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| Pitchfork |
 Radioclit first popped in my mailbox-- my physical mailbox, back in the days when even semi-illegal DJ mixes were still sent via mail rather than uploaded to SoundCloud-- in 2005. It was the very tail end of the bootleg era, and Careful Clit Clit felt like a seriously tardy but totally pleasurable contribution to the mash-up thing, mixing the brief vogue for snap rap with grime, techno, R&B, Baltimore club, and a little rock. But apparently Radioclit also got bored with the mid-decade eclectic-or-die DJing style. When they truly made their name a few years later, it was with a seemingly new but heartfelt devotion to African music, first with the Very Best project and also by hawking various forms of African dance and pop and traditional music at their club nights.The Sound of Club Secousse documents this obsession. I've got only some idea of the tracks' local appeal, or how they fit together on the air or in the clubs of their native lands. But as played by Radioclit they're capable of sating modern club audiences in the Americas, Europe, anywhere that post-rave culture took hold. These are thin, jittery, speedy beats that skip, gallop, and clomp around, super-syncopated rhythms that feel closer to Caribbean-inflected post-rap pop, the early 2000s hard-firing soca-era of UK garage in particular. And like an ultra-poppy UK garage mix, everything about the set is fast, fast, fast. Sometimes deliriously so: Even the few melodic elements-- if you can even call these shrill bleep riffs, synth curlicues, and tinny little digi-highlife runs "melodies"-- are hard to grab onto, more like being pleasantly bombarded with candy-colored sound effects. "African Air Horn Dance" by Jusa Dementor takes the kind of chintzy air horn noises that have been blaring through rap, dancehall, and rave mixes for decades and uses them like synth stabs, a continuous manic blare that runs through whole track. The even chintzier ice rink organ on Naty Kid's "Sereia" is pitched up to such an absurd degree that it sounds like Ray Manzarek cutting a happy hardcore single. When the Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music from South Africa compilation came out earlier this year, most pointed out its similarities (often inferred) to modern European dance music, which of course came as much from the music of Africa as it did from a Euro tradition. When it comes to modern club music, the lineage is (awesomely) all jumbled up, and impossible to untangle. Music from Africa can have just as strong an influence from imports shipped down from the European mainland or up from Jamaica, though certain site-specific stylistic touches usually shine through. So the real difference between Club Secousse and your average cheap pop techno record-- and it's a huge, rainbow-tinted difference-- is the voices, several decades worth of African singing styles squeezed onto a single disc. Those voices also create a vibe about as far from the human-free instrumental blandness of much "serious" dance music as you can get. Shouting, exhorting, crooning, and joking, these singers are what make Club Secousse a lovable party record, one made by the kind of people who sound less interested in "innovating" than actually delivering on dance music's eternal promise of a plain ol' good time. Tempos cranked high, hooks and beats made to catch ears and feet immediately, voices making the whole thing pop (in both sense of the word): If your standard house, techno, and dubstep collections have been feeling a little dry, Radioclit offers more evidence that the brightest, most functionally inventive, and most plain fun dance music may just be coming out of Africa right now....full text |
| Insound |
| Radioclit are definitely on the rise, both as remixers/DJs (with their popular Secousse club nights in London and Paris) and as two-thirds of acclaimed Afro-electronic band The Very Best. For this compilation, they hand-picked their favorite tracks among the wealth of hot electronic dance music which is being produced all across the African continent, from Angola to South Africa to the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and more. The album includes tried-and-tested dancefloor gems which exemplify the most vibrant local scenes: Coupe Decale, Funana, Kuduro, Bubu music, Shaangan disco and more besides. Artists featured include US-based Sierra Leone legend Janka Nabay, South African producer Skeat, new Cape Verde talent Izé, DJ Serpent Noir and a track by The Very Best....full text |
| Undergroundhiphop |
| RADIOCLIT are definitely on the rise, both both as remixers/Djs (with their popular Secousse club nights in London & Paris) and as two-thirds of acclaimed Afro-electronic band THE VERY BEST. For this compilation, they hand-picked their favourite tracks among the wealth of hot electronic dance music which is being produced all across the African continent, from Angola to South Africa to the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and more. The album includes tried-and-tested dancefloor gems which exemplify the most vibrant local scenes: Coupe Decale, Funana, Kuduro, Bubu music, Shaangan disco and more besides. Artists featured include US-based Sierra Leono legend JANKA NABAY, South African producer SKEAT, new Cape Verde talent IZÉ, DJ SERPENT NOIR and a track by THE VERY BEST. With the album release coinciding with the end of THE VERY BEST's US tour with VAMPIRE WEEKEND, a launch party in New York will be announced very shortly, as well as DJ dates in key cities!...full text |
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