Music Archives - Fired Rock

13Jul

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Mbaqanga, Music, Urban Grooves

Is Tocky Vibes the Next Tuku?

Is Tocky Vibes the Next Tuku? Most gatekeepers will jump at any parallel between Tocky and Tuku as blasphemy, so we may well oppose a little mathematics and history to their piety. By Onai Mushava | July 13, 2020 If Van Choga is a drunken dragon on the stage, then Tocky Vibes is an ecological event in the studio. During the "New Dispensation" alone, Mr Vibes has already released seven projects – five studio albums, an acoustic compilation and a singles collection – besides uploading videos more often than your crush’s photoshoots. But – though we could place Tocky Vibes against Van Choga’s energy or against Van Gogh’s authenticity – one question makes more overall sense: Is Tocky Vibes the next Oliver Mtukudzi? On his latest album, Dhongi neWaya, Tocky Vibes pays his...

How Gwenyagitare Got His Groove

How Gwenyagitare Got His Groove And if music is a language unto itself, Monolio's guitar speaks with a Zimbabwean accent throughout his work, from the great Tuku albums, the Chamhembe renaissance and the Afrika Revenge-Pax Afro years to the Zimdancehall turn and guns of the new decade like Mbeu and Tocky Vibes. Not yet 50, Mono has played more than 1000 albums, sungura, chimurenga, reggae, rhumba, even holding his own as the go-to guitarist for the Pentecostal community. By Mukoma Onai | April 20, 2017 Once upon a time in Zimbabwe, a hacker was someone who bent over mbira keys, thumbed his way into your soul and messed around till time meant nothing to you. Since then, generations of lead guitarists from Stanley Manatsa to Trust Samende have made their case as the new keep...

ZEXIE MANATSA'S UPS AND DOWNS

Zexie Manatsa's Green Arrows bandZexie Manatsa rose from an infant guitar prodigy in Mhangura to become one of the first local musicians of significant stature. In December 2006 the recently resuscitated Zimbabwe Music Awards paid homage to the grand patriarch of mainstream local music with the inaugural Cheuka Shure/Bheka Emva trophy.During the presentation ceremony, an urban grooves duo ushered the crowd back to 1974, with their rendition of Manatsa's first major hit "Chipo Chiroorwa"."Chipo Chiroorwa" has exclusive credit in the country's music annals as the first song by a black Zimbabwean to win a gold disc, having sold 25 000 copies back in the '70s.Speaking on the same occasion, Oliver Mtukudzi credited the Green Arrows frontman for mentoring him when he was still a showbiz...