PhotoGqom is stark, hollowed-out, often ominous homemade electronic dance music from Durban, South Africa. The word gqom itself, pronounced with a tongue click at the start, is like a drumbeat; the music is built from laptop beats, distorted sounds, shards of Zulu music, echoes of house and the South African style called kwaito. Gqom has infiltrated more mainstream pop and is making inroads in international dance music, and on Friday, May 12, as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Festival, a showcase brings leading gqom producers — DJ Lag, Rudeboyz, DJ Twitt — for their New York debut. (Tender Trap, tendertrapbk.com)Another Red Bull concert, on Thursday, gathers musicians in a retrospective for a disco-era pioneer: the songwriter-producer Patrick Adams. (Alhambra Ballroom)

Source: New York Times May 03, 2017 14:01 UTC