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

listened to this once this morning, now going for seconds. it’s sounding very good indeed. it really gets going from track 5 (“Imihla nezolo”). that whole middle section is fire - a warm, comforting fire.
highlight of the first go-round for me might have been “Ngiyahamba” with Mthunzi.

“Konke” is very good as well, it’s the only track produced by Claudio (of x Kenza fame)

xp to ufo

another track from the Sun-El album dropped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a90xU2bQEZ0
Sun-El Musician ft. Ami Faku • Mandinaye

geez

that album's gonna be so good isn't it, even if it's a long double album

Was curious initially that this and the Simmy albums were dropping in fall/winter and then I realized in South Africa it's spring/summer - the perfect time for these records.

Good god Emakhaya is so gorgeous. Sun-el really has that magic touch as a producer. I cannot wait for his to drop soon. Gonna be really really nice to have some of his warmth for this cold and dark winter.

"mandinaye" is fantastic, wow. i sure hope he's able to keep it up for the entire 2.5 hours lol

“December” is a really big thing in SA, it’s the festive season and the summer holidays rolled into one, so everyone is on a quest for the biggest December song.

xps

I'm just getting around to the Simmy album, and it is of course excellent. This year is honestly too much...

It took me awhile but Simmy's Tugela Fairy LP COMPLETELY got its hooks in me over the past two weeks, making it hard to listen to anything else. There are a few clunkers ('We Were Here' and 'Time After Time') but it's pretty unassailable as a complete album. Much the same as the first one though, it required regular repeat plays to fully sink in... songs like 'Wamuhle' and 'Mabhungu,' which now feel indispensable, were kinda blah on first listen.

That said, I would still say 'Emakhaya' is the best of the bunch. And I'm still loving 'Yaz Abantu'! I feel like both are legit worth pushing as best of the year songs.

ladies x gentlemen, Claudio x Kenza:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcKHw0rtWss
Claudio x Kenza ft. Omi Kobi • Pot of Gold

see them perform it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMWGGKsfntY
Q Twins ft. Claudio x Kenza • Vuma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tz7ngRcC9w
Nobuhle ft. Claudio x Kenza • Phezulu
(not yet released, live performance)

...and oh hey, I got a little samthing for ya:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhVc2wq5JAs
Samthing Soweto ft. De Mthuda • Weekend

this new Simmy record 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

I think “Imihla Nezolo” is my favourite track - that bass, those “hey, hey”s.

Also, Sun-El & Ami Faku’s “Mandinaye” keeps growing and growing on me. It’s so beautiful.

yes the simmy album is really good, shame on me for taking so long to get to it

I went to listen to the Simmy on hike today, typed in Simi by accident and lo and behold I like her too! (Updated highlife from what I've gathered so far)

just leaving this here: an online launch event for the Sun-El album that starts in 10 hours (23h15 until midnight SA time). it’s free, but you have to register your info at some event ticketing/payment company platform in order to validate your ticket, which made me decide to pass on this opportunity, but ymmv:

#ToTheWorldAndBeyon #ttwab Don’t miss out the virtual concert tonight 03/12/2020 (23:15).
Register for free at: https://t.co/QsLuV7lQ3o
Follow the commander @sunelmusicianza for more info.

— Sphiwe Aaron Zwane  (@Sphiwe_Zwane) December 3, 2020

btw Sun-El has dropped four more new tracks in the past four days. I now feel confident enough to make the following predictions for the album:

• there will be loads of great music on it
• and plenty of less than great music as well
• 1+1=2: it will be much too long

i expect that at the very least it'll be possible to carve an excellent ~hour of music out of it

oh for sure
also: it's unlikely i'll be able to sufficiently listen to it before the end of January

i will not have enough time to listen to the whole thing before i should sleep so i think i'll just start w/ vol. 1 tonight

opener is v epic... i think that's a "nature boy" interpolation for a few seconds?... despite being relatively unmoved by some of the preview tracks i'm not especially confident in that prediction breastcrawl. but we shall see!

have only listened to the first disc so far but it's all gorgeous. only issue is when the album is 80 minutes long, the songs do blend together a bit, so it'll take a while to really wrap my head around it.

he's said the first disc is supposed to be his classic sound (he certainly succeeded there!) and the second disc is him experimenting and broadening his sound so i'm curious how different it will be. i didn't like "chasing the summer" much when i listened to it yesterday though.

that virtual concert I mentioned the other day is now on YouTube, and serves as a wonderful good-old-fashioned-album-length introduction to this ambitious endeavour - 46 minutes to the album’s 156:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5aPZ6-I71Y

very nice visuals too, and Tout EL World shows up - with the exception of Claudio x Kenza

listened to the whole thing yesterday, sorta let it wash over me in the semi-background. most everything sounded good at the very least. hope to discover some stunners when I’ll be playing it loud. (“Lengane” with Simmy is probably one, it’s been around for a while).

there was one immediate lovely surprise for me tho, the track I happened to play last of all: the very un-Sun-El-like “No Drama” which has an amapiano-by-way-of-West-Africa feel.

Listened to the first disc yesterday and the 2nd today. It's a lot more consistent than his last one overall, but the peaks are not nearly as high. There's no Akanamali or Sonini on this, despite the latter's vocalist Simmy guesting on 4(!) tracks. He's digging into a formula more, and while there's some interesting genre dabbling on the 2nd disc and the production remains quite impeccable, a part of me is worried he'll never touch the transcendence of those early singles again.

Despite the criticisms, there's a pretty amazing record here, especially if you edit it down to one disc, which I might end up doing at some point. Hard not to expect quite a bit of filler on an album 2 hours and 40 minutes long.

agree that those highest Himalaya highs are not there, but the four lead singles (“Uhuru”, “Ubomi Abumanga”, “Never Never” and “Mandinaya”) have all been amazing, and he could (should) have included “Into Ingawe” as well. if you add the next-best gorgeous new tracks and one or two of those Sun-El instrumentals, plus the Niniola and “No Drama” as bonuses you’d have a magnificent set.
it becomes a lot less interesting when he features Sauti Sol, and “Garden”-variety Sun-El is not where it’s at. a Chris Martin collab is probably inevitable tho.

I feel the second album blues more with the new Simmy. it’s very good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just a folder with a lot of tracks to me, whereas the first Tugela Fairy was a relatively concise and perfectly balanced out album.

oh btw, if you came here for the first new Sha Sha song in over a year, you can find it over here on the “eMcimbini”/Kabza & Maphorisa thread.

it’s very dreamy.

I feel the second album blues more with the new Simmy. it’s very good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just a folder with a lot of tracks to me

I need to revisit it again, but I feel similarly about hers as I do with Sun-El's - quantity over quality, but with a baseline of quality still present. If you edit it down it's great, but still a step down from her debut. I'm not feeling "blues" per se with these records, they're both still great. I suppose that sentiment only comes off due to the relative comparisons. It's hard for any artist to pull off that untouchable magic they both had a couple years ago a 2nd time in a row, let alone the rest of their careers. I would love to be able to see them perform at some point post-pandemic. I hope they can find broader success outside of Africa/S.A. and that in turn might evolve their sound.

with the sun-el album i largely agree that while it doesn't quite reach the incredible highs of "akanamali" and "sonini", it's still stronger than i expected for a 160 minute album and even when he's at his most formulaic it's still quite enjoyable because his formula is that good. as breastcrawl mentioned, the strongest tracks are still fantastic. he's kinda the ideal artist to make something this long because it's such pleasant music to have in the background all day. the second disc doesn't really expand his sound as much as i was expecting from his stated intention though.

the simmy album is a little more sprawling than her debut too but it's still quite strong. i still need to spend more time with it but it's not an obvious step down or anything

ymmv but i thought the new simmy album requires LOTS of repeat time to open properly. i wrote it off after three listens then gave it one more go and it just started catching fire.

Most of the English language tracks are very cringey for me. Couldn't get through them.

Agreed! Skip them!

New Samthing Soweto EP! Not yet cracked but I have a lotta faith in this guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHbRGDXHP5w

The Samthing EP is glorious!
Upbeat, uptempo amapiano with producer De Mthuda at the helm for most of the tracks. I love Aymos and Daliwonga, but it’s a real treat to hear The Original Vocalist flexing again. Opener “Chomi” had me jumping around in the early morning, “Tilili” is one for the ages (love the interplay with his own voice and co-vocalist MalumNator), first single “Weekend”, which I liked not loved, falls perfectly into place here, and the live medley of previous hits with the Mzansi Youth Choir brings joy to the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dox4zTHHoHQ
Samthing Soweto ft. De Mthuda, Da Muziqal Chef & MalumNator • Tilili

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovdsp286_B8
Samthing Soweto ft. Mzansi Youth Choir • The Danko! Medley

New Mlindo song as well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtC3I9k1AzI
Mlindo The Vocalist ft. Nathi • Mali

I'm 3/4 into the Sun-El and I find it ridiculously consistent and pleasant. I guess it's the kind of fuck you artists can give to music nerds obsessed about quality over quantity or the need to produce tracks that can go into ILM polls. South Africa's obsession with Aaliyah's "Try Again" is funny.

🤔

So is no one listening to the new Samthing? Try “Tilili” at least, folx!

(please don’t tell me y’all are too wrapped up in the noms bizz. December is part of 2020 too, the busiest part in SA in fact when it comes to new releases)

The songs are a little bit too squarely in the amapiano norm: not a problem as background to his fantastic voice but lacking the dynamics of his hits. Tilili is the best but the track still moves like a slug you could find at the end of any KDS album.

Yesterday I listened to every Dj Manzo SA / Comado / Mthandazo Gyata song and these guys have true potential.

yeah the samthing EP (lol that 36 minutes is now an EP with amapiano track lengths) is decent but sometimes feels a little too amapiano-by-numbers and isn't as strong as last year's album. still pleasant though

The Danko! Medley is amazing! Highlight for me

im v late to this party but this is some of my favorite music ever rn

Uwrongo is on Obama’s EOY list lol

herighto

he went with the edited version, very unpresidential imo

it’s summer in Mzansi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AagjAUE8U8s
Blaq Diamond • SummerYoMuthi

Love Mlindo's loopy vocal on this album cut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gSrvQZUyTM
Senzo Afrika ft. Mlindo The Vocalist & Alie Keys • Ngiyajola