Tag Archives: Asher Gamedze

Asher Gamedze set to release new album, A Semblance: Of Return, in February

24 November 2025

Photo: Leila Khan

We’ve been following Asher Gamedze’s musical journey for a while now, and each new release has only deepened our huge admiration for his work. Both his 2020 debut album Dialectic Soul, and his 2022’s Turbulence and Pulse landed on our Album Picks of the Year. A visionary and virtuosic drummer, composer, and activist, Gamedze’s musical world is one of endless innovation and an unyielding commitment to freedom, both in sound and spirit. So news of a new album from him fills us with excitement. Gamedze is gearing up to release his latest LP, A Semblance: Of Return, set to drop on February 27th through Northern Spy Records. To bring the album to life, Gamedze has assembled a new band, called A Semblance, featuring a group of longtime collaborators, to explore what he describes as “practices of assembly”, musical explorations that centre the coming together of individuals to create something larger than the sum of its parts. The ensemble includes Ru Slayen (percussion), Nobuhle Ashanti (keys & synth), Zwide Ndwandwe (bass), and Keegan Steenkamp (trumpet), with Gamedze on drums. Rooted in Pan-Africanism and Black Consciousness, as the press release describes, the album draws from the political and sonic legacies of Cape Town’s underground scene while extending outward, creating sonic bridges that extend beyond geographic and political borders. If past albums were “statements of direction”, the forthcoming A Semblance: Of Return is “a gathering place”, where different ideas, sounds, and struggles meet.

Ahead of the album’s release, Gamedze has shared the staggering and sublime ‘Following Up’, which serves as the first taste from the musical magic Gamedze and his ensemble have in store for us. The track’s title, according to Gamedze, hints at “coterminous existence of multiple intersecting dead lines”, a statement that teases the thematic depth of the album, questioning the intersections of time, place, and collective struggle. Take a listen below.

Mixtape #177

03 November 2025


We've never been shy about our love for The Dwarfs of East Agouza, who have been in our hearts since their debut Bes came out in 2016. The Cairo-based trio of stellar and adventurous musicians Sam Shalabi, Maurice Louca, and Alan Bishop have been constantly pushing the limits of what’s possible in music since forming in 2012. Unpredictable and hypnotically engaging, their sound is a thrilling collision of free jazz, krautrock, shaabi, North African rhythms, and improvisation. Last month, they released their eighth album, Sasquatch Landslide, a bold, transcendental, and fervent record that we simply cannot put down. So we’re beyond excited to have them curate this month’s mixtape. Sam, Alan, and Maurice have each contributed their own unique picks, Sam with the initial 20-minute selection of tracks, Alan with a single 20-minute composition, and Maurice with several distinct tracks, all combined to create a vibrant and sublime sonic puzzle. Press play and enjoy!

  1. Jim Hall – Steps [MusicMasters Jazz / Limelight]
  2. The Beatles – Helter Skelter (First Version / Take 2) [Apple Records]
  3. Ahmed Adawyya – Bint El Amir
  4. The Rolling Stones – Bitch (live) [Mighty Diamonds]
  5. Eyvind Kang & The Neti-Neti Band – BINAH [Abduction]
  6. Cheb Khaled – Aakaibi Mestourine
  7. Annette Peacock – I’m The One [RCA]
  8. Lucrecia Dalt – No Tiempo [Rvng Intl.]
  9. B R A H J A – Watermeloncholia [cortizona]
  10. Asher Gamedze – Siyabulela [On The Corner Records]

Asher Gamedze announces new LP, Constitution, with his new 10-piece ensemble The Black Lungs

16 July 2024

Photo: Lungiswa Gqunta

We first fell under Asher Gamedze‘s spell when he released his debut album, Dialectic Soul, in 2020. He followed it up with Turbulence and Pulse last year, both absolute masterpieces that made it to our Album Picks of the Year, and remain huge favourites today. So we’re over the moon to know that the visionary and virtuosic South African drummer, composer, writer and activist is gifting the world with new music. Gamedze announced today the release of Constitution, an album he brought to life with his new 10-piece ensemble The Black Lungs, featuring Ru Slayen (percussion), Sean Sanby (bass), Nobuhle Ashanti (piano),  Tumi Pheko (cornet), Garth Erasmus (alto saxophone), Jed Petersen (tenor saxophone), Tina Mene (vocals), Athi Ngcaba (trombone) and Fred Moten (words). Collectively they “explore and deconstruct the conceptual, tonal and atonal possibilities of themes which are at once of old and new dreams”, as the press release describes. Gamedze offers some context:

“The Black Lungs is inspired by the revolutionary thought and practice of the Black Consciousness Movement. In particular, the relationship between antagonism – constituting a united front of all the oppressed against white supremacy and racial capitalism – and the possibilities for resistance and elaboration – the creative militant capacities of those assembled – enabled and unleashed by that process of constitution.”

Constitution will see the light of day on August 30th through International Anthem. Ahead of it he has shared the extraordinarily powerful and striking album opener ‘Find Each Other’ and it’s after your ears.

Asher Gamedze previews upcoming album with second single, ‘Sometimes I Think To Myself’; shares album documentary short film

05 April 2023

Photo: Dylan Valley

We’ve not hidden our excitement for Asher Gamedze‘s upcoming new album Turbulence and Pulse when the news emerged last month. With release day a month away, and following the stunning and celestial ‘Wynter Time’, the visionary and virtuosic South African drummer, composer, writer and activist has just shared a potent and gripping new single called ‘Sometimes I Think To Myself’ featuring Julian ‘Deacon’ Otis. As Asher explained, the track is “a song about the experience of losing a friend, the heartbreak of that ending and having to make your own closure”.

Listen to ‘Sometimes I Think To Myself’ below and watch out for the release of Turbulence and Pulse on May 5th through International Anthem and Mushroom Hour Half Hour.

In other related good news, today sees the release of an album documentary short film featuring Asher in conversation with two of his close collaborators and mentors – Leigh-Ann Naidoo and Marcus Solomon. With all the music lifted from the upcoming Turbulence and Pulse, the 17-minute documentary explores the album’s themes and features performance footage and the coastal scenery of Cape Town. Dylan Valley, who made the documentary, had this say:

“This film is a true collaboration between Asher and me, the filmmaker. We took the concepts and inspiration behind the album as a departure point and then improvised our approach as we found the groove, and each other. We hope you enjoy the end result as much as we enjoyed working together.”

Asher also commented:

“Leigh-Ann Naidoo and Marcus Solomon are two amongst the many people who have taught me a lot about politics and living a principled and committed, radical life. What I have learnt with and from them, and others who I have organised with and think with regularly, has shaped how I want to be in the world, and what I want to do in the world, and this in turn shapes my orientation to music. This is one of the ways in which what is outside of the music, actually informs and directs the music’s intention in my practice.

Leigh-Ann is an activist, ex-Olympian, educationist and a scholar, amongst other political work she has been involved in black student and worker struggles at universities, the LGBTQ movement, and Palestinian solidarity campaigns.

Marcus Solomon is a lifelong community activist. As a committed socialist he has been broadly active in the national liberation movement since the late 1950s in student politics, civic struggles, guerilla study groups, worker education and The Children’s Movement.”

Here’s the documentary for your viewing and listening pleasure.

Asher Gamedze announces new album, Turbulence and Pulse, and shares first single ‘Wynter Time’

07 March 2023

Photo: Dylan Valley

We’re a little bit more than excited to hear about the upcoming double album from visionary and virtuosic South African drummer, composer, writer and activist Asher Gamedze. Entitled Turbulence and Pulse, it follows his extraordinarily staggering and powerful debut Dialectic Soul, which was one of our Album Picks of 2020. Slated for a May 5th release through International Anthem and Mushroom Hour Half Hour, Turbulence and Pulse already looks set to be one of the most compelling albums to bless our ears in 2023.

Gamedze’s forthcoming album saw him working with the same stellar quartet from Dialectic Soul, comprising Thembinkosi Mavimbela on bass, Buddy Wells on tenor saxophone, and Robbin Fassie on trumpet.  “I chose these musicians specifically because I know that they’re open to understanding and interpreting the music from my perspective and my way of working.”

On Turbulence and Pulse, and as the press release explains, Gamedze “explores relationships of time between music and history”. He elaborates:

“Time in music is a metaphor for thinking about time in history and how time moves. The way we’re taught history is generally in a way that robs people of agency in imagining themselves as part of history and how it unfolds. It is something that happens to us. I think there’s a productive metaphor in that because the sense of time in music is created by musicians playing together. If we can use that to think about history and time in history, you can see that, actually, history is created by people in a whole range of ways. At the heart of it, historical motion is created by people organized and acting together, whether for progressive or reactionary ends.”

Gamedze also shared his thoughts on the album’s theme, stating that the underlying message is “to claim a form of historical agency and realize that the future is not a foregone conclusion. As people we can organize, to transform our world in small and big ways.” He continues:

“One of the ideas that I’ve had for a long time is to unsettle the way that people think about culture as something static or as something fixed. There’s this tension in Africa, because of the way that the colonists have constructed visions of African culture, where people speak about this need to conserve culture and document it. I think that’s important, but you also have to understand that these things are moving. And we are the people who have to participate in that movement.”

To bring the album to life, Gamedze has also enlisted guest vocalist Julian Otis on one of the tracks and the LP, CD, and digital versions feature three additional tracks, alternate versions of ‘Melancholia’, ‘If It Rains. To Pursue Truth’,  and ‘Out Stepped Zim’, which Gamedze recorded on a rooftop in Cairo with his Another Time Ensemble featuring Maurice Louca (synthesizers), Adham Zidan (bass), Alan Bishop (alto saxophone, voice), and Chérif El-Masri (guitar).

It may seem like a long way away for the album to be out but we can already hear the stunning and celestial ‘Wynter Time’, which only heightens our anticipation for what is to come. ‘Wynter Time’ is dedicated to Black Caribbean radical intellectual, writer and cultural theorist Sylvia Wynter, in particular her book Black Metamorphosis. The single if offered with an accompanying video directed by Adrian Van Wyk and you can watch it below.