Technorati Tags: Gazelle, Options, Botaniks Remix, Music Video

The always theatrical and expressive Gazelle takes to the African Savanah in the search for a connection between a real world and a mythical place. Kings, Queens, a Sangoma and the Tokolosh all play their part in what is to be one of the most coveted and cinematic music videos in South Africa this year

Technorati Tags: Gazelle, Teba, Chic Afrique

If you were in Pretoria this Saturday passed and you didn’t go to Tings ‘n Times you missed an epic show. Gazelle really put on an awesome live show that draw in the crowd and gets them dancing. The video for Just Now was shot on location in Switzerland at Art Basel during their recent European tour.  With Gazelle better known for their afro-disco-electro-pop aka LIMPOP and their on stage style and glam, it’s nice to see they’re not above a bit of social commentary. In case you’re wondering, the bank notes being thrown around were actually flyers for his Basel show…

Technorati Tags: Gazelle, Weez, Just Now

Both Popskarr and Gazelle are no strangers to Electrotrash. They are rather regular features, definitely two of the most prolific flag-raisers for local Electro. And certainly Gazelle is no stranger to the Red Bull Music Studios often popping in to collaborate with various artists and work on his much anticipated upcoming album. What you may not know is that pretty much all of Popskarr’s stuff was and still is being recorded at the Red Bull Music Studio. This collaboration was one of the most epic from last year, and the track itself a culmination of hundreds of recorded takes from singers Xander and Yannick. The title of the track, “Obsession” explains it in a nutshell: the feelings for someone that mutate from genuine love into something far more out of control.

Rather than feature a Red Bull Music Academy Radio show this week, I will direct you all to the Red Bull Music Academy website, as the Academy has been in full force in London for a week now. When I was at the Academy in Rome 6 years ago (and believe me I’m not dropping props for myself, I have a point), the likes of Goblin, Alexander Robotnick and Daniel Baldelli were speaking. I had no idea who these cats were, little did I know that they were of the main driving forces behind the scene that I would later embrace and the likes of Justice (who wholesale sample Goblin on “Phantom”) would not exist. My point is the Red Bull Music Academy guys are way ahead of the pack. So when you look at the list of lecturers you don’t often pick up on who the names are but you better pay attention.

As I walked into the Academy today I saw that the first lecturer of the day was DâM-FunK. Only a week ago Spoek Mathambo got me onto this guy, whose soul / funk / electro sound on Stones Throw sounds like Prince, Peanut Butter Wolf and Afrika Bambaata in a freaky menagois a trois. Who knows what other forward sounding ish is going to surprise me next. Keep your eyes peeled to the site: http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/london

dirtyoldman here. The guys from Popskarr also sent us another track entitled the finish line. Grab it below!

Well look what the internet dragged in! Cape Town’s Mix n Blend are the newest addition to our artists section. Check it out here! They make dubsteppy, hip hoppy, jazzy electro crunk soul.  Part of the African Dope stable, they have remixed and featured a number of premier South African acts. Look out for a review of their new album coming your way next week!

Check ‘em playing @ OppiKoppi 2008:

Aaaand check out this rad track they did featuring Bakaman

Deep South Coffee feat. Bakaman by mixnblend

More tracks after the jump including their remix of Gazelle & Fat Freddys Drop, a remix by Liver and their track Everyone Calm plus a cool video for Shall We Swing!

This remix of their track Shall We Swing by Liver is pretty dope and has a nice soulful groove to it!

Mix n Blend - Shall We Swing (Liver Remix)

Shall We Swing (Liver Remix) by mixnblend

This track shows off that they can pull of dark & deep dubstep like the best of ‘em!

Everyone Calm by mixnblend

Their re-edit of Fat Freddys Drop is really dope!

Fat Freddys Drop - The Raft (Mix n Blend n Sfr's Re-edit)

Fat Freddys Drop – The Raft (Mix n Blend n Sfr’s Re-edit) by mixnblend

Finally, their remix of Gazelle’s first single ‘Die Verlore Seun’ is an awesome dubbed out deep grinder. Siiiick!

Gazelle - Die Velore Seun (Mix n Blend remix)

Gazelle – Die Velore Seun (Mix n Blend remix) by mixnblend

Check out their Soundcloud page for lots more free tracks.

Technorati Tags: Mix n Blend, Bakaman, Liver, Gazelle, Shall We Swing, Everyone Calm, Die Verlore Seun, Remix

I bet you’re wondering why we’re featuring an Italian group on a blog that is focused on South African electronic music. Ok so we have featured one or two Dutch acts in the past, but in general we tend to stick to the +27 since there are countless blogs out there dedicated to electronic music that get the songs mailed to them and thus post them long before we even know about their existence! We don’t want to be one of those blogs that just reposts songs from other blogs and without the permission of the artists and/or labels. However this time round is a bit special. We got permission from Dim Mak (thanks!) to put up this track, so let me tell you why.

Those of you that saw the Bloody Beetroots live a few months back know how awesome this duo is. Some of you may even have a copy of their album Romborama, released earlier this year. If you do in fact have a copy, then the voice featured on the 12th track called ‘Theolonius (King Voodoo) may have sounded familiar. Turns out it is Xander Ferreira, better known as the face of Limpop act Gazelle. I thought I’d share this with you guys in the hope of showing you that you don’t have to be Dave Matthews or Seether to break beyond our borders. A case in point being the Mr. Vega remix of Popskarr (He’s from Brooklyn) or the Saint Pauli and Toxic Avenger remixes of the new Haezer single (more on that in the future…). I guess what I’m saying is just keep making the best music you can and try not to limit yourselves to Jozi or Cape Town or even just South Africa. Like the saying goes: “think locally, act globally”. Not sure if that applies, but it sure sounds good!

The Bloody Beetroots - Theolonius (King Voodoo)

Technorati Tags: Bloody Beetroots, Gazelle, Theolonius, King Voodoo, Xander Ferreira

So Danish producer Hankat has taken the track Golden Sun by Gazelle and turned it into a beautiful minimal track that slowly builds over the course of 8 minutes and 47 seconds. Check it out and enjoy!

Gazelle – Golden Sun (Hankat Remix) [to download right-click > Save As]

[via la melodie du bonheur]

Technorati Tags: Gazelle, Golden Sun, Hankat Remix

Jozi based Will Mono got his hands on ‘Die Verlore Seun’ from the original Limpop group Gazelle and gave it an electro treatment. The track features a stabby, filtered & distorted synth that drives the track. Although the vocals haven’t been played with too much, the ooh’s and aah’s of the original are more prominent and give the track that ‘sexy electro’ feel that the kids dig so much! Grab it below.

Will also did a remix with Mike from MPI Project which they describe as a “shebeen interpretation”. It’s got a more of a ‘housey’ feel to it and a bit of township groove.

Currently rapping up their tour of Europe, Gazelle is bound to stir things up both nationally and around the world. Consisting of Xander Ferreira and Nick Matthews, Gazelle are uniquely South African and yet strangely familiar. CHic AFrique is both a product of Xander’s rural Limpopo upbringing and a range of influence including 1970s Nigerian Disco Funk, ragga and electro pop. Mixed together this forms what they calls ‘Limpop’.

The sounds of rural Limpopo and traditional South Africa feature on tracks such as the opening track ‘Barbarella’, ‘Neondebele’, the end of ‘Die Verlore Seun’ and the playful song ‘Try’. His ragga roots can be found in tracks such as bouncy ‘Chic Afrique’ from which the album draws its name, the slightly darker, deep and bassy ‘Just Now’ which features Weez and the above ‘Neondebele’. Songs such as ‘Options’, ‘She Did Me In’, ‘Strange Things’ and ‘Golden Sun’ lean towards disco funk and electro pop, creating catchy bass vibes along with fun synthy melodies.

It is refreshing and apparent that Gazelle do not take themselves too seriously. This is evident not only in Cold-War era African Dictator get-up worn by Xander but also in tracks such as the semi-autobiographical ‘Die Verlore Seun’, which talks of a boy leaving his home farm for the lights of the disco found in the big city and in the hidden track at the end which I shall dub ‘Die Durban se Jaarlikse Poepwedstryd’ which, as the name implies, covers a (fictional I hope!) annual farting competition.

The album covers a variety of sounds, yet remains a coherent entity thanks to the unmistakable lazy voice and song writing found on the record. The album will be available in Musica and Look & Listen soon, along with a number of your favourite independent record stores nation wide. I recommend you grab a copy of what I suspect is one of South Africa’s most underrated groups.

Check the Downloads Section for a taste of their music and just because I know you guys love it so much, grab Die Verlore Seun below. This is a promotional download only available until Saturday!

Gazelle – Die Verlore Seun

Since its inception almost a year ago, the Red Bull Studio in Cape Town has been quietly rocking away to the sounds of some of South Africa’s meanest musical might.

Kicking things off with a Class Of Its Own in April last year, the Red Bull Music Academy alumni project that saw the likes of DJ Zinc, Aloe Blac and Joao Pekeno come together for a week to make a mass of late night music, the studio has since then hosted such prolific artists as Inge Beckman and Joao Orecchia, true-school rock bands such as Damn Right and the Plastics, mad electronic masters such as DJ Lapse and the mysterious Moleke Mbembe, South African disco hero Gazelle and initiatives such as the Cape Learning Initiative.

There has also been jam packed discussions with the likes of international artists such as Ninja Tunes warriors DJ Food and minimal techno guru, Butane, where people have been invited to come into the studio to share the love.

Read more about the studio and grab a free track after the jump!

As the applications for the Red Bull Music Academy go into full swing, the next big event of the Studio’s calendar is the Red Bull Taster – ‘A 3rd World Perspective’.

“A 3rd World Perspective” is a taste of what the Academy is like. For three days and nights, twenty South African music makers will start their day off with a lecture from an international music giant alongside local music titans. They’ll then get stuck into some music making in the Red Bull Music Studios. We can’t reveal too much at present aside from saying that it’s all going down between the 1st and 5th of July 2009.

The best part about it all is that all the content coming through the Red Bull Music Studios in Cape Town will be available on a Red Bull Studios Blog. Mp3 and Video blogging is slowly becoming one of the hottest media for promoting music. It’s a straight to the point, very current way of letting people know about music and of course there are always mp3s to download and videos to watch.

To get a taste of what’s been going down at the studio, grab this download of Moleke Mebembe‘s ‘Killa Kat’ featuring Gazelle. It’s a dark slow disco burner:

Otherwise for more tunes from the studio head over to the blog at www.redbullstudioscapetown.wordpress.com.