New African Disco

Here's Hipsters Don’t Dance "Top World Carnival Tunes" for April 2015.

Dominik Mecko, via Unsplash.

Hipster’s Don’t Dance are back with our chart for April 2015. Enjoy this round of tunes, and remember to visit the HDD blog for all the great up-to-the-time-ness out of London. Also, visit the archive of this series.

Patoranking x Daniella Whine

VP Records’ history making dancehall stars cross-over is impressive, hopefully they will be able to do the same with Patoranking. This 90’s dancehall-esque video by Clarence Peters is really good.

Hagan x Gold Coast EP

We couldn’t choose which track to focus on, but Hagan is really putting together something special. Crafting a UK club sound with flourishes of African club music. Afrohouse is growing in the UK and hopefully this can help.

Joao Victor Alves de Bastos, via Unsplash.

Dotorado x African Scream

So the video for this potentially seminal track just dropped, but more importantly Annie Mac, the UK Queen of all music, had this playing on her show. Granted it was Benji’s B pick but still it’s the start of this great underground track getting UK exposure.

Major Notes x Nu African Disco

This month is leaning very house heavy, but we would be remiss to not mention this EP as well. After the amazing track 419 from last year Major Notes is back with a further exploration of “Nu African Disco”.

Shatta Wale x Reality

Granted this is very much a rip off Popcaan, but Shatta is gaining quite a bit of momentum at the moment so this could be the launch of something big. After the success of Patoranking, why not him next?

Further Reading

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.