acclaim needed.

"amablesser" was nominated btw, so it could still make it! (tho honestly i doubt it would place above "ubala" et al.) i nominated it but didn't end up having room for it on my ballot lol.

"banomoya" might be my favorite of all the songs i hadn't heard before from this poll so the post upthread stating that it was a big hit in south africa tells me that i should probably just start listening to south african radio already

― dyl, Thursday, January 31, 2019 12:30 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

“AmaBlesser” was a big pop hit there too (just like “Akanamali” itself, the other Sun-El singles did very well too). The Mlindo and Simmy albums are both currently top 10 streaming in SA. It’s actual popular music. Finding the right radio station would be a treat, no doubt!

xp

― breastcrawl, Thursday, January 31, 2019 1:51 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i listen to a couple durban stations online at times. try Ukhozi 90.8 FM or Gagasi 99.5. i don't know any stations in Joburg or Capetown though.

― Will (kruezer2), donderdag 31 januari 2019 15:43 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Like most people, I have a bunch of playlists where I park stuff as I find it, themed playlists, on the go yadda yadda - all that 'halfway house' shit that has cropped up since streaming. This stuff is having quite the effect on me and I don't know where to put it: I kind of want an exclusive 'light caught in a slow falling drop of moisture as the sun comes out after a rain shower' micro-playlist. 'Ubala' is fucking perfect.

Tugela Fairy is just heaven. Wish I could have put in a vote for it.

^^this. Umahlalela made it onto my singles ballot but didn't have time to check out the rest of the album - would definitely have voted for it if I had it.

did not realise until now that DJ Maphorisa co-produced Drake's "One Dance" lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARR3R2ZR3ms

this is a really lovely track "Linda" from Sjava who is featured on Mlindo's "Egoli" and was also on the Black Panther soundtrack, it's similar to Mlindo's music but with sun-drenched sax the whole way through

currently listening to his album from December Umqhele and it's alright but he has a tendency to let tracks go on for far longer than they really need to and i definitely prefer the chill r&b tracks to the relatively generic trap ones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og6eukgNU8w

Mobi Dixon's album 10 Steps Forward is really great on first listen. it starts off in smooth SA house territory with the 9 minute title track (above) which is a real highlight, and tracks like an extended mix of "Abantu" (linked earlier), before moving into harder-hitting gqom for the middle of the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgzCjXH08zA
"Kwanele"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z7-oh3RFBI
"Closer"

Sjava interview on the Fader starts out with a o_O

You just dropped an album about a month ago, how has it been?

I think people like it. But I didn’t like it. It’s the label that decided to drop it. I was not ready.

Are you serious?

I think it’s the whackest thing I’ve ever done.

https://www.thefader.com/2019/01/23/sjava-has-a-contagiously-spiritual-take-on-trap

lol omg. i'll def have to listen

"one dance" is a good song!

Proudly presenting the brand new Prince Kaybee. It’s a bit of a throwback to the sound of his first album, so it actually fits on this thread:

https://open.spotify.com/track/2ngzqhj2QhOvrzSoX8svO6?si=YNL8Oup3Tluib0KsSIuTTw

Prince Kaybee ft. Msaki • Fetch Your Life

was listening to Sjava and I realized I recognized his voice from the Black Panther soundtrack. The song he's on "Reasons," has a couple of American rappers on it, but it seems like Sjava's is the dominant style: https://youtu.be/6fdcVfj9iCk

d'oh the song on the BP soundtrack is called "Seasons" and features the rapper Reason.

Anyway, I dove into the Sjava album and it's taking over my world right now. Sjava not otm

To be fair to the guy, he wraps the interview up like this:

So, in an ideal world, looking at the album as it is, what would you tweak?

Nothing really. It is what it is.

I’m still stuck at that Umphako EP he was talking about, “Intombi” in particular.

I organized a small battle between two of my favourite tracks right now. It’s over here: Gqompetition time: two songs, two videos - QDOT vs SHADO M
Feel free to take a look and participate!

This is a great track, and yes, it’s from 2017:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SouSlSTixyM

Kaylow feat. DJ Mdix • Isgubhu

But who am I kidding? I really came to post these mixes Sun-El did for South African radio station 5FM. I just found out he did three 30-minute mixes, one in December and two just recently. And guess what, most of it is new stuff: some instrumental tracks, several tracks with Simmy (!), and some remixes of stuff by others (such as Black Coffee). It’s a lot to take in! (let me just say I can’t wait for him to drop “Indodana” featuring Berita.)
I will post the links from his Soundcloud (which include track listings). The mixes (01 and 03 at least) can also be found on YouTube.

MIX 01: https://soundcloud.com/sun-el-sithole/sun-el-musician-5-fm-mix
MIX 02: https://soundcloud.com/sun-el-sithole/sun-el-musician-5-fm-mix-02
MIX 03: https://soundcloud.com/sun-el-sithole/sun-el-musician-5-fm-mix-03

ah, thanks!

Has ILM gone into hibernation, apart from forks?

that first mix in particular is real good btw; i appreciate the My House opening.

I can't find the tracklists?

Sorry, the first mix has no tracklist, the others do though, and...

MIX 01: https://soundcloud.com/sun-el-sithole/sun-el-musician-5-fm-mix

01. 00:00 Jeremy Soule - The Streets Of Whiterun (Sun-EL Edit)
02. 02:50 (06:21) Sun-EL Musician Feat. Simmy - That's the way love goes
03. 07:00 Sun-EL Musician Feat. Berita - Indodana
04. 12:19 Sun-EL Musician - Unknown
05. 15:19 Simmy - Nawe
06. 19:07 Sun-EL Musician - Van Damm

great stuff, thanks breastcrawl

Not sure this is the right place for it, but this is an amazing piece of music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXz0V-jOte8

Kabza De Small ft. Leehleza • Amabele (Shaya)

This is the most beautiful thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkKjvQ8PYd4

Tresor ft. Msaki • Sondela

very pretty. all this music is very pretty, perfect early summer ~vibes~

wow that's great. I was listening to the Mlindo album walking around yesterday and thinking I should bump this thread to check if I've missed anything new

Yep good summer vibes. Listening to the full Tresor album now. So Sun-El isn't involved with this at all? Are Tresor and Sun-El in same collective or something? Not questioning this being shouted out in this thread, just curious if there's a connection other than sonic/regional.

No, in this case it’s just the sonic/regional connection. To me, this song is most at home here, whereas I feel the harder South African club sounds (gqom, most notably) are better suited for the Afropop thread, but it’s all quite arbitrary.

Also, there is no official Sun-El collective as such. Simmy has worked exclusively with him so far, but Mlindo for instance, even though he got his break with a Sun-El track, had DJ Maphorisa produce his album.

Gotcha, thanks for the info, and keep posting these!

this is the one i've had on repeat for a couple months now. just a gorgeous mix of sounds worthy of loud listening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdiUZOXzlKo

Sjava rules!

Reminder that everything that’s posted here is also included on ILM’s official Rolling Afropop / Afrobeats / Afrodance 2019 Spotify playlist.

that Tresor track is really nice, will have to check out the album.

Chapter 2 : Myself and @Ami_faku present to you our latest offering “into ingawe” which drops this Friday, Taken from my upcoming project. #EWM #intoingawe pic.twitter.com/nsbZci42WO

— Sun-EL Musician (@SunELMusician) June 3, 2019

excited!

Beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGls9e8ARf8
Sun-El Musician ft. Ami Faku • Into Ingawe

Also this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK5Ib30HRLQ
Mthunzi • Vuka

Thanks a lot for Sondela guys. Also following on Sjava.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIl1MbWiCXA

Big wow at Into Ingawe, his skills in production are not getting any less than heavenly.

new single is glorious.

Today my wife stopped at Sondela's clip and said "Msaki ? Is that her ? She used to come and perform at our house in Melville" but I wasn't there for those nights. We also found out that Simmy has the same flowery dress in Sonini as the one we bought at Mr Price. Cool little details.