I decided to make an album that will showcase different cultures/tribes within South African, through sound and recognizable chants. Each song is infused with a Techno style beat because I would each song to be dance-worthy and to uplift these sounds of the tribes/cultures by allowing the listener to head bop or dance and enjoy the infused culture curated songs.
Every week I wanted to find new ways in which I could express these cultures, so I explored all over the internet, asked people of different nationalities and even looked for sounds that I may have heard before while traveling. I managed to incorporate multiple different sounds each week followed by its unique beat. A lot of the music I compose is done through emotions and feelings, which I also tried to incorporate into this album, allowing each song to take the listener into a new world - hopefully, a trance - as a result, the album tells a story.
Week one: Alone Season 4 Soundtrack
This song introduces the listener into the album, putting them in a rhythmic peaceful realm, showing the listener the possibilities of where the album can go. The Wild forestry and birds that feature in the song are there to bring out the tribes that still live in the bush and believe that this their way of life, which there is nothing wrong with, I guess to society it may seem ancient or strange. I believe that they live the most peaceful nights and when they do party, it may sound something like this song, just done with live instruments.
I had imagined a tribe does a sort a warcry, just before a war, specifically the Zulu nation. These people played a big part in our history and they had to be brought to light in a creative way. I decided to incorporate chants, ululating, African drums and a suspenseful violin to give it that extra feel of Africancity. Everything initially sounds chaotic at first, but this clearly represents the different kind culture that Zulu people represent, the fact that the beats don’t have to continuously have to follow a four-beat sequence. On another note, the symptomatic, emotion hums in the back, again give the listener a sense of calmness while they’re listening, while the beat keeps your heart pumping.
Based on the Islamic religion, many people don’t classify other religions other than their own, as a ‘real’ religion. I believe those people are brainwashed by what their people and culture say, so they decide to discriminate against Muslims. In this song, I wanted to showcase their peaceful prayers and how mesmerizing they can be, and along with the added pads that give that effect of an eccentric open world. These prayers feature all over the country, saving many people from evil.
Week four: Fire, Water, And Earth
Monks that usually hang around mountains with waterfalls and are believed to have superpowers…well, I’m not sure how to that is, but I managed to get some sort of ritual, a prayer that they were signing. It sounds so different, something many people around the world have never heard before. Presenting the song in the way that it is, gives the viewer an overall background of the monks, Africa, and techno. What better combination could there be... Lol, I think this song was well-executed in terms of bringing the monks to light and allowing people in the music industry to recognize them.
This song represents Townships and the cultures that came out of them, heavy bass lines, loud chants, drugs, violence street racing and drags. Although I couldn’t find proper street racing sounds, I managed to get the chants correct as well as the beat, which you would hear in a Quantum taxi specifically. Most people in African cultures know this subgenre called Gqom, very hyped up, perfect for a party. This song is meant to but the listener in a tavern or a quantum, full blast, and for them to feel the frequencies rush through their body.
Heavily inspired by Claire, commonly known as Grimes. I don’t know what it was about the video that I watched, but I felt like I channeled into these ‘art angels’ that helped me come up with this song. This song represents how the tribes from many years ago figured out that animals provide up foo. But certain tribes/ cultures slaughter goats as a form of celebration or tradition when someone dies or gets married. This song represents the lambs calling for their moms even when they are older. Followed by 3 stylistic African beats to represent the different stages of the lamb as it grows up and then lives to see the cycle repeat itself.
Week seven: It Was All Just A Dream
At this point in the album, I felt it was best to tone down the complexity of the songs ending off the album on a peaceful note. This song is based off the whole thought process around all the other songs in the album, and the dreams I had about them and the sounds that I heard after I saw the worlds that I was in, I hope that I could take any listener there. At the same time, the composition of this song makes me feel so nostalgic like I’ve been rebirthed, it just has such an amazing feel to it, and I feel our country as a nation felt that way when Madiba came into power. This song represents South Africans, who strive for greatness.
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