Currently in rotation. If you’re a deep house fan, you’ll lose your sh*t over this. Yeah, it’s that good. Definitely NOT music to have on when you’re trying to write. I discovered this in my IG feed on Saturday, and thought I’d let it play in the background. Big mistake: I ended up a day behind on some really important correspondence.
First, most of y’all have heard of house music but, you ask, what’s deep house? According to this definition on Reddit, it’s somewhat slower, darker and more bass-driven than regular house, which tends to be brighter and more percussion-driven. Dig it.
DJ Lynnée Denise calls her mixes “musical essays” and she’s created an extensive body of work here. For further context, she’s has worked hard to reposition the “DJ from a party purveyor to an archivist, cultural custodian and information specialist of music with critical value.” About this musical essay, she writes:
It’s been four years since I released my last mix, and six years since I released a musical essay from my Afro-Digital Migration series. House Music in Post-Apartheid South Africa. The gap in time is a reflection of the shift in direction my practice has taken since I’ve moved from behind the turntables into the university classroom. DJ Scholarship took me to new places—but South Africa continues to call me home to the decks. In November of 2019 I was indoctrinated into the sound movement known as Amapiano, a sub-genre of deep house that nods its head to the tempo of Kwaito and uses the organ as a primary time machine for Diasporic travel. Imagine if the global Black church had an 808 drum near the choir stand. Amapiano is closely related to what I call Blues Ministry, that genre of music that samples and creates an interdependent relationship between the sacred and the profane. Spiritually fucked by the bass.
Sonically, it’s an incredibly enthralling sound. The bass envelopes you, insistent and seductive. And rooted in South African rhythmic and vocal sensibilities, the whole thing is a provocation to move.
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