It was Fela Kuti who said music is a spiritual thing and that you don’t play with it.
“If you play with music you will die young. You see, because when the higher forces give you the gift of music…musicianship, it must be well used for the gift of humanity.”
The mystical element of music is often mistakenly relegated to ‘spiritual’ or gospel music. With its raunchy, infectious beats, Amapiano has proved to be South Africa’s biggest musical export. The genre is universally loved.
There is a reason to this and The Muffinz guitarist and singer-songwriter Sifiso ‘Atomza’ Buthelezi explored this fascination by making a dance project, Gozonko: Eaves dropping on Magida Sbhekane.
“I’ve had some of the music for a long time, some of the songs since 2016…when this whole Amapiano thing was making waves underground… It was the air, it was hard to ignore… But I was preoccupied with writing at the time and never pursued the dance songs,” Atomza told Tha Bravado.
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Credo’s guidance
In the making of the nine-track body of work, Atomza tapped into Credo Mutwa’s teachings to better understand why the genre has been universally hard to resist.
Atomza was partly inspired by what Credo Mutwa wrote about; which connected the log drum and the African instrument, the Marimba, as a gift from the immortal and servant of the gods Marimba.
“I was liberated by what Credo Mutwa writes about the original log drum and it being created as a solution by an immortal. The manipulation of the digital log drum was one of the cornerstones of Amapiano…I wanted to explore what the implication of that interpretation was in the 21st century,” said Atomza.
Atomza was awarded a grant to produce a new musical piece – a live recorded performance, an album, or an EP – that will be archived by the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro).
“As a member of Samro, which is an application from any active musician can participate in, I was awarded a grant along with other creators… I decided to explore the dance music culture in South Africa, a space for young people,” shared the singer.
“I wanted to pay homage to the sounds I was hearing around me… Infectious sounds I must say, but with all the exploitation of singers in Amapiano, I wanted to do it on my own terms with my integrity intact.”
You can feel his excitement when he speaks about the project, he said making it was a liberating experience for him.
“I explored all that wrapped around a dance sonic… And it was so freeing. My heart was dancing. And so it’s been a work in progress. I had less than a year to put the music together on a very limited budget… And there are timeless songs.”
There are some ‘timeless’ cuts on the album. The beat of Nomayini My Darli-LoFI Kwaito where Atomza features Makhafula Vilakazi, is quite daring (maybe a reflection of the lyrics of the song, where the singer, taking the position of a lover, declares to do anything for the one they love).
The song is also reminiscent of 90s South African music, that can’t be boxed into a particular genre. Edgy enough to be Kwaito but with the gentleness and vulnerability of Afro-pop or R&B. Queue Joe Nina.
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Experimenting
As averred above, it’s an exploration of the drum that’s a mainstay in Amapiano, meaning there’s a lot of experimenting that was done which might put off those who go into any work by Atomza with expectations of soul-soothing ditties.
Like on the song Sthandwa ngizok’philela (Vuyo Manyike x Atomza Lo-FI mixdown), the up-tempo beat was irritating to my ears because of how it just suddenly came. But the lyrics and Atomz’s singing is so delicious, it forces you to not skip track even though you’re not so keen on the beat.
He confesses to being arrested by the anxieties of potentially alienating his core fans but became pragmatic in his outlook thanks also to his previous flirting with dance music.
“I just did what I had to do… I’ve had previous success in dance music, with Sir Lag and House Afrika releasing Love Me with Lilac Jeans, for me as a publisher, making a dance album as a songwriter in this age, is just good business,” he said.
“And my business is mine and no one else’s, except the people I do business with. And so we get on with business.”
On his website, Atomza explains the rationale behind the peculiar title.
He wrote: “I found myself exposed to an overwhelming amount of dance music, which had seamlessly encapsulated the spirit of the time and captured people’s attention. Despite this, I listened actively while discreetly avoiding the appearance of an active listener, essentially eavesdropping on the dance scene.”
“I have actively engaged with and paid tribute to the dance music of South Africa. This music has always been associated in my mind with a figure named Magida Sbhekane. You might wonder, who is Magida Sbhekane? I can’t say for sure. Based on the disapproval of actions associated with Magida Sbhekane by black parents, I believe it could be the deity of “good times” or the patron of grooving, or the sacred place, temple, or shrine of this deity or force.”
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