Kid Fonque releases a hypnotic and stretched-out afro house refix of Bokani Dyer’s scintillating funk track ‘Ke Nako (feat. Sereetsi and the Natives)’ from last year’s Radio Sechaba album. In Kid Fonque’s expert hands, the track is extended into a 10-minute epic cosmic dance floor journey that perfectly manages to trace a line between the mainstream South African electronic sounds dominating the globe and the nation’s Jazz underground, bubbling below the surface. Ke Nako (feat. Sereetsi and the Natives) [Kid Fonque Refix] is out 13th March 2024 on Brownswood Recordings. Listen here
In recent years the electronic music coming out of South Africa has blown up. Amapiano, Gqom, Shangaan electro and afro house beats have been blasting their way through sound systems all around the world. Kid Fonque has been one of the main figures at the centre of this wave. A veteran DJ and producer who has been pushing South African club music for over 20 years through his sets, remixes and productions and his work as director of A&R at dance music giants Defected Records and his own label Stay True Sounds.
While the dance music from the Rainbow nation has been grabbing the headlines, its jazz scene has also been catching curious ears, driven by similar key players and releases pushing the genre forward. Bokani Dyer is one of those. Radio Sechaba, his latest LP on Brownswood Recordings, brought together some of the key musicians from the movement; including many of the players on Shabaka & The Ancestors’ Wisdom of Elders album. It served up a searing hot take on the state of South African cultural identity today, drenched in jazz, funk, soul and high-life.
The album featured a new version of Dyer’s ‘Ke Nako’ (originally released on the Indaba Is compilation), with fresh vocals and a guitar-led groove that brought out the nascent afrobeat elements. It’s this cut that Kid Fonque reimagines. The original’s wriggling bassline is introduced over atmospheric synth arpeggios and driving electronic House percussion. This becomes the track’s sparse bedrock over which Kid Fonque floats Ke Nako’s soulful, yearning vocals and idiosyncratic funky horn riffs. The refix perfectly merges the virtuosic musicianship of the original with the atmospheric electronics that have become a hallmark of South African dance music in recent years. Kid Fonque finds a way to bring the two movements into perfect synergy in seamless fashion – opening up the jazz to a new club audience.
Ke Nako (feat. Sereetsi and the Natives) [Kid Fonque Refix] is due 13th March 2024 via Brownswood Recordings.
