Arts Review

Written by: Thokozani Mhlambi, Joburg

I was fortunate enough to see U.K deep house duo Tom Lynch and Chris Feinmann, not once but twice, during their recent whistle-stop tour of South Africa. Their first performance at Bar9 in Midrand was a little unsatisfactory, the turnout was disappointing, and I felt the gig didn’t reveal the duo at their best. So being the party-animal that I am, I decided to follow them all the way to House 22 in Pretoria for their next performance. This was a great move on my side because y’all know how people from Pitori like to get down. The crowd was wilder and more than ready to get greasy on the dance-floor!

House 22 as a venue caters for all tastes. If you like it cosy you can chill in the bohemian lounges around the venue and still be able to hear the music. And if you wanna get down, you can equally make your mark on the dance-floor, all night long. But one thing that stood out for me that night was the way up-and-coming deejays were gawking at Tom and Chris, examining every single mix to take note of its precision. This, I must say, can be a bit overwhelming for the deejay in action, especially if their mixing skills ain’t up to scratch. House 22 offers no opportunity for chancers or first-timers and judging from the occasional nods from the group around the deejay box, I would say Tom and Chris, lived up to their expectations pretty well.

Still wondering who Tom and Chris are? Well, they are two top-notch vinyl players all the way from the U.K who belong to a Manchester-based deep house clubber’s group known as Development. Unlike their football fans, they weren’t wearing any red… unfortunately. They actually looked pretty suave in their clubbing gear, and they even wore our very own home-grown Amakipkip shirts! Okay back to the music, their sound really has an appeal for a South African crowd and ranges from deep soulful tracks to a funked-up, groovy sound. They definitely have the right idea in mind!

The duo was lucky to have one of Mzansi’s best house deejays, Vinny da Vinci, as their ‘tour-guide’ the whole weekend. He really has a good sense of Gauteng’s deep house scene and did a good job of warming-up the party. You see, South Africans really like house music, but to get them on the dance floor you really need to play what they want! This usually presents quite a challenge for international deejays, especially if they haven’t been given the low-down on how we do things. Fortunately for Tom and Chris, Da Vinci was there to fulfil this task.

I really like the idea of international deejays coming to South Africa to perform. A lot of South Africans tend to think of house music as a local phenomenon, due to its incredible popularity in the country—from minibus taxis, to township taverns and upmarket clubs, house music prevails in SA!

Having international deejays come over here serves as constant reminder of house music’s global appeal. House music pumps in all kinds of places around the globe, from Japan to the United States. In all these places, people appreciate increasingly similar house artists, the Dennis Ferrer’s, the Roccos and Louis Vegas of this world, you name them.

The opportunity to participate in this ‘imagined community’ of house music lovers around the world is an incredibly fulfilling one to me, as a South African. It reminds us all that no matter who you are, or what you do, you are human and you are part of a global community of other human beings, who may share similar tastes in music, whilst still retaining their diverse interests, languages and culture.

In as much as we can listen to a global genre like house, there are still some factors in the way we do house which make us different. They way we dance to house music, for example, is extremely different from the way people dance in other parts of the world. The chanting we do, such as “Ayobayo” or “Ayobaness”, is very unique to Mzansi and sets us apart within that global community. Tom and Chris, definitely picked up on this, especially Tom whom I saw chanting rhythmically at some point.

But notwithstanding all our uniqueness, there is something vaguely familiar in the way we do our House all over the globe. Later that night, my friends and I had a long conversation with Tom who pointed out how similar the experience is for him, in Johannesburg as it is in Manchester. There we were, complete strangers, but we were able to connect like long-lost friends based on one unifying factor: house music.