Music Producer Nozinja’s Beats Help Soweto Dance Faster
SOWETO, South Africa – Sitting in his cramped, cluttered studio, Richard Hlungwani, also known as Nozinja, also known as Dog, is pushing the beat faster and faster.
“If it’s too slow, they won’t dance,” Mr. Hlungwani says. “They will tell you straight: ‘It’s too slow, can’t it be faster?’”
Mr. Hlungwani, 40, is the producer and driving force behind a new, ultra-fast take on traditional Shangaan music, which derives from the ethnic group of the same name and originated in Mozambique and northern South Africa.
Shangaan Electro, as it has been dubbed by U.S. and U.K.-based promoters, is garnering attention both within South Africa and abroad. The London record label Honest Jon’s recently put out an album (”Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music from South Africa”) of 12 tracks by various Shangaan artists that Mr. Hlungwani produced.
His records have won a number of awards in South Africa. The South African branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken used one of his songs for a recent TV and radio ad campaign. And a YouTube clip featuring one of Mr. Hlungwani’s more successful artists and some break-neck Shangaan dancing has been viewed close to one million times since it was posted in 2007.
The music itself is stripped down to basics: syntehiszier-produced marimba beats, high-pitched singing, and the notable lack of any bass beats at all. But the most riveting aspect of the music is the speed.