drowning in a blissful ocean of log drums and keys: 🎹🎹 amapiano a-z 🎹🎹 an ilm poll

still enjoying this concept a lot, thank you :D

noticing a lot of amapiano getting a shazam bump if you will in the US, wonder what thats about:

del ieve P - Ezkhala Kahle (feat. Castro & Senzxo)
Konke, Musa Keys & Chley - M'nike (feat. Sayfar)
Soa Mattrix & Mashudu - Mina Nawe (feat. Happy Jazzmen & emotionz DJ)
king temoso - iNkwenkwezi (with Sami'Kay)

“M’nike” is fantastic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2SLXPZjvkw

a few others ...

ESK Musiq-Stop n go
Don Edward & Xduppy - Skeem Saka (feat. Stay C & Senjay)

^^^these are both pretty rad to me

yes! "Skeem Saka" in particular is top of the bill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wxzfrx10fc

another ridiculously good new track is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38iZlLaaXDk
Toxicated Keys ft. GemValleyMusiQ & Tupla Double 0.7 • Shiki (Piano Anthem)

(GemValleyMusiQ obviously are in this poll with their "Jozi Night" - if you haven't, don't forget to vote for any of the 29 this week!)

ESK Musiq-Stop n go

― xheugy eddy (D-40), Friday, November 4, 2022 5:58 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

this one is exploding on tiktok right now

aw man, I'm not ready. Still have 7 possible winners in my list (starting with 3 A C N P Q T)

but you need to get this done! completely new alphabet sets have aligned themselves over the past couple of weeks alone. amapiano moves fast!

I will, I promise :-)

Waiting for the inevitable comprehensive 3xLP comp of this stuff to materialize somewhere. I can't keep up with the rushing digital river!

the only way this idea might make any kind of sense is if these 3xLP comps came in monthly instalments

Well, it probably won’t be very comprehensive.

https://n-t-s.bandcamp.com/album/amapiano-now-2

??

That works as a snapshot of the genre at a given second in time, but not much else, I'm afraid. My best advise would be to check the amapiano vibes playlist on spotify regularly. It's not totally comprehensive but you do get a feel for the genre and its permutations from week to week.

AmaPiano *Grooves*

very useful playlist, tip of the hat to Spotify

yeah, sorry bout the "vibes". And thanks, breastcrawl!

never be sorry about the vibes, longneck!

Yeah, I voted for Asijabule. It just has so much, that dark/light contrast someone mentioned, it's not just one thing repeating all the time. Thank you again for 2 Months of fun with this, please do more :-)

plus, the light parts made me like the soulful part of amapiano more than I would have predicted in the beginning. So that, too.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I think I voted for Paris but I regret not voting for Asijabule really

I voted for Paris, as it is in my top 5 songs of the year. There are other songs I love in here though (Mmapula and Isphithiphithi in particular!) and quite a few I discovered through this poll, so thanks a lot, breastcrawl! Let's do it again soon.

last call! 58 minutes left to vote for your favourite piano track!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

14 votes? boo! but still, all good tracks :-)

14 votes ain't bad, think about it. We should do one of these every 3 months

result that someone else loves “Crush Yam”.

ace poll - it introduced me to lots of grest music. what dog latin said....

I started my DJ set last night with some amapiano and got a good bunch of the early doors crowd grooving. My co-DJ whomst I was going B2B with followed it up with some more straight-up (but great) house and people just sort of shrugged and walked off. I couldn't have conceived of something like this happening just a year or so ago

….and we have a result!
thanks to everyone who participated in this. I loved the enthusiasm everyone seemed to be feeling about this awesome genre!
special thanks to the 13 voters (I was nr 14). “Paris” is a worthy winner and there’s a nice spread of votes, with eight killer tracks receiving love, highlighting the awesome variety in the genre - because no, not every amapiano track sounds the same, like at all.

is 13/14 votes a lot? hard to say, 43 people followed the playlist, so I may have expected more, but I have no idea what the going ratio is. I’m still curious about the preferences of those non-voters tho (and about any other feedback). feel free to post them here - the poll is done, but the thread remains!

I voted “Asijabule” myself, out of the 29 options it was my most played track. it’s going to be extremely high on my EOY ballot. it was wonderful to see people warming to it over the course of this poll.
but I have to say, when I played the eight vote-getters just now, I was all in for “Crush Yam” - what a track!

(oh, in case you were wondering about the cinderella option, the one that was only there because it was the only eligible track for that letter of the alphabet (that is, I had played it once): it was “Xigubhu” by Welle SA (<1000 streams on Spotify) - and even that one is good!)

Thank you again for 2 Months of fun with this, please do more :-)

thanks a lot, breastcrawl! Let's do it again soon

We should do one of these every 3 months

ace poll - what dog latin said....

any links to Bandcamp pages for any of this stuff would be very much appreciated, seems like most of this is streaming only?

I’m not really a Bandcamp user myself. my guess is that most of it won’t be found there - the Awesome Tapes stuff (Teno Afrika, DJ Black Low) being the exception to the rule, targeted as it is at a different (Western, indie-leaning, for want of a better word) audience.
but perhaps other posters have different information/experiences?

beatport has more and more ama lately. couldn't find a lot of this poll but some artists are there.

“Asijabule” is a UK release (Rinse FM, London) and is on Bandcamp:

https://rinsefm.bandcamp.com/album/vigro-deep-asijabule-feat-murumba-pitch-lady-du

I get most of my amapiano and afro-pop downloads from 7Digital

the one that was only there because it was the only eligible track for that letter of the alphabet (that is, I had played it once): it was “Xigubhu” by Welle SA

i love that one so very happy it starts wth an 'x' or i'd never have heard it!

I’m currently being hypnotized by this track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2LGkIAh7ok
Ch’cco ft. Focalistic x Mellow & Sleazy • Pele Pele

dankie, my president!

I like how deconstructed and elastic Amapiano can be, its unpredictable bouncy skittering fluid dynamics, and I often find that in the rawer tracks, like this Pele Pele. Even if in the end top favorites are still the fully formed smooth diamonds, they need to distill some of that unpredictable primal soup, some of the skeletal tension. Maybe also why Amapiano likes to invite foreign sounds in and warp them to show off its Protean quality. I find myself thinking of the vocals in Amapiano as "toasting", as in deejay, I wonder if the South Africans have their own term for it (assuming it's not called simply rapping or singing). For some reason, Amapiano never sounded only like a house genre to me, it's a bit like another "sound culture" if I can draw such a distant parallel just based on how soulful, dark, experimental both genres are and how closely together they draw the producer and the vocals.

and the genre's so... alive too! This one is currently on the number one spot on Spotify's AmaPiano Grooves playlist, "added 3 days ago"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdQ-74_lf7Y

DBN Gogo, Stixx, BoiBizza ft. MaWhoo - UYATHANDEKA

xpost "foreign sounds" : like flamenco guitar in the track I just posted :-)

xxp Nabozo OTM. It's hard to think of this as house music - it doesn't do the same thing; I don't dance to it or listen to it in the same way

Since it's the time in the thread where we start pulling it in all directions like wolves, I'll post fresh stuff too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejlL0ARRF3I
Dj Maphorisa & Visca - iSandla (feat. Da Muziqal Chef, Thabza Tee & Malumnator)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXP493syN_w
Mellow & Sleazy - Elokishini (feat. Chley, Da Muziqal Chef & M.J.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-YRoPm0AVw
Mr JazziQ - Abuti Wadi Chipi (feat. Murumba Pitch, Zuma, Mzukulu)

I’m still curious about the preferences of those non-voters tho (and about any other feedback). feel free to post them here - the poll is done, but the thread remains!

I can't remember if I voted, but I meant to vote for Crush Yam, so I was either the second vote after stirmonster or I should have been the third. Apologies!

anyway, very useful thread and the top +1 vote getters make a nice digestible survey. I tend to prefer the loungey/jazzy tracks to the harder ones, at least for repeat listening, though I just listened to 66 and Ncebeleka (both Felo Le Tee) and hearing those live would probably be amazing

it's actually Crush Yami apparently but anyway

https://geo-static.traxsource.com/files/images/a157a054bc91d8d7c2424d931270f4a0.jpg

in this case it *is* in fact “Crush Yam” - however, the complete phrase in isiZulu, where vowels routinely get swallowed, is “crush yami”, which simply means ‘my crush’.

oh! okay, thanks :-)

in random piano tracks I can’t stop playing right now, as we speak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d7wJQHjfuM
Mzulu Kakhulu ft. Gaba Cannal • Gibela (iGwijo Remix)

(there are visuals, but they cover only 40% of the track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfN1l3apO90)

maybe that video isn't the remix?

no, it’s the same mix. if there even is an earlier/original version they’ve hidden it very well.

my point was more, enjoy the video (so many piano jams don’t even have one), but the full length is were it’s really at.
(also, weirdly, there is actually a radio edit of this song on Spotify, but it’s longer than this vid)

most importantly tho, it’s a great track