Cutting Cake with Moonchild Sanelly
The moon is an intriguing body. Its shape evolves throughout the month, its gravity pulls on our waters, and it shines the light that stirs love and romance. It’s captivating, and on some nights, has a slightly spooky edge. The same, and more, could be said about Moonchild Sanelly. Despite being told by Idols judges Randall Abrahams and Mara Louw that she wasn’t anything special, Moonchild Sanelly has waxed into a ghetto funk artist bristling with life and authenticity. Her enigmatic sound is the result of a lifelong self-education in Hip Hop, Kwaito, Jazz, Funk and Dance music. A graduate of the ‘University of Authenticity’, as many call the Durban music scene, her music possesses a soulful individuality that speaks of the drumming circles and spoken poetry performances that marked her time there. Moonchild is uninterested in packaging herself into a ‘marketable’ product, as prescribed by any number of industry experts. And her current success as an independent, unsigned artist has shown that this is in fact not necessary. “I don’t want anyone to put a weave on me, and I don’t need to make an English track to gain acceptance from my audience,” she says. For now, both Moonchild and her current PR representatives are very excited about her prospects for collaboration as an independent artist. “There are so many people that I would love to work with and I now have the choice to reach out to them. Record labels often gag creative collaboration based on the argument that the collaboration ‘doesn’t make sense’ or ‘isn’t right’,” she explains. “How can that be true if I am inspired by someone and I believe that we could create something cool together?” The choice to remain true to herself as an artist, and to not as a brand, has resulted in a diverse body of work that resonates with a wide audience. The truly remarkable quality of Moonchild Sanelly is the fact that she proudly and authentically lives the new, vibrant and relevant African aesthetic. This new aesthetic recognises what has come before, and is an afropunk movement rich in cultural innovation. She’s therefore part of the Renaissance that’s redefining what African looks, sounds and feels like. “When I was studying fashion design, I refused to use traditional prints. I don’t have to do that, or any other obvious thing to be African. Anything that stems from me is naturally African. I don’t need to return to the past to claim my identity. I’d rather evolve from it into an original direction,” says Moonchild. “This is something that respected musicians...
The Warner Music Fashion Experience with Amos Tranque & Ephraim Malingoane at SAFW AW16
By Ludwig Spies Fashion and music have been lovers for a very long time, continuously and heavily influencing one another. Both are intensely sensorial forms of expression and together they give rise to cultural movements that embody the mood, attitudes, ideals, context and the anxieties of a generation. This year SAFW AW16 saw Warner Music SA partner with designers Amos Tranque and Ephraim Molingoana to produce a climactic end show for the week. The atmosphere in the show tent was positively electric, and the guests could not help but smile when the iconic high-pitched notes of Madonna’s Vogue rang out from the speakers. The show opened with the scientific severity of Tranque and ended with Ephymol’s richesse. The mere fact that a menswear show could be produced to showcase this juxtaposition is a testament to the development of the South African fashion industry. Read the details below. AMOS TRANQUE by Amos Tranque 1-WORD-DESCRIPTION: Fundamental DESIGN: 9/10 INNOVATION: 10/10 WEARABILITY: 9/10 In The South African Fashion Handbook Tranque explains that he draws inspiration from disciplines like psychology, science and philosophy. This intellectual orientation was evident in his collection, yet the final product was highly wearable. This must be due to a keen ability to deconstruct his sources of inspiration and apply their fundamentals in a functional way to the business of creating clothes. Hence, one cannot help but draw the parallel between Tranque and cubist painter and fellow Spaniard, Picasso. Tranque’s collection featured robust, geometric designs in a black, white and grey palette, and smooth, acrylic and vinyl textures perfected the hypermodern style of the garments. There is no doubt the South African market has gained greatly from the addition to the industry of Tranque’s fashion architecture. Web: amostranque.com Facebook: http://amostranque EPHYMOL by Ephraim Molingoana 1-WORD-DESCRIPTION: Snazzy DESIGN: 10/10 INNOVATION: 8/10 WEARABILITY: 10/10 Molingoana revisited the suave 70s with a collection of boldly patterned form-fitting suits, tailored trousers and tight long-sleeved tops with minimal collars. The cuts and the palette of muted coppers, bronzes, steel, army greens and artichoke were reminiscent of 70s playboys and older military uniforms. The garments had the fantastic effect of accentuating the contours of the male body – highlighting the shoulders, the S-curve of the spine and the perk of the derrière. Glamorous alpha masculinity with a dose of good-humoured...
Freshlyground to slay at 2015 MTN Bushfire
SoulProviders East will be REPRESENTing at this year’s annual MTN Bushfire Music Festival and we chatted to Freshlyground to find out what we can expect from them this year: You’ve performed at House on Fire in Swaziland, how was the reception and the crowd? It is not an exaggeration when I say that House in Fire is one of our favorite venues to play in the world. There is something particularly special about that space and the Swazi audiences are amazing! You’re one of the artists performing at MTN Bushfire this year, what are your expectations from the Swaziland fans? Their usual incredible fashion taste, beautiful faces, beautiful girls and boys and amazing energy – Swazi audiences always show us so much love What can the fans expect from Freshlyground? It has been a while since we have been at Bush Fire so we will definitely be bringing the Fire. We have also been working on some new material and we will be performing that for sure. Will you be playing some new songs at Bushfire? Yes! You’ve been touring internationally for a long time now, how has that journey been and how did you grow as a band? It has been an incredible journey. We do not take for granted the great gift that is being able to travel the world and make a living through music, through doing what we love! We have seen so many countries and met so many wonderful people all over the world! How’s the music scene in S.A different from the international ones? I don’t know that I can really expertly speak on this. I think there is some great experimentation happening in the SA music scene but I think that is happening all over. I think the global music scene has become a hard place to navigate, and as more and more people are using the internet as the source from which they get their music, whether its downloads or streaming – musicians are having to be more inventive about how they get their music to their fans, and it is more and more about playing live. I think this is the situation everywhere – in some ways we are still lucky in SA as people do still buy music because our connectivity is not that great or widespread- so we still have ways of selling music, but that is definitely going to change in the next few years and as musicians we are really having to jump through hoops and get really clever about marketing and distribution of our product – and we have to continue to make our live...
Project Maboneng: Street Festival to celebrate the expansion of the precinct
With what seems to be one of the most exciting developments in downtown Johannesburg over the past few years, the Maboneng Precinct has clearly made an impression in the hearts of young people, attracting all ages, races and ethnic groups to its streets. From trendy themed restaurants and office space to lodging, fashion stores and even a new age cinema, the precinct is one of the coolest hubs in the inner city. And in celebration of the recent expansion of the Maboneng Precinct in downtown Johannesburg, the managing and social committee has decided to launch the exciting project with a massive hip-hop street festival. Aptly named ‘PROJECT MABONENG’ the fest will feature local and international talent and will take place later this month. With a huge local line-line-up of the best of SA hip-hop, PROJECT MABONENG will also feature a powerhouse international headliner to be announced next week. The street themed festival hopes to attract a mixed crowd further encouraging and supporting the development and infrastructure of the Maboneng precinct and the inner-city as a whole. PROJECT MABONENG LINE UP: Cassper Nyovest Ifani Okmalukoolkat Riky Rick Kid X Kwesta Milkshake, Dimplez and Vigi Twins on Decks Speedsta Sphe and Naves Hiphop artist, entrepreneur and concert organizer George Avakian stated that PROJECT MABONENG will feature some of SA’s hip hop royalty, in addition to an infamous international outfit which aims to attracts over 5 000 people. ‘We are so excited to launch the new inner-city development with a mass celebration of this kind. We hope to attract even more people to come experience the vibrancy of the precinct for themselves, and what better way to do it than with a street festival.’ Doors open at midday while the 12-hour street festival experience will cost R325 per person. A convenient ‘Park & Ride service will be available to and from the Joburg stadium and is included in the ticket price. Limited tickets go on sale this week at TicketPro (www.Ticketpro.co.za)....
Inside A Mind of design: Meet our new junior designer, Cookie Mylo
By Lindelwa R SoulProviders recently added a new designer to the team; Mahlohonolo Tshangela. The other day last week I stole him from his busy day to have a chat about designer things and his bad movie-watching habits. What do you like to watch? First of all, he does not like to watch movies (you will find out in Q3 why), he watches a lot of music videos, and TV shows “…old stuff.” he says, like Scrubs & Supernatural. He spends most of his TV-time watching tutorials, about things. Favourite books… His favourite books are “Screw it, Let’s do it” by Sir Richard Branson & “The Soul Connection” by Anne Jones. I had to Google the latter publication, and just as I suspected it’s a one of those ‘get in touch with your higher self’ guides. Lo walks around the office with an air of calm around him, no surprise he’s about meditation authors. Do you like eBooks or paper backs? “As a designer you’re facing a computer screen all day…” – I expected that he would be a digital reader, that as a digital designer he is immune to the computer screen-induced nausea and headaches. It’s nice to know there are still people who love the smell of paper along with the words. “Print is different” Does being a designer influence your choice of magazines, books and/or the types of movies you watch? T’was a definite yes on the magazines, he reads magazines which are informative and relevant to his interests in respect to what he does. On book choices he said he is “…directed by the heart and soul of the book.” “I don’t watch movies ‘cause I have an eye for these things Do you enjoy being a [graphic] designer? “I find that the term ‘designer’ is [a limited label] just another one of the boxes we’ve been put into. To me it’s just another hat on my head. I prefer to be [referred to as] an artist who delivers his work through design. It’s the hate which keeps my tummy full,” and then he whispers “…Can I say that?” “Being an artist is one of the greatest things ever; your mind is constantly growing. There are things which influence [me] and I become excited to try them in my next design. You burn passion always looking for new ways to do things. Get inspired. It’s really nice seeing great art things and it motivates [me] to look for greater solutions.” He said to me, artists are like onions – they have so many layers – and as you peel away at each of them,...
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