If ass shaking is an art, then Shangaan Electro would be the dancing equivalent of Picasso. The music made by this South African group is perfect for wriggling your booty to, albeit at speeds which could result in your hips coming clean off if you get too carried away - Billed as 'New Wave Dance Music' these digital, electronic sounds are guaranteed to make you sweat, especially those which move at the higher end of 180 bpm. When they played at the Rich Mix in Bethnal Green the other week, Nozinja, the producer and man at the healm of this outfit, claimed theirs is the 'fastest music in the world'. The thick, fuggy stink of sticky BO that surrounded the frenetically dancing crowd on what must have been one of the hottest days of the year suggested that his statement could well be true.
The collective were riding a real wave of hype when they landed in East London the other week, fresh from showing Sonar how it goes down. And the hype meant that Rich Mix was packed to the rafters when they wriggled on stage. The Secousse Soundsystem had got proceedings warm from the off with some electronic, housey stylings and this prescription of sound, plus the £4 pints of Stella Black, meant the room was well lubed up by the time the main act appeared.
Shangaan's live flex consists of Nozinja as the ring master behind a pair of decks - Then upfront we have four dancers, each taking it in turns to shake their bits to the sounds of the Shangaan hits. And shake they did, to ever increasing cheers of rapture from the crowd. We'd never seen such moves. By the time they'd got audience members up on stage to attempt to ape the vigorous shape throwing agwaning up on stage, the cheers were almost loud enough to drown out the sound of their beats. Whistles, samples, Guantanamo Bay style boiler suits, terrifying masks and extreme pace is their ting - Catch them if you can...
