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

ain't no stopping us the sun is out let's have some fun https://2c.zol-img.com.cn/product/29_1200x900/744/ceIJSwLhp0LM6.gif

i'm glad simmy will be putting out her own album

i also love lelo kamau's vocal on "goodbye" especially

yesss "sengimoja" has a video now too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4lhMWpUZVg

def another album highlight

Mlindo The Vocalist, the... singer who’s featured on “Bamthathile”, has his own album out (he worked with DJ Maphorisa though, not with Sun-El).

“AmaBlesser” is the hit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WWwuUeXQRg

Simmy dropped three tracks of her upcoming album. Very hard to choose between them, they’re all gorgeous, but I’m picking “Umahlalela”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1c8eD6NZyA

This seems as good a place as any to post this majestic Heavy K track that's in a similar (but perhaps more euphoric) vein:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoR2UVK8OPc

Yes, that’s a good one.

But damn it, I can’t not post “Ngiyesaba” also. Bring it on, Simmy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koOMqVjHcKg

the Simmy album is out 16 November, super excited for that, all the singles are fantastic

the three simmy tracks are all rly impressive. and "ubala" ofc is gorgeous. anticipating the album!

“Umahlalela” is the highest scoring song of the year in The Singles Jukebox:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=26580

Tugela Fairy is divine, especially loving Njalo (Ufikile) and Vele Kungcono

Jealous of your ears, ufo! I trust it to be on Spotify by tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in a similarish vein, Bucie also dropped an album this week, Rebirth. It didn’t really grab me on first listen, but “Soz’ Uphinde” (which I posted on the Afropop thread a while back) is very good, and closing track “Glory” stood out as well. The highlight for me is “You Chose Me” with Yemi Alade, an unexpected delight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xsp4IzlGsc

“Umahlalela” is the highest scoring song of the year in The Singles Jukebox:
― breastcrawl, Thursday, November 15, 2018 12:52 PM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I guess I'm disappointed this is not a cover of Mahlalela (by Letta Mbulu). Though I think it's still a traditional South African "chant". I wish there was a list / anthology somewhere of these folk songs. At least ever since I heard the soundtrack of Sarafina (which I can't resist to post two from).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGpOVquHkH0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPGy8utYD0Q

those simmy tracks are great

The album is on spotify now. It's good.

yeh it is cheers, this is lovely friday afternoon stuff

Such a wonderful album. The whole stretch from “Hamba Juba” to “Ngonile” is flawless.

Such a beautiful album.

just been listening to it all week

ummm so i was at my 10-year high school reunion tonight (lol) and fucking "akanamali" was on the playlist at the bar where it was hosted. i freaked out slightly and actually briefly asked around as to who put the playlist together. fess up, which one of you was it?!?

Listening to this again after a few days’ hiatus, and me totally otm:

The whole stretch from “Hamba Juba” to “Ngonile” is flawless.

ditto

Video for Simmy’s “Umahlalela”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h1-TgYur4g

Sun-EL’s video for “Ntaba Ezikude” (featuring Simmy!) is out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttO-lvil80w

Tugela Fairy also happens to be the perfect Xmas album

Have yourself a Simmy little Christmas!

so much great music across these albums

Thee Legacy (who some of you hopefully remember from Zinaro’s “Dali Wami” I posted here last year - a classic to my ears) have a song out with Mlindo and DJ Maphorisa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENoztdJHrNQ

“Thando”

And yes people, this thread doubles as the Simmy thread. Perhaps a mod can change the title accordingly? How do these things work?

Good idea. Just start a new thread on this board: https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/NewAnswersControllerServlet?boardid=56

"Thando" is lovely

very nice

Does anyone know if there's any place outside SA where I could buy a physical copy of the Simmy album? Or even a FLAC version of it? I tried to look for it but it seems the CD is only available in local record stores that don't deliver internationally, and even the digital version can only be bought in places like Amazon, which only sell MP3s.

Will definitely be looking for it when I’m off to Cape Town in two weeks.

Oh man, where are you located normally? If it's not too much to ask, I'd be willing to pay you via Paypal for the CD + mailing it to Finland + a bit extra for your troubles, if you'd manage to get a me a copy too?

I’m in Oslo, so that shouldn’t be impossible. Will see what I can do!

There’s a shop on Waterfront that should have this and more iirc.

Cool, thanks a bunch! If you do manage to find it, just email me at tuomast DOT alho AT gmail DOT com (yes, it's "tuomast" with a "t" in the end) and I'll pay for you for everything.

Will do!

ufo, how do you feel about changing the thread title? You started this thread after all. Are you okay with it?

And what should the new title be? Keep it basic and just add “ + Simmy - Tugela Fairy”, or expand it a little?

I was thinking of “THE HOUSE OF SUN-EL: Sun-El Musician, Simmy, Mlindo The Vocalist, and other related artists”
(most of the Mlindo talk has been on the Rolling thread, but it would be a good fit obviously - and Samthing Soweto has an album coming out soon too, as someone mentioned on the roll out thread)

Or we could just go for “Sun-El and Simmy-lar stuff” lol

Any thoughts?

changing the title to include Simmy seems like a sensible idea and i'm all for it, but if we want a thread to encompass the broader scene then maybe making a new rolling south african pop thread to encompass this stuff as well as gqom etc. would be a good idea? that's up to you though, since that'd be splitting off from the afropop thread where that discussion's mostly taken place up until now.

I think this is a decent sleeper shout to top the albums poll this year, there are a lot of records that are in with a shout but the love this one generates is huge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGurSnJozu4

anyway with the title change, here's "Mobi Dixon - Abantu ft. Samthing Soweto". going to have to check out Mobi Dixon's album from last year based on this, it's very upbeat afrohouse

Cool! I actually like that this thread is kind of limited in scope. In a perfect ILM world we would have separate Rolling South African, Rolling Nigerian, Rolling Ghanaian, Rolling East African, etc etc threads, but with the current level of participation/enthusiasm being what it is, one catch-all Rolling Afropop thread is enough imho. We do branch out a bit when necessary with things like the Wizkid and Burna threads anyway (and with this one obviously).

like the new thread title

the mobi dixon track is really nice, reminds me a lot of mj though i'm not sure why. i like pretty much everything that comes out of this scene, even though i tend to be hit and miss on afrobeats in general

Useful (and possibly overlooked) post by kruezer2 on the Top 77 Tracks rollout thread:

"akanamali" definitely crossed over from tsj. the discussion on his album's thread has been reasonably active all year so i think simmy's music must have come up there quite shortly after being released, no tsj-acclaim needed.

"amablesser" was nominated btw, so it could still make it! (tho honestly i doubt it would place above "ubala" et al.) i nominated it but didn't end up having room for it on my ballot lol.

"banomoya" might be my favorite of all the songs i hadn't heard before from this poll so the post upthread stating that it was a big hit in south africa tells me that i should probably just start listening to south african radio already

― dyl, Thursday, January 31, 2019 12:30 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

“AmaBlesser” was a big pop hit there too (just like “Akanamali” itself, the other Sun-El singles did very well too). The Mlindo and Simmy albums are both currently top 10 streaming in SA. It’s actual popular music. Finding the right radio station would be a treat, no doubt!

xp

― breastcrawl, Thursday, January 31, 2019 1:51 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i listen to a couple durban stations online at times. try Ukhozi 90.8 FM or Gagasi 99.5. i don't know any stations in Joburg or Capetown though.

― Will (kruezer2), donderdag 31 januari 2019 15:43 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Like most people, I have a bunch of playlists where I park stuff as I find it, themed playlists, on the go yadda yadda - all that 'halfway house' shit that has cropped up since streaming. This stuff is having quite the effect on me and I don't know where to put it: I kind of want an exclusive 'light caught in a slow falling drop of moisture as the sun comes out after a rain shower' micro-playlist. 'Ubala' is fucking perfect.

Tugela Fairy is just heaven. Wish I could have put in a vote for it.

^^this. Umahlalela made it onto my singles ballot but didn't have time to check out the rest of the album - would definitely have voted for it if I had it.

did not realise until now that DJ Maphorisa co-produced Drake's "One Dance" lol