African club music is gaining popularity in London. Promoters like Eric Soul have spent years trying to bring contemporary African sounds to London clubs. While African music events have occurred for decades, they often focused on traditional styles rather than modern genres from the continent. Recently, new promoters have emerged playing emerging African fusion styles like Afrobeat, kuduro, and coupé décalé. This has helped shift perceptions and attract diverse crowds no longer tied only to Caribbean culture. New generations of African artists fusing traditional and electronic styles make the music more accessible to European audiences. Promoters are now seizing on these genres and finding audiences open to exploring new global dance music styles from Africa.

1. African clubbing in London
By Sarah Bentley
Wed Jan 23 2008
Time Out celebrates the new wave of parties,
promoters and DJs representing twenty-first
century Africa. But what took the most
multicultural city in the world so long to catch
on?
‘Oh my god. Victory at last.’ Eric Soul, DJ and promoter behind ‘Afro-twist’ parties Afrogroov,
Components and new monthly, Hot Plate, is a happy man. Originally from Rwanda, Soul has spent ten
years ‘lobbying’ to bring contemporary African and Afro-fusion sounds to London’s clubland and form
a scene as vibrant and influential as the capital’s Caribbean, Latin American, Brazilian and Asian
movements. ‘When I started DJing no one cared about contemporary African music,’ says Soul.
‘London is at the forefront of club culture but the link between African music and club culture was
missing. Before when I played Afro-music no one would understand it, but now people are up for it. The
movement’s come of age.’
African music events have been a regular fixture on London’s cultural calendar for decades. However,
the tendency to focus on indigenous instruments and tribal chanting offered a skewed vision several eras
away from what’s happening on the continent today. Thankfully, a new influx of parties has arrived to
redress the balance. With their record boxes and CD wallets (most new music from Africa isn’t pressed
on vinyl) bursting with emerging and fusionist genres, and address books full of UK-based African acts,
the DJs and promoters of the new school host nights guaranteed to get the adrenalin pumping of even the
most jaded beat bon vivants.
At Kalabash, a monthly soirée in Islington that combines film, live music, socio-political debate and
dancing, DJ Simpson blends Nigerian afrobeat, Moroccan hip hop, Ghanaian hip-life (a fusion of hi-life
and hip hop), South African kwaito-house, Algerian rock and rai and many more quality Afro-flavours.
The monthly Components in Brixton features live PAs, an open mic session and DJ sets focusing on
everything funk, electro, jazz and world but with a prevailing ‘Afro-slant’.
In contrast, DJ Edu’s monthly Panache night (Edu is the 1Xtra DJ given the task of fitting a continent’s
worth of music into a weekly two-hour show) is more akin to an MTV Africa party with garage, hip hop
AFROGROOV: A JOURNEY ACROSS THE BLACK ATLANTIC
www.myspace.com/afrogroov_ericsoul - afrogroov@yahoo.com

2. and dancehall cut up with emerging dance music genres coupé décalé from Ivory Coast, kuduro from
Angola and African reggaeton, hip hop and R&B. ‘The Panache crowd is very mixed,’ says Edu, ‘so I
play a 50-50 split and the African stuff goes down well as it’s new but in a familiar format. Five years
ago a night like Panache wouldn’t have worked.’ Why? ‘The music wasn’t right plus I think everyone
was so caught up in being British or West Indian it put them off exploring Africa.’
Edu has a point. Due to Britain’s immigration history the black British identity is very much tied up with
all things Caribbean. West Indian culture has become part of the warp and weft of London’s
multicultural identity. Until recently, anything African, except within the African community itself,
barely registered on the city’s cultural radar and there was a perception among inner-city kids that
Caribbean culture – patois, music, dance, fashion – was cool, whereas anything African was not. Today,
West Indian pirate radio stations have African music shows on their schedule, MC Afrikan Boy bases
his entire image around his heritage, and grime track ‘Sweet Mother’ by Skepta samples one of his
mum’s old Nigerian records. So what’s brought about the change?
Eric Soul thinks the new generation of African musicians using computers to fuse traditional sounds
with global electronic and western influences has a lot to do with it. ‘African youth are very up-to-date
with technology and western music. The result is some incredible new genres and fusions that are easier
for Europeans to relate to.’
These new genres have been seized upon by a wide variety of musical ‘heads’ with global beat-mashers
such as MIA, Sinden and DJ/production outfit Radioclit broadening the horizons of ‘hipster kids’ by
slamming kuduro, coupé decalé, zouglou and stuff they’re ‘not even sure what it is’ from Africa with
British grime, Brazilian baile funk and Baltimore club music. ‘A hardcore grime track and a kuduro beat
have the same hungry energy so work well together,’ says Johan of Radioclit. ‘Often a crowd won’t
know what they’re dancing to but go crazy anyway because they feel the raw energy of it.’ The response
to their new electronic African music mix has prompted Radioclit to start a new night ‘Secousse’ at
Notting Hill Arts Centre (starting March 14) and make their first artist album with Hackney-based
Malawian singer Esau Mwanwaya. ‘It’s the right time to mix something very African with something
very poppy and European,’ adds Johan. ‘People are ready for it, they want it.’
Eric Soul clearly agrees, signing off his latest Follow The Groov newsletter, ‘It is a good time to feel
and BE African.’
Where’s the party at?
Afrogroov at the Ritzy Café Bar in Brixton on January 26.
Africa Beyond presents Translations Two at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre on January 28.
Club Afrique, 158 Barking Rd, E16 (020 7511 8494 Friday-Sunday. East London’s premier African
club.
Club Volts 169-171 Fore Street, Edmonton (020 8887 6936 Open Fri, Sat & Sun. The favoured
nightspot of north London’s African community.
Components at Jamm, Brixton on February 3.
Sunday Shebeen at Big Chill House, King’s Cross on February 17.
Kalabash at Salmon & Compass, Islington on February 21 (www.kalabashmovement.com).
Panache at Moonlighting in Soho is back on February 22.
AFROGROOV: A JOURNEY ACROSS THE BLACK ATLANTIC
www.myspace.com/afrogroov_ericsoul - afrogroov@yahoo.com