Udondolo

It is unsurprising that black South African music in recent years has lacked the game-changing potency it enjoyed when soundtracking the anti-apartheid struggle, but we are now witnessing the coming of age of a new generation of acts that rank among the finest to emerge from the post-Mandela era. Hot on the charismatic heels of the Zulu singer Zoë Modiga, featured on the cover of #162, come the impressive Urban Village.

The quartet's members were born in Soweto in the dying days of apartheid and grew up on the digitalised house and dance beats of the townships known as kwaito, but discovered the traditional Zulu guitar music of maskandi via older musicians they encountered playing on street corners. The result is a debut that blends the best of Zulu traditional music with contemporary pop and more experimental styles, both acoustic and electric. ‘Dindi’ is a vibrant dose of the bouncing, township mbaqanga beat that evokes the glory days of Mahlatini and the Mahotella Queens. ‘Sakhisizwe’ is an irresistible surge of joyous Afro-pop that should have them bopping in the shebeens, while ‘Ubaba’ is a lovely, acoustic gem with glorious Fleet Foxes-styled folk harmonies. If the virus can be beaten it would be thrilling to see them on summer festival stages in 2021.