Crashing crescendos, soul touching vocals, heart clenching rhythms and eardrum rattling bass lines. A community united in shared revelry. Hinde's Harare debut. Nitefreak's homecoming. An Afro house nirvana.
Zimbabwe's "post Covid" entertainment landscape has seen the birth of a multitude of stars in different art forms, the most recent in the genealogy being the superstar DJs. And no one is more fitting of this characterisation than Nitefreak. From early last year to now, he has had a meteoric rise that seemed almost overnight. Yet that overnight success took years of work.
While his last performance in Harare at Afrobeyond was just 18 months ago, his return to the city with HiNDE, the event he pioneered, was as an artist of a significantly different stature. Yet the change is not with just him, but the Afro house landscape in Zimbabwe as a whole. So much so that Queen Of Hearts felt a little too small for HiNDE's debut in Harare.
In partnership with Samuel Cosmic Roots, Afrobeyond, and Bulawayo Exclusive Events, the 4th edition of HiNDE brought together a curated experience of house music, that could rival any event we've had in recent memory. The baton of DJ decks was passed from one act to the next, with each elevating the level of dexterity on display and the level of difficulty Shazam had in discovering track IDs.
House Warming, the duo of Rori and Mimi Bouvier kicked things off as the sun kissed the earth. A set I unfortunately missed, but nevertheless heard good things about.
Up next came Bam Bam Madame (Kalai Barlow & Nicky Nolly), one of the rising names on the Harare house music scene. Fluidly flowing from one track to the next, they played an Afro house set that felt infused with an EDM undercurrent. An invite to the dance floor that the audience graciously accepted. They maintained a well curated tempo, and excelled in track selection with notable picks such as Sobek's "Jewel Of The Nile," Leon, Moojo & RE\MIND's "Rise," Marasi & Eran Hersh's "Sweet Dreams," and MAXI MERAKI & Idd Aziz's "Tsona."
While Bam Bam Madame's excellence was in the maintenance of tempo, Jay took the baton to give us captivating storytelling. Tension and release, rise and falls, crescendos and diminuendos. If sonic waves could be put into words, his set would be a bestseller (and I have the Shazams to support this assertion). The zenith of the tale being the Francis Mercier Remix of Miishu & Emmanuel Jal's "Yuma."
When Samuel Cosmic took over, the decks were now definitely a hot seat, but he was however teflon. Where Jay left off, he carried on with ease. As his set ebbed and flowed it was echoed by the atmosphere within the Queen Of Hearts. When "Mogre" finally came on and Steve Atambire wailed "Samuel, Samuel, Samuel..." over the speakers, the stage was now perfectly set for the star of the night. His collaboration with &friends, "Halele," was his closing summation as he passed the baton to Nitefreak.
Commenceing his set with his Ode Ireti remix, it wasn't long before Nitefreak had the decks overheating (literally). So much so that there was a pause in proceedings while a fan was connected to cool them down. However we were soon underway again and that momentary glitch was soon forgotten. Captured by African rhythms, the only thing that now mattered to every soul in attendance was the now.
Nitefreak had the decks as his conductor's wand while he guided an orchestra of human limbs. A crowd swaying in motion to every tilt in rhythm. "Not The Same" was greeted with furor, "Premier Gaou Remix" ignited a chorus of singing voices and the drop on "Gorah" sent a euphoric wave across the entire audience. Between these pinnacles were unknowns that the ear instantly fell in love with but Shazam often couldn't find.
Sheer ecstasy was the feeling, and Afro house was the drug, with Nitefreak as the dealer. If everyone hadn't already been on their feet, he would've left to a standing ovation.
Now if music is said to be art that occupies sound, then Ryan Synth is surely Leonardo Da Vinci. Because everytime I see him perform he paints a sonic Monalisa. HiNDE was another one to hang at the Louvre. His gift is not only in beat matching and skilled integration in moving from one track to the next but in a rich music vocabulary that keeps on growing. When he gets his chance he's certainly going to set the international scene alight. I would've said even nicer words but I'm still holding it against him that I requested a song and he said "Come to Bulawayo tomorrow dawg and you'll hear it!"
If there was any doubt about Afro house's growing influence in Zimbabwe, then HiNDE certainly stamped it out. Nitefreak was welcomed as a returning hometown hero, and it was not just him basking in glory but every DJ on the night got to have their moment in the spotlight. While in an equal trade the audience was elevated to the peaks of euphoria. HiNDE right on the moni. A debut that will be long remembered.
Greedysouth rating: 8.4/10
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