New WARP Signing: Nozinja (Shangaan Electro)

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:33 PM, jhonny said:

I bet it's fun as fuck live.

[youtubehd]9Xm4dNvAwHU[/youtubehd]

aye saw them last year in sheffield. quality

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:26 PM, bleepsnbloops said:

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:02 PM, Amen Lare said:

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 3:35 PM, bleepsnbloops said:

Oh, and the idea that music can be good/bad or that shangaan electro fails to meet certain standards is really silly. Whether or not you can tune into what this guy is trying to evoke is the challenge. The question should be, especially when discussing anything 'left-field, 'Does a track express the ideas, emotions, feelings of the producer?' not 'Is this track as good as this track from a different artist?

 

 

Good/bad is just a compass inside us, what's silly about it? The idea of music, or art in general, as a means of self-expression is not a universal one, it's rather a child of a new era, the little one at that. Beethoven wasn't expressing his feelings or even brilliant ideas, music is something much bigger than that and its mechanics is basically unknown. Art at core was a translation of God, there was no authorship in it.

 

good/bad implies some sort of universal measure or scale, to which music can be compared too. Blanket statements about the sounds, without first thinking about why those sonic choices were made is silly, because it fails to recognize artistic intention and instead only deals with genre/industry conventions and standards.

 

And if art isn't self-expression, what is?

 

Sure, Beethoven was expressing himself. His music tells us something about him. Maybe it doesn't tell us what he was feeling but it certainly tells us something about his interpretation of sound, people, emotions etc.

 

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:03 PM, StephenG said:

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 3:35 PM, bleepsnbloops said:

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 12:50 AM, Cryptowen said:

this guy totally nails a very specific percussive sound i've been hunting for for a long time - dry, blippy, just the right mix of fake & natural sounding. Scitters all over the place but doesn't feel like it's trying to wow me

 

liking the vocals as well, reminds me a bit of the first battles album. if i recall, a big chunk of watmm dfdidn't like the vocals on that either so I DUNNO MAN

 

 

Oh, and the idea that music can be good/bad or that shangaan electro fails to meet certain standards is really silly. Whether or not you can tune into what this guy is trying to evoke is the challenge. The question should be, especially when discussing anything 'left-field, 'Does a track express the ideas, emotions, feelings of the producer?' not 'Is this track as good as this track from a different artist?

 

 

Quality of sound/dynamics is a key component in the presentation of audio imagery, and thus the presentation feels lacking when things like mastering/eq'ing are not done properly. It detracts from the ability of the track to convey the "ideas, emotions,..." etc that you are referring to.

 

Can some songs have shitty mastering and still convey a message? Yeah. But in this particular instance in my opinion the music does not stand on its own strongly enough, say, compared to the AB series (poor mastering/sound quality but still brilliant).

 

Subjective, this all is. As usual.

 

Try this: take your favourite, most emotive album and convert it to 96kbps mp3. Does it have the same impact on you? Or are there certain qualities missing making it less of an experience?

 

What do you mean by 'mastering/eq'ing are not done properly'? What is properly? and why should an artist conform to 'properly' if they don't feel it allows them to express what they want to?

 

With Shangaan Electro, every characteristic is purposeful and an artistic intention. To say, 'it should be this way' is to take away a lot of creative freedom and ignores the question of 'why did they do it this way?'

 

Also your analogy about taking my favorite album and changing its bitrate isn't right, because that would be me putting my stamp on their intention/creativity

 

Well if his creatove intention was to create something with no dynamics, weird candy rave vocals from the early 90s, that sounds tinny and images only in the midrange of frequencies, then he nailed it!

I think the main man is a cool character, with bucketloads of charisma, which is something that's seriously (x1000) seems to be lacking in popular music nowadays. Maybe Warp see something in him in that respect. He certainly cheers me up just looking at him, hah.

The music isn't for me though. I really enjoy watching the videos, they're fucking hilarious, but not in a condescending way.

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:48 PM, StephenG said:

 

Well if his creatove intention was to create something with no dynamics, weird candy rave vocals from the early 90s, that sounds tinny and images only in the midrange of frequencies, then he nailed it!

 

I know, right?

How can a musician adequately express themselves without normal vocals, lots of frequencies and poly-modular-analog-vinyl-bass percussion. Silly nozinja, when will he learn the ways of true Ideemz.

StephenG Dude, first of all, I keep thinking you're the guy in your avatar, which makes everything you type feel like it has no credibility (but I ignore it, in the end...). But also, ultra IDM trick: if you convert your own music to like 64 or 32 kbps mp3, it can actually sound amazing (found out from uploading demos when I only had dialup a few years ago). But with regards to tonality and all that, yah- balance is everything. Balance between mids and highs and lows. If those are in balance, almost any quality of that sound will still translate quality essence of track. The problem with the new track YT vid posted, is that original balance was prolly pretty flat, and mastering tried to fix that by boosting highs and adding distortion.

But anyway.... With all these tinny sounds, it would be pretty badass if mega sub-bass just blasted out every now and then. And like, reverb. But then I guess it wouldn't be "authentic".

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:55 PM, bleepsnbloops said:

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:48 PM, StephenG said:

 

Well if his creatove intention was to create something with no dynamics, weird candy rave vocals from the early 90s, that sounds tinny and images only in the midrange of frequencies, then he nailed it!

 

I know, right?

 

How can a musician adequately express themselves without normal vocals, lots of frequencies and poly-modular-analog-vinyl-bass percussion. Silly nozinja, when will he learn the ways of true Ideemz.

 

Of course they can. All I said is that I don't like it and I gave my reasons for not liking it.

  On 4/25/2014 at 5:14 PM, peace 7 said:

StephenG Dude, first of all, I keep thinking you're the guy in your avatar, which makes everything you type feel like it has no credibility (but I ignore it, in the end...). But also, ultra IDM trick: if you convert your own music to like 64 or 32 kbps mp3, it can actually sound amazing (found out from uploading demos when I only had dialup a few years ago). But with regards to tonality and all that, yah- balance is everything. Balance between mids and highs and lows. If those are in balance, almost any quality of that sound will still translate quality essence of track. The problem with the new track YT vid posted, is that original balance was prolly pretty flat, and mastering tried to fix that by boosting highs and adding distortion.

 

But anyway.... With all these tinny sounds, it would be pretty badass if mega sub-bass just blasted out every now and then. And like, reverb. But then I guess it wouldn't be "authentic".

lol

all your posts are 10/10

i skipped the middle four pages of this undoubtedly stupid thread, but i really like this stuff. pumped to see warp continue to branch out.

I don't get it. The beats are cool, but it's nothing people haven't done already by turning up the BPM to 180 and using reggae drum samples. Moombatone is next

I really, really don't get it.

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:35 PM, GRVGLTCHR said:

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 1:49 AM, rddm said:

(Warning: I may not have a clue what I'm talking about here)

 

I really like how John Wizards straddles the line of this Shangaan Electro groove and other stuff, but its obviously not as fast.

Was the older-er (?) iteration of this stuff people are talking in this thread more fun? like JW?

 

Where can I find more fun SE groove stuff?

I hear ya mate, John Wizards definitely puts a more friendly spin on the Shangaan Electro style within there own sound..... at least that's what it sounds like, then again...I may be talking out of my ass.

 

I listened to the self titled again yesterday, and theres a whole array of African style grooves on that album, but really only Limpop really has the Shangaan vibe.

All very good stuff though. I know next to nothing about African music but it all seems pretty cool. Even this Nozinja m8 everyone is getting upset about.

  On 4/2/2014 at 5:39 PM, Obel said:

This track is made with similar quality sounds and is miles better:

 

this is fantastic

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:37 PM, mcbpete said:

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 12:18 AM, varius said:

new track & video

 

[youtubehd]6xl_Xu2dEwA[/youtubehd]

This one's not too bad but flipping heck it seems to go on so long. Quite enjoyed the video though

 

I quite like this one.

meh.

  On 5/4/2014 at 3:57 AM, flim said:

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 4:37 PM, mcbpete said:

 

  On 4/25/2014 at 12:18 AM, varius said:

new track & video

 

[youtubehd]6xl_Xu2dEwA[/youtubehd]

This one's not too bad but flipping heck it seems to go on so long. Quite enjoyed the video though

 

 

I quite like this one.

 

yeah also. just ordered the 12'