Great music, inclusivity and laid-back vibes have come to characterise The Feel Good Series, a monthly inner-city rooftop party that has turned into a platform for eclectic sounds and a not-to-be-missed event in Joburg.
Launched in 2017 by Nandi Dlepu, Feel Good Series feels like a carefully curated auditory experience of the best upcoming talents in South Africa’s alternative music scene.
“It’s a community that I’m a part of and really passionate about. I feel really blessed to be able to create a platform for like-minded creatives to be able to party together and to enjoy music that we like on such a scale,” Dlepu said.
UMI: Our Music Festival, the mother of all Feel Good Series parties, is slated to take over the lush gardens of Victoria Yards on 23 February. The micro-festival marks the start of bigger and better events in Mamakashaka’s itinerary. The line-up features four fresh live acts and eight DJs made up of the likes of Muzi, Yang YaYa, Blaqkongo, Melo B, Spoken Priestess, Amazon, Scorebeatz, Adillxh, SoKool, Darkie Fiction, DJ Doowop and Mystikal Ebony.
Hot off the release of his rework of Margaret Singana’s We Are Growing, Muzi has promised to preview some of the new material he’s been working on in a fresh and unseen performance that will see him up the ante in his fusion of local sounds layered into upbeat rhythmic electronica – creating a sonic conversation between himself and the audience.
“I’m welcoming people to what I do – that different thing. I want to open the mind a little bit to something different and dope,” Muzi said.
Nandi
Darkie Fiction, the beloved duo, comprised of Katt Daddy and Yoza Mnyanda, burst onto the music scene with nostalgic, yet forward-thinking music inspired by kwaito, afro-funk, hip-hop, house and jazz a fusion that sees the duo being dubbed the king and queen of new age kwaito.
“We call it nostalgics today, that’s just our catch-phrase for it, mixing the past and the present. We didn’t go into it with the idea of making new age kwaito it’s just that kwaito is one of the influences. New age kwaito is something people gave us but we just take a lot of stuff from the past and bring it to today – that’s kind of how I describe our sound,” Yoza said.
Citing the likes of Brenda Fassie, Victor Ntoni, and Letta Mbulu as some of Darkie Fiction’s influences, Katt Daddy said the duo plans to continue the legacy of South African music by bringing it forward with a fresh twist and electrifying performances.
“Whenever Darkie Fiction is on stage it’s just energy. Darkie Fiction is very much two people that really love the stage, the crowd and just giving energy to the people and receiving energy back,” Katt Daddy said.
Feel Good Series has fast grown to serve a loyal community of Feel Gooders – an eclectic mix of young, hip and fashionable urban black tastemakers such as Melo B Jones, a singer-songwriter who has woven soothing sounds drawn from jazz, neo-soul, R&B and hip-hop’s golden age making her a highly relatable musician and performer to party to.
“The thing I like the most is that this line-up is genuinely for everybody. Whatever music you listen to is going to be represented,” Melo B Jones said.
