THE HOUSE OF SUN-EL: Sun-El Musician, Simmy, Mlindo The Vocalist, and other related artists

Emakhaya is amazing

they’re both amazing, is where I’m at right now

Simmy, Tugela Fairy (Made Of Stars), 16 tracks, out Nov 6

Sun-El Musician, To The World And Beyond, 31 (!) tracks, out Dec 4

Nobuhle live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Om1iPPfex4

(the first song hasn't been released yet)

i think i might prefer "never never" for now! but they're both essential and i can't wait for their albums

both gorgeous. this and the rolling afropop thread have opened me up to the best new stuff since I’ve been on ilx - thanks!

please don't yell at me for saying so, but the melody of some of the backing vocals in "emakhaya" reminds me of bob sinclar's "world, hold on"

don't think even Simmy is going to yell at you, she retweeted several tweets like this:

Simmy- Emakhaya (feat. Da Capo, Sun-El Musician)

That "World hold on" humming part😭😭. pic.twitter.com/28aBpTP0C9

— Thyophò (@aphumelele_m) October 16, 2020

Another one I posted on the Baby Are You Coming? thread, but I feel people here could do with some amapiano relaxation as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWo9vo9ZgvA
Kota Embassy ft. Cue • Sugar Mama

(this possibly outvibes even DJ Stokie’s “Senorita”)

oh thank goodness! xp

lovely video for "Emakhaya":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kkdRc4FCs0

fun fact: Simmy calls herself (or at least her albums) “Tugela Fairy” because she’s from Tugela Ferry in KwaZulu Natal province, a town named after the ferry across the Tugela River that operated here and has since been replaced by the steel bridge you see in the video.

Wow that's the heart of Zululand, it's not far off Isandlwana, and I checked, the area is King's land (Ingonyama). She's basically in the homelands stepping on the skulls of dead British soldiers :D

lol the Sun-el album is 159 mins long

he is probably the only person right now whose 159-minute-long album i would actually anticipate listening to

...and another one (found out through forks' October favourites list):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K09EbOCfoGU
Sun-EL Musician ft. Julia Church • Garden

in songs I like better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWKoDuyuzVs
Mthandazo Gatya ft. DJ Manzo SA & Comado • Senzeni

(reminder: the non-edited version is 6'24)

This folky one is very pretty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tu2Wsd3AjE
Sbahle • Emlanjeni

brand new video for a track from last year's S-Tone *EP* (as opposed to this year's S-Tone *album*):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYw9dfVd_oc
S-Tone ft. Simmy • Vuka Africa

Sha Sha’s voice is so soothing to me on this awful day

"senzeni" is really good

fully expecting the sun-el album to be too much, 31 tracks/2.5 hours is totally ridiculous

in case you don’t have no plans for tomorrow night:

@simmymusicsa launches her album tomorrow!!, 🌟💛 at Pmb.. Alongside @azanamusic and myself
!!
Tugela Fairy ( Made of Stars) has Arrived!! pic.twitter.com/4r1ATmOMXA

— NobuhleMusic (@NobuhleMusic) November 5, 2020

ooh it's out here now and sounding great

"konke"!

well that's my friday listening all day then

listened to this once this morning, now going for seconds. it’s sounding very good indeed. it really gets going from track 5 (“Imihla nezolo”). that whole middle section is fire - a warm, comforting fire.
highlight of the first go-round for me might have been “Ngiyahamba” with Mthunzi.

“Konke” is very good as well, it’s the only track produced by Claudio (of x Kenza fame)

xp to ufo

another track from the Sun-El album dropped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a90xU2bQEZ0
Sun-El Musician ft. Ami Faku • Mandinaye

geez

that album's gonna be so good isn't it, even if it's a long double album

Was curious initially that this and the Simmy albums were dropping in fall/winter and then I realized in South Africa it's spring/summer - the perfect time for these records.

Good god Emakhaya is so gorgeous. Sun-el really has that magic touch as a producer. I cannot wait for his to drop soon. Gonna be really really nice to have some of his warmth for this cold and dark winter.

"mandinaye" is fantastic, wow. i sure hope he's able to keep it up for the entire 2.5 hours lol

“December” is a really big thing in SA, it’s the festive season and the summer holidays rolled into one, so everyone is on a quest for the biggest December song.

xps

I'm just getting around to the Simmy album, and it is of course excellent. This year is honestly too much...

It took me awhile but Simmy's Tugela Fairy LP COMPLETELY got its hooks in me over the past two weeks, making it hard to listen to anything else. There are a few clunkers ('We Were Here' and 'Time After Time') but it's pretty unassailable as a complete album. Much the same as the first one though, it required regular repeat plays to fully sink in... songs like 'Wamuhle' and 'Mabhungu,' which now feel indispensable, were kinda blah on first listen.

That said, I would still say 'Emakhaya' is the best of the bunch. And I'm still loving 'Yaz Abantu'! I feel like both are legit worth pushing as best of the year songs.

ladies x gentlemen, Claudio x Kenza:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcKHw0rtWss
Claudio x Kenza ft. Omi Kobi • Pot of Gold

see them perform it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMWGGKsfntY
Q Twins ft. Claudio x Kenza • Vuma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tz7ngRcC9w
Nobuhle ft. Claudio x Kenza • Phezulu
(not yet released, live performance)

...and oh hey, I got a little samthing for ya:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhVc2wq5JAs
Samthing Soweto ft. De Mthuda • Weekend

this new Simmy record 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

I think “Imihla Nezolo” is my favourite track - that bass, those “hey, hey”s.

Also, Sun-El & Ami Faku’s “Mandinaye” keeps growing and growing on me. It’s so beautiful.

yes the simmy album is really good, shame on me for taking so long to get to it

I went to listen to the Simmy on hike today, typed in Simi by accident and lo and behold I like her too! (Updated highlife from what I've gathered so far)

just leaving this here: an online launch event for the Sun-El album that starts in 10 hours (23h15 until midnight SA time). it’s free, but you have to register your info at some event ticketing/payment company platform in order to validate your ticket, which made me decide to pass on this opportunity, but ymmv:

#ToTheWorldAndBeyon #ttwab Don’t miss out the virtual concert tonight 03/12/2020 (23:15).
Register for free at: https://t.co/QsLuV7lQ3o
Follow the commander @sunelmusicianza for more info.

— Sphiwe Aaron Zwane  (@Sphiwe_Zwane) December 3, 2020

btw Sun-El has dropped four more new tracks in the past four days. I now feel confident enough to make the following predictions for the album:

• there will be loads of great music on it
• and plenty of less than great music as well
• 1+1=2: it will be much too long

i expect that at the very least it'll be possible to carve an excellent ~hour of music out of it

oh for sure
also: it's unlikely i'll be able to sufficiently listen to it before the end of January

i will not have enough time to listen to the whole thing before i should sleep so i think i'll just start w/ vol. 1 tonight

opener is v epic... i think that's a "nature boy" interpolation for a few seconds?... despite being relatively unmoved by some of the preview tracks i'm not especially confident in that prediction breastcrawl. but we shall see!

have only listened to the first disc so far but it's all gorgeous. only issue is when the album is 80 minutes long, the songs do blend together a bit, so it'll take a while to really wrap my head around it.

he's said the first disc is supposed to be his classic sound (he certainly succeeded there!) and the second disc is him experimenting and broadening his sound so i'm curious how different it will be. i didn't like "chasing the summer" much when i listened to it yesterday though.

that virtual concert I mentioned the other day is now on YouTube, and serves as a wonderful good-old-fashioned-album-length introduction to this ambitious endeavour - 46 minutes to the album’s 156:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5aPZ6-I71Y

very nice visuals too, and Tout EL World shows up - with the exception of Claudio x Kenza

listened to the whole thing yesterday, sorta let it wash over me in the semi-background. most everything sounded good at the very least. hope to discover some stunners when I’ll be playing it loud. (“Lengane” with Simmy is probably one, it’s been around for a while).

there was one immediate lovely surprise for me tho, the track I happened to play last of all: the very un-Sun-El-like “No Drama” which has an amapiano-by-way-of-West-Africa feel.