“As much as it’s about music, the film is about South Africa at this point in time. More than ever, through socio-economic turmoil, there is the youthful energy of black artists that has emerged over the past five years,” says Lebogang Rasethaba, the co-director of Future Sound of Mzansi, an unflinching documentary on the DIY tendencies and frenetic BPMs of South Africa’s electronic music movement.

‘Mzansi’ is Zulu or Xhosa slang for ‘South.’ The project was launched three years ago on a road trip from Johannesburg to Durban with close friend and collaborator Nthato Mogkata. “The film is about the spirit of entrepreneurship, of independence. A lot of people are taking ownership of the means of production and distribution,” says Mogkata, himself an acclaimed musician known as Spoek Mathambo, whose cover of Joy Division’s “Control” has received half-a-million views on YouTube and new band, Fantasma. 

Traversing the country, the duo met with South African’s most celebrated underground artists including DJ Mujava, Okmalumkoolkat, John Wizards and the Nozinja of Shangaan Electro, the ebullient star of today’s exclusive short who last year signed to Warp Records. “During apartheid, there was still a strong dance culture and the music had a lot of hope and jubilation despite how hard times were,” says Mogkata. “And now—whether we are a free nation or not—we’re still dancing. This street culture exploded with the country becoming free but it’s been bubbling for a very long time.”