But beneath the rhythm, the keys exude a calmness that slowly comes to the fore, to where it even sounds like crickets rise into the mix. Joe's "Dharma," with its cool claps and swelling keys, has a slow but nifty beat that leads directly into Guti's "Hurt (Yoruba Soul Mix)." Vibraslap, roto-toms, double-picked guitar and a shaker-laced house beat rattle around the track, converging to send the mix out on an upswing. The canned claps give way to a lurching tom roll and the nagging guitar lick and wordless vocal of Corinda's "Sleepless Nights." The knocking wood that drives Boddhi Satva's "Skin Diver" dribbles to an almost complete stop by the time of illuMonate DJs' carefully paced "Nomvula." It's as melodramatic as an Ennio Morricone score, but it dampens the effect of the last two tracks. "Aftermath" takes two minutes to develop, though it builds to a clanging, thrilling peak before plunging back down into "Juice." Again, De Song takes a winding path towards a peak, scattering cymbals at random intervals before finding a coherent beat. The mix wanders off again with two De Song tracks in the middle of the mix. Thankfully, &ME's thumb piano-laced "Trilogy" brings the energy up. The track was named 100 Zulu Warriors & carries a fundamental importance for Culoe De Song as he regards it as ‘his beginning’ in the. De Song's synth strings and echoing tribal chant add texture but don't move the mix forward. Culoe’s serious music career began in early 2007 where he produced a piece that made him a feature in Black Coffee’s second offering, Have Another One. But by the time we get to "Bang Royales," the pace starts to lag. Ominous and queasy bells introduce De Song's "Deadman's Walk," though he lets in glints of light with well-timed cymbals and a church organ drone that blooms into a rising chord progression. Comprising four exclusive De Song tracks mixed in with other exclusives from newcomers like Em Ex and Corinda, it's at times thrilling, but bogs down at crucial points. He now caps the year with the 21st entry in Watergate's mix series.
On the day of its release, the album hit #2 on iTunes in South Africa, just behind Beyoncé's Lemonade, suggesting that De Song had become one of the biggest dance music names in his home country. 2016 was a breakout year for him, as his ambitious second album, Washa, showed that he wasn't afraid of working across a wider canvas, conceiving of an 80-minute epic that wove a post-apocalyptic folkloric tale into his deep house rhythms. He's released music on an variety of labels and played gigs around the world, his sound plumbing deep house while also exploring tribal timbres specific to his home. Since his 2009 Innervisions single, "The Bright Forest," announced him to the worldwide house community, South Africa's Culoe De Song has been on the ascent.
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