The Sunday Mail
Andrew Moyo
Last Thursday, Black Motion were announced as the Best Live Act at the 2019 Dance Music Awards South Africa.
The announcement came just hours before they were set to perform in Harare and one might have wondered how good these guys really are to have won that award against the likes of DJ Tira, Goodluck, Busiswa and Mi Casa who are also solid performers in their own right.
Music lovers who were fortunate enough to attend the first night of the Jacaranda Music Festival last Friday at Hellenic Sports Club got to see the reason why they are regarded as the best in their genre when it comes to live performances.
The duo was taking no prisoners on the night, capturing their audience from the moment they hit the stage to right up to the end of the set.
The combination of DJ Murder’s skill-set behind the decks, Smol’s energy on the percussion instruments and the stage effects created a mesmeric atmosphere.
With their long catalogue of popular hits, they did not put a foot wrong dishing out tracks that included “The Journey”, “Imali”, “Joy Joy”, “Rejoice”, “Rainbow”, ”Anyway” and “Prayer for Rain”.
They would even abandon their posts to show their fans a few dance moves, moments which saw the cheering from the crowd growing even louder.
This was not your typical semi-live set, and one would have mistaken the artistes for some spirit mediums as they took their fans on a journey that was both electric and enchanting at the same time.
It is unfortunate that the group had to put up such a phenomenal performance in front of a small crowd as the opening night of the fete failed to attract large numbers.
Houz Of Gruv, which featured various artistes including Roki, Caroleen Masa, Mafriq and Ishan, also wowed the crowd on the night.
Other performers who also spiced up proceedings included Transit Crew, Bryan K, Ammara Brown and DJ Chucknosis.
In contrast to the poor turnout of the first night, day two was a different story with thousands of patrons thronging the venue.
Music fans were certainly in for a treat with the likes of Ringo, Mbeu, Tammy, The Black Spirits, ProBeats, The Djembe Monks, Mokoomba and DJ Zinhle on the lineup.
As always, Mokoomba was one of the stand-out performers on the day, delivering a super charged set which was a testament of why they are well sought after on the global stage.
Meanwhile, DJ Zinhle failed to live up to expectations with a performance that was just too plain and ordinary.
In general plug-and-play fashion, the DJ was just dishing out popular tracks without much of a fuss behind the decks, no fancy mixing tricks whatsoever as one would have expected from a DJ of such a calibre.
One top DJ who was in the crowd even went on to comment, “If we were to take a DJ from some club in Mabvuku and put him on that stage, he would do a better job without even making use of those headphones. This is pathetic.”
While the crowd would cheer and dance whenever a popular number they could sing along to was dropped, there was nothing spectacular about Zinhle’s set.
Aside from the performances on stage, the general atmosphere was vibrant and the majority of the crowd seemed to be having a good time.
