The fourth volume in the series Digital Indigenous gives carte blanche to DJ Kapwanthi. The Malawian creative delivers seven fast-paced, optimistic titles, available April 4th.
1000Hz diggers team up with Malawian DJ Kapwanthi in new installment in the series Digital Indigenous. In 2020, the Polish label began the adventure with Andy One and his EP Home Africa. The producer and songwriter then delivered a deep and personal project, addressing religion, loneliness and unity. Its themes were accompanied by a soundtrack that was both traditional and electronic, on tunes of ngoni, tumbuka, reggae, hip-hop and afropop. For the second volume – and its euphoric PAM Club – DJ Kainga, originally from Lomwe in southern Malawi, fused local sounds with electro and dancehall rhythms. Then Happy Mphanda took over with a performance full of emotion. His family hymns (Happy’s group is made up of his brothers and cousins) then paid homage to his deceased younger brother Relke, and to the Ngoni people of southern Africa. This time, it’s the turn of DJ Kapwanthi, also lowme, to shine on seven titles.
Like the pioneers of Nigerian cruise beat, DJ Kapwanthi recuts, edits and reimagines excerpts from Malawian and African films and videos. And like the cruise beat, his music is broadcast almost exclusively via Whatsapp. From his computer, taken in the twists and turns of the FL Studio software, the DJ manages to mix modernity and tradition, lowme rhythms and regional instruments. On titles like “MP4MP3”, “AVIMP3” and “MOVMP3”, we hear Sansi. This cousin of the mbira, an idiophone with metal plates, is very popular in Zimbabwe and Malawi. On other emotional tracks like “Wachitaya Chikond Changa” (He lost my love) or “Kdikakwatile Kubala” (I’m going to get married and give birth), he uses local sounds to convey deep messages. On an electro track with joyful accents, the DJ questions the place of the genre in his community. Digital Indigenous 04 : MP4MP3 tells the joy, the hopes and the resilience of a lowme people long discriminated against, but on the way to emancipation, and to better days.
