NGOMA Polyrhythmus

2nd in the Tri-Continental series of exquisitely constructed mixes of contemporary electronic music from Africa, Asia, and South America. This one is a mid-tempo (around 106bpm) collection of Amapiano from not only South Africa, but also Nigeria and Tanzania, Domenican Dembow, Jamaican Dancehall, Macedonian čoček, Syrian and Palestinian Dabke, Saudi Arabian Samri, Chinese Uyghurche Moda Nakhsha, Afghan Pāp Musiqi, Indian Pop, Mexican Cumbia, Brazilian Baile-Funk, Moroccan Afrobeats, Egyptian Chaabi, and more.

New School Amapiano strains such as Sgija is darker and rougher, with more aggressive log-bass, and tends to be slower, around 110 bpm (although here pitched up to the classic 114). Sgija dominates this mix but several other styles which are sometimes more pop and groove oriented are also represented in the second half, including some Nigerian amapiano inspired Freebeat.

The Truth by Dj Zhao

Rateup Maseukat Dj Zhao Remix by Dj Zhao

F**k Deep House. Today it's all about Deep State House

work in progress

Cheikha Rimitti - Mohammed Ay Sidi Dj Zhao Remix by Dj Zhao

21st Century urban electronic music of Africa, Asia, and South America:  Nigerian Cruisebeat, Saudi Arabian Samri, Hausa Jams, New school Brazillian Funk, Dominican Dembow, Lebanese Dabke, South African Amapiano, Ghanaian Asorkpor, Jamaican Dancehall...

During all of human history, cultures have always traded goods, recipes, rhythms, ideas, and different peoples have always intermingled and intermarried. For millennia Africans, Arabs, Persians, Indians, Chinese, and Europeans did business and partied in metropolitan centers like Zanzibar, one of many such hotspots across the most vibrant exchange routes in the Indian Ocean. Until the 1600s, when the Portugese and later French and English, etc., choked off free trade by controlling all the major pots, and spread an ideology of cultural purity and ethnic essentialism, separating people into boxes — a process which has only intensified in our neo-liberal times.

Today vast stretches of a New Silk Road has already been built, once again connecting economies of Africa, Asia, and South America, and is rapidly expanding.

And today we see amazing new ideas and methods rapidly developing and hybridizing in the Global South --- a process that will surely proliferate and accelerate in the coming years and decades.

In Lagos slang, "mara" means "crazy, wild", and "cruise" means "fun, a good time".  

The loosely defined but at the same time distinct fresh style of music known as “Cruise Beat” or “Free Beat” began to spread from Lagos on TikTok and other social media in Nigeria around 3 or 4 years ago.

A kind of “Anti-Afrobeats”, Cruisebeat is largely a reaction against the by now ubiquitous and internationally popularised sound of Naija Pop with its slower tempos and languid, introspective, romantic themes reminiscent of Zouk/Kizomba. In sharp contrast, the younger generation is making music at much higher tempos, with cocophonous use of samples and an irreverent, rebellious, riotous modus operandi.

Cruisebeat is the new Punk. 

Continue reading: https://ngomasound.com/2025/05/13/mara-cruise

Predominantly Muslim music from Palestinians, Algerians, Moroccans, Syrians, Pakistani, Egyptians, Indians, Hausa, and Mongolians seamlessly mixed and juxtaposed as not only a tapestry of cultural cross pollination but a vision of future regional and cultural integration and unity.

3 of 3 in a series of hypnotic and ecstatic Rhythms and melodies in anticipation of increased regional cooperation in matters of culture as well as economy, diplomacy, security. A sonic vision of a potential Asian Union as part of BRICS and rising multipolarity.