Adventurous music folks have had their ears on electronic music trends in sub-Saharan Africa ever since the amplified likembe group Konono No. 1 emerged to Western attention from Kinshasa, in the Democratic Repbulic of Congo five years ago.

Now blogs like Generation Bass, Ghetto Bassquake, mudd up! and others are surfacing all kinds of DIY techno-fied genres from all over the continent. And the tempos seem to be getting as fast as the trend-spotting. As reported first by The Fader, Wills Glasspiegel of Outside Music has uncovered “Shangaan electro” music, a hectic digital blend of breakneck thump-beats, MIDI keyboards, sped-up alien samples and melodic vocals. It’s named after the population grouping from which the musicians come, the Shangaan of the northern Limpopo province of South Africa. It’s gotten enough attention to merit the anthology Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa on the UK’s Honest Jon’s label

Here’s Richard “Nozinja” Mthetwa, the godfather and top producer of the Shangaan electro genre, breaking it down:
 

 
Glasspiegel has also noted that another sound is revving up, led by the 6-10-piece group Jagwa from Dar es Salaam, the coastal capital of Tanzania in eastern Africa. As a city, Dar has seen its way through trends ranging from hip-hop to reggae, all tinged by traditional musical strains like the Islamic-rooted Taarab. This stuff seems different, and Jagwa seem to be aiming at branding their own feverish mtindo or style.

Here’s Jagwa rocking their proper stage show (complete with booty-shaking and one-legged dancers), and below that, the band on the streets of Dar where they started.
 

 
Get: Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music from South Africa [CD]