Afro House

What it is

Afro house runs from South Africa and West Africa through Lisbon and into European clubs, and it puts traditional percussion patterns over a four to the floor kick without softening either of them. Black Coffee is the name most people outside the continent know first, and Johannesburg, Luanda and Kampala are as much the source as any European city. The structural difference from the rest of this family is that there is usually no clap on 2 and 4. The backbeat is implied by a bell or a rimshot landing somewhere else, and the ear supplies the rest, which is why these records feel like they are moving sideways as well as forwards.

What it sounds like

Warm and percussive, with a great deal happening in the midrange. Shakers running sixteenths, a bell playing a figure that crosses the beat rather than reinforcing it, congas, and a kick that is long and soft rather than punchy. Vocals are often in Zulu, Portuguese or Yoruba and sit right in the middle of the mix. Chords, where they appear, are broad and slow. Very little of it is loud, and the density comes from layering quiet things rather than from raising anything.

Key elements

• A bell patternA repeating figure on a bell or agogo, usually a clave shape, deliberately crossing the beat rather than reinforcing it.
• No clap on 2 and 4The backbeat is implied. A rimshot lands on beat 2 and on the a of 3, and the ear fills in what is missing without being asked.
• Sixteenth shakersShakers or closed hats on the e and the a of every beat, alternating between 48 and 62, so the pulse never actually stops.
• A soft, long kickWeight with no attack. It sits under the percussion rather than in front of it, which is unusual for a four to the floor genre.
• One open hatOn the and of 3, plus one on the and of 4 in the second bar. Any more than that and the record starts sounding European.

How to get them

• BellProgram a clave shape: beat 1, the a of 1, the and of 2, then the and of 4. Keep it near one velocity so it reads as a machine part playing against human ones.
• KickLong decay, no click, low-passed around 2kHz. Tune it to the root and let it overlap the sixteenth that follows it.
• RimshotDry, panned slightly off centre, at 84 on beat 2 and 54 on the a of 3. It is standing in for a backbeat, so it must not sound like one.
• ShakersTwo different shaker samples alternating on the e and the a. One part, two sounds, and it stops sounding programmed almost immediately.
• Layer quietlySix percussion parts at velocity 50 read as one rich instrument. Two at velocity 100 read as two loops fighting each other.
• Swing0.54. Enough to lift the sixteenths off the grid, not enough to turn the bell pattern into a shuffle and lose the cross rhythm.

Reference points

Black Coffee, Culoe De Song, Osunlade, Da Capo, Boddhi Satva, and labels like Soulistic and Innervisions. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements.