Slabofmisuse: Loveinthiscup

This week focuses on artists we discovered while in South Africa during Design Indaba 2014

This anonymous Cape Town-based producer and DJ performed his glitchy trip-hop/hip-hop beats at Cape Town’s The Waiting Room this past Wednesday as part of the Design Indaba Music Circuit, which showcased local talent. A member of *gravy, the South African electronic music collective, Slabofmisuse gets the crowd head-banging without a second thought, like in his hypnotic track “Loveinthiscup.” The gritty flute sample that leads the …

Larry Heard Presents Mr. White: The Sun Can’t Compare

This week focuses on artists we discovered while in South Africa during Design Indaba 2014

For this week’s #PrivateJam, Swiss-Guinean anthropologist and photographer Namsa Leuba—currently in an artist exchange program at Johannesburg’s 12 Decades Art Hotel—selected “The Sun Can’t Compare” by a master of Chicago-style acid house, Larry Heard. Released in 2006, the song’s stripped-down vocals and rhythms (created from scratch, not samples) channels something pure and raw, back to the origins of house. Leuba explains: “From the first note, …

John Wizards: Muizenberg

This week focuses on artists we discovered while in South Africa during Design Indaba 2014

Most bands cross genre lines, but few are as protean as Cape Town-based John Wizards. In their dreamy single “Muizenberg“—named for a sleepy beachside suburb of the Mother City—the band exemplifies their ability to draw on American indie rock, R&B and various styles of music from their home continent. A lingering guitar riff settles over a driving beat rounded out with compressed, airy vocals. Think …