Proud Zimbo [Anhu Acho]

It the end of the month and that mean an it time for the top 5 tracks the month. Last month the top track was Dutch ft Pelo - Have It All . Also did a top 5 of the projects released in March and the top project was Verseless - Home EP. Now we all caught up, lets move on to April. This month managed to review 8 tracks namely:  Gze - Imhandu ,  Adiona Chidzonga ft Reverb 7 - Million ,  Tytan, Cynthia Mare & Donald Kanyuchi - Waita Mari ,  Verseless ft Thandie Lin - Breakfast  ( Flow Into The Music) Kazz ft Cal_Vin, Q Rigga & Jungle Bwoi - Thinking Of You (Remix),  Nutty O - Meditation ,  Stunner & Mudiwa Hood - Kunamata Briss Mbada, Prayersoul & Legend Elly - Hande . The top 5 is as follows: 5) Nutty O - Meditation 4)  Adiona Chidzonga ft Reverb 7 - Million 3)  Gze - Imhandu 2)  Briss Mbada, Prayersoul & Legend Elly - Hande 1)  Kazz ft Cal_Vin, Q-Rigga & J...

Gze had a good 2015 with successful tracks like; Mushikashika , John Bhuru & Chimoio . He has now opened his 2016 account with Imhandu (They are enemies). He has established himself as one of the finest shona rappers in the game and on this track he will be looking forward to further solidify his position. This year seems to be a big year for him and his team Jnr Brown and Begotten Sun, everything seems to be going right for them so far. So does Imhandu  add to their success/purple patch?? The instrumental has a nice bouncy feel to it, you'll find yourself bumping your head the moment the kick comes in. The kick and snare pattern is quite common though, over the years it has proven to work and it did on this track. Way back in school when someone felt like rapping and he asks his friend for a beat ( beat boxing or beating the desk ), this is the structure 85%+ will play, only the tempo varied. Regardless of that, one cannot avoid the charm of the pattern, its sounding g...

Adiona Chidzonga is back again with a new track featuring Showtime Records Boss and partner in crime Reverb 7. The two last collaborated in 2013 on the track Over and Over . Reverb 7 is one of the few known and successful deep house producers in Zimbabwe, over the years he has been releasing some awesome house tunes, keeping Zimbos dancing. His track with Shingi Mangoma titled Handikusiye won the best Single at the 2015 Zimbabwe Music Awards (ZIMA's) earlier this year. His first production of 2015; Huya by Ulethu is currently trending on the Zifm Stereo charts. So how does Millon fare??? The track is sounding quite clean and nice. Reverb is very good at making clean instrumentals, he does not use a lot of percussion's, he prefers the keyboard more than strings. He only uses strings to accentuate a progression rise. He implemented his signature style (keyboard and less percussion's) on this instrumental. He also laced it with a nice guitar and marimba strum and the en...

The local hip hop scene despite falling way way behind dancehall and sungura has its own battles that are going on. A lot of the guys are working hard trying to break into the mainstream and make a name for themselves. Now with the perception many Zimbos have towards local hip hop such a breakthrough becomes very very hard to come by. Summer K is one guy who is trying to make a name for himself on the hip hop scene. He released the track Till Dawn II more than two weeks ago, so how does it fare??? The track was produced by Quillz and he did a good job. They went for a DJ Mustard kind of structure. The instrumental is sounding good, drop it at a party and people will get down. This track is made for the party and beat gets you into a party mood. Nice work on the production. This track is about partying, partying  Till Dawn . Personally am not that much into turn up hip hop except if its really dope like Zunguza . However Summer K gave a great performance here, he managed t...

Tytan is on a roll at the current moment, his track Mukoko ft Ammara Brown has became an anthem, and it is topping charts all over the radio stations. It even earned the Best Song for The first Quarter of 2016 . To capitalize on the popularity and increased attention he has released another track, this time featuring Award Winning artist Cynthia Mare and rising artist Donald Kanyuchi. So how does Waita Mari fare??? They went for a Jit/Pfonda inspired instrumental and you can never go wrong with Jit. Its that type of instrumental that always invokes the crazy withing a person, irregardless of the lyrics a Pfonda beat always gets Zimbos dancing. The production is well done and the song is sounding fantastic. Love the guitar lead, the percussion's and the natural African drum like kick. That part from 02:17 - 03.00 is fantastic, it gets you in the mood, you feel like looping it till your legs can't dance anymore. Waita Mari talks about the attitude and personality ch...

At the end of each quarter will be releasing a top 5 list of the track released and reviewed in the period. This first quarter ( 1 Jan - 31 March ) has been interesting, a lot of artists stepped up their game and started 2016 with a bang and some failed to turn up. So for the top 5 list, a song which has topped any of the end of month charts during the period in question will automatically qualify. Then the last two tracks will be selected according to how the masses reacted to the track and also how it managed to stand the test of time. So the three tracks that automatically qualify are: Tytan & Ammara Brown : Mukoko ( Top Song For January ), Alexio Kawara - Nehana ( Top Song For February ) and Dutch ft Pelo - Have It All ( Top song For March ).  The Top 5 is as Follows: 5) Dutch ft Pelo - Have It All This is a track for all the dreamers, all those who are working extra hard to achieve their dreams. Love the instrumental and Pelo gave a superb performan...

Verseless is working overtime giving us some of the best music on the local front right now. The Zim music sphere is expanding and thanks to guys such as Verseless & Zyon Black..etc for pushing the boundaries and offering a new sound to the masses on the Electronic Dance Music side. Last month Verseless released the fantastic  Home EP , which at the end of March earned the top spot as the best Project of the month ( Top Tracks and Projects of March ). Whilst we are still enjoying the Home Ep Verseless has decided to keep us dancing with a new track. He hinted that he has an album coming later in the year so for someone who is not that much known yet, he definitely has to work very hard and make sure a lot of Zimbos are familiar with him for when the album drops. So how does the new track sound?? Breakfast is on a deep house tip. The keyboard work on the track is exquisite and its the first thing that takes your attention. The track has a nice ambiance, the reverb effect...

Kazz "Mr Boomslang" has been making serious moves since the split of Bkay & Kazz. He released the banger She Is Worth It last year, ( She's Worth It Review )  and it earned the 4th place among the Top Tracks Of August (2015) . The original Thinking Of You was released a month ago and it has been received well by Zimbos. As a gift to the Zimbos as Zimbabwe turned 36 on the 18th of April Kazz released the remix to his banger. So how does the remix fare?? The instrumental is on an afro pop theme and its sounding fantastic. They sampled Robin S's Show Me Love instrumental to add that good feeling vibe to the track. The overall production is clean and balanced. The vocals are well audible. Great work on the production. The name of the track gives you an insight on what the song is about. Its when you are thinking of your partner and all the stuff you wanna do with and to them. We are all guilty of daydreaming about our partners and what we would wanna do...

Got to know of Bryan K last year through Power Fm, used to listen to the 9-12 show everyday at work and the deejay would play him a lot. I just fell in love with his music. He majors in Afro Soul/Afro Jazz and he fuses his music with various elements. Got my hands on the album in January and has been listening and digesting the album for months now. Decided that its time I do a review and let Zimbos know about this guy and his music. So this is what I thought of the album:  The album contains 8 tracks and below is a track by track review: 1) Usasiyane Neni No-one wants his/her partner to leave, this track shares the same sentiments with that feeling. Love the rhumba nature of the instrumental. I'm a big rhumba fan so ya this track does it for me, its well produced and Bryan K laced the lovely beat with his amazing vocals. Its just fantastic. 2) Marunjeya Did a review of this track last year:  Marunjeya Track Review 3) Matida (Wandida Here) Asking out a girl i...

Mukoma is a UK based Zim producer/artist. Not much of him is know by the local folks but he is definitely worth a listen. Did a mini review of his track Muripo ( Mukoma Muripo ) last year. He focuses mostly on Electronic Dance Music and Hip Hop.  Memoirs Of A Dreamer is his first offering for 2016 and its sounding fantastic. He offers another vibe of Hip Hop instrumental different from the one we used to from many of the local acts. The instrumentals have more ambiance compared to a lot of hip hop tracks out there. This record is however more of an instrumental package. However despite being instrumentals, you will definitely enjoy the package. Maybe becasue i'm a deep house fan so am used to songs with no vocals but even to neutrals they will enjoy. The production is of high quality here, any rapper would be happy to jump on these beats. My 4 top favorite tracks on this record are : Bridges Luther's Dream Memoirs Of A Dreamer Broken Promises Listen to the R...

This is a very late review I know but the Album truly deserves a review. I have a theory of how the album name came about: After the comments ExQ received for his "Putiti" line on Alleluya, the icon thought of using that attention and named his album Putiti. When I learned his album was gonna be named putiti ndakatoti ndo mafunnies aya and when the album dropped end of 2015 I downloaded my copy but did not really give it time, only knew of the tracks that had been released before like; The Way , Pore Pore , Alleluya and Bhachura . Loved these 4 tracks like crazy, managed to review all of them but somehow I was reluctant to listen to the whole album, mostly because the end of year belonged to Winky D's Gafa Life Kickstape so other projects takamboisa paside. After the Winky D craze died down, started listening to the album bit by bit. It seemed as I started to listen to the album more, so did the majority of Zimbos, evidenced by the increased radio airplay and the in...

Nutty O Di Bwoy had a brilliant debut year in 2015. At the beginning of this year judging by the promise and growth he had showed the in 2015 I included him among the 10 artists to watch out for in 2016. Dancehall artists release a lot of tracks, some even release weekly so its hard to keep up but a few tracks among the many released will get my attention and this track Meditation  is one of those tracks. Nutty O released the conscious track African Girl  ( African Girl Review )in January and it earned the number 2  spot among the top tracks of that month ( Top Tracks of January ), now he is back with a new jam. Loved African Girl , so i'm anxious to see how this new track fares?? The track was produced at his record label Kenako Studios. Love love the instrumental. Its an uptempo reggae instrumental and its sounding fantastic. This instrumental will definitely stand out among the generic local riddims and can stand its own pitted against the top Jamaican riddim...

For all Dancehall/Reggae fans Judgement Yard is here for you. There are many dancehall/reggae sound houses in Zimbabwe but ZiJudgement Yard is the most popular and most loved across the whole of Zimbabwe. Their Thursday evening (21:00hrs - 00:00hrs) show on ZiFm Stereo is arguably the most listened to show on radio. To keep their sound on top and their fans dancing they frequently release their massively massively successful mix-tapes. The recently released 2 more mix-tapes, so top up your internet bundles and get downloading. Volume 25 : Conscious Vibrations This one is for those reggae/conscious lovers like me. Its for that laid back day or when you are going for that long journey. Listen and Download: Volume 26 : Dancehall Madness This mix is for those party animals. When you having a party and the Dj is late, just play this mix and all will be taken care off. Listen and Download: Now before I sign off below is my favourite mix from them in recent mem...

This collaboration was definitely a long time coming. Before all the beef most of us know about these guys were actually friends. They helped each other a lot at the beginning of their careers. They took different paths as their careers grew and along the way a beef emerged. These went on to become icons in the music industry, they both have huge followings and have inspired a lot of young rappers. A collaboration between the two was inevitable, ( personally I believed despite all the public beef these guys remained friends deep down ) it was just a matter of when! So how does Kunamata fare?? The track was produced by Passion Java Records and T-Man of Mt Zion Records. The instrumental is okay, its a typical T-Man and Stunner hip hop beat. If you have been following Stunner for the past 12 months, you will be familiar with this type and structure of instrumental. The song is well produced though, vocals are clearly audible and it's sounding very well balanced. Its well polished...

Briss Mbada has released his first track of 2016 and he collaborated with the finest Neo Soul artist in Zim Prayersoul and the Giroriya  hitmaker Legend Elly. Last heard of Briss on his street anthem Harare Huchi last year, reviewed the track and video ( Harare Hucci Review ). Prayersoul also has been quiet for some time. Legend Elly also went quiet after Giroriya . So how does the new track fare?? The track was produced by upcoming producer Everlast Don Rhine, the producer behind Stunner's Zvaflooder . Love the RnB instrumental on this one, the whistle like sound on the chorus makes me wanna whistle along to it. The track is well made, its audible and everything is sounding as it should. Great work by the production team. Hande is about asking out a girl, convincing her that you're the right guy for her and how good you would be together. Its about saying take my hand and don't worry about anything, I'll take great care of you. The mellow nature of the instr...

At the end of each month, I compile a top 5 of the tracks released and reviewed that specific month. Last month the top spot went to Alexio Kawara's beautiful Nehana and the month before it went to Tytan and Ammara Brown's Mukoko . March was quite a different month, only managed to review exactly 5 tracks namely; Trevor Dongo - Mashoko Apera , Afrodizzay - I Dunno , Miss V Candy, Kat Dahila, Nyanda & Gigi Lamayne - Mayhem ,  Adonis Mudarikiri - Murimutsvene and Dutch ft Pelo - Have It All . So selecting was not that much a headache. The most unique part of this month is that I also managed to review 5 projects, the most I've reviewed in a month since the creation of the blog. The projects are namely: Verseless - Home EP , Brythreesixty - Puple Mars Mixtape , Freeman - Mangoma Ihobho Album , Courtney Antipas - BackToBasicsEP and Alick Macheso's Tsoka Dzerwendo Album . These ones caused me a headache trying to select the top 5. Love these projects, well the ...