Black Coffee @ Salle Wagram in Paris, France for Cercle

Black Coffee playing a DJ set in Paris' oldest ballroom: Salle Wagram for Cercle.

☞ Black Coffee

Over the last two decades, DJ, Producer and Entrepreneur @realblackcoffee has established himself as one of the most prominent global names in electronic music. Black Coffee has broken down boundaries musically; bringing his South African roots to the world with a blend of heavily traditional African percussion and distinctively metropolitan techno, dubbed by many as “Afropolitan House”. He notably won a Grammy award for Best Dance/Electronic Album for his seventh studio record, Subconsciously.

48°52'39.7"N 2°17'47.1"E

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Video credits:

Artist: Black Coffee
Venue: Salle Wagram
Produced by Cercle
Directed by: Derek Barbolla
1st assistant: Pol Souchier
Live Editor: Pol Souchier
Directors of photography: Jérémie Tridard & Anatole Vaillant
Music Curator: Philippe Tuchmann
Sound Engineer: Timothée Renard & Aurélien Moisan
Light Engineer: Yves Blachere

Thanks to our partners: Trax Magazine, Villa Schweppes, Radio FG, Mr. After Party, Jack, Ville de Paris, TECH-MINIMAL SOUND, We Are Pulse, Techno Perfect, Techno Moves, Real Clubbers, A NOUS Paris and special thanks to Solidarité Sida.
Also to Galerie Joseph.

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Tracklist:

00:00 Black Coffee - We Are One (We Are One)
01:01 Pablo Fierro - Kalaa
06:22 From P60 & Lisa Shaw - Magic (Enoo Napa Remix)
11:14 Rampa, &ME, Adam Port (Keinemusik) - Muyè (Black Coffee Remix)
18:26 Black Coffee ft. Toshi - Buya (Da Capo Remix)
23:41 Shimza ft. Argento Dust - All Alone
28:48 Da Capo - Kelaya
32:54 Danny Tenaglia ft. Celeda - Music Is The Answer (Dancin' And Prancin') (ID Remix)
38:42 Demajor ft. Lizwi - Traveller (Kususa & Quetornik Official Remix)
37:58 Black Coffee ft. Bucie - Superman
45:24 Da Capo - Umbovukazi
50:52 Vestaa - The Creation
55:02 Da Capo ft. Tshepo King - Afrika
1:02:53 Calypso De Sir - From A Distance
1:07:35 Interview with Black Coffee

This artistic performance has been recorded live.
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#blackcoffee #cercle

[jordankamanga]

Who is still coming back here 6 years later? You just can't get enough of Black Coffee

[brendonkandah]

If you are in 2090 please note that this man won a grammy as an African man in the 21st century respect Africa wherever you are naturally gifted

[gugumoloi]

"single-handedly" the best Black Coffee performance! I'm 65 and South African, I see a son who understands our heartbeats when I listen to this young man.

[SazisoMajozi]

As a South African I'm proud of this guy....

[CDAMag]

Tracklist:
00:00 Pablo Fierro - Kalaa (Original Mix)
00:01 Black Coffee & Hugh Masekela - We Are One
06:07 From P60 & Lisa Shaw - Magic (Enoo Napa Remix)
11:20 Keinermusik (Rampa, Adam Port, &ME) - Muyè (Black Coffee Remix)
18:06 Black Coffee feat. Toshi - Buya (Da Capo Remix)
23:26 Shimza - All Alone (Original Mix)
27:20 Da Capo - Kelaya (Original Mix)
32:48 Danny Tenaglia ft Celeda - Music is the Answer (Dancin' & Prancin')
33:05 Leroy Styles - The Night [Unreleased]
38:10 Black Coffee & Bucie - Superman (Original Mix)
39:13 DeMajor ft Lizwi - Traveller (Kususa & QueTornik Official Remix)
46:03 Da Capo - Umbovukazi (Original Mix)
51:15 Vestaa - The Creation (Original Mix)
56:43 Da Capo & Tshepo - Africa (Original Mix)
1:02:14 Calypso De Sir - From A Distance (Original Mix)
1:06:44 Black Coffee & Hugh Masekela - We Are One (Original Mix)

[riccello]

De Capo is fantastic! That break at 46:25 is unbelievable! So unique. I keep watching that moment. And his face at the end says it all. He is happy with how he did it!

[nomadicadam]

Unquestionably one of the greatest & most musically gifted DJs in the world.

[BonisiweMngomezulu-yw]

August 2024. And I'm still hooked to this mix. Who still comes back to jam as well?

[Gsaaad]

You can really tell how confident and proud he is of his mixes and his work. No one can ever take away that feeling of creating/entering a trance

[michaels]

I am not a fan of many DJs, yet this is an excellent, extremely, extraordinary experience to listen to Black Coffee.. He uses melody and timbres for a beautiful sound.. No standing around looking for attention or wasting time, no smoking or anything to distract him... Awesome...

[mosiuoamolakeng]

2 years later and this set is still slick. Who's here?

[mishakemuyongosimonchaka]

We are still here in 2024. Black Coffee is timeless

[romanm]

He himself enjoys his work! Look at his face, everything is written on it!

[DJPaulWest]

For anyone who’s interested in getting a deeper understanding of what you're listening to… I’ve pulled together a mini-study of the set - demystifying the ‘art of DJing’ and showing that it isn’t just pushing buttons! :)

Overview

For successful storytelling – whether in music, in film, in fashion design, in art - there are aspects which are designed to bring unity / cohesion to the story – such that it feels like it hangs together. And there are other aspects which are designed to provide movement – this creates interest, makes the music feel alive and keeps the audience engaged. Both are required for effective storytelling.

In this set, Black Coffee (Nkosinathi) creates unity through the mood/subgenre of the tracks as well as the tempo. The overall mood is characterised by a low/mid-level energy and the subgenre played is that I would describe as tribal and dark rhythmic patterns – and this sound was maintained largely throughout.
In addition, the lower intensity mood was driven by the relatively low tempo (123 BPM) – which remained constant throughout. (I note that BPM was held constant since many DJs use changes in the BPM to drive energy up or down throughout a set)

While a 1-hour set isn’t really sufficient time to weave elaborate and detailed movement into the story, to my mind there are almost three distinct ‘chapters’ or sections to the set – the first 4 tracks have relatively lower intensity percussion and minimal in nature – bringing the crowd into the set and making them sway to the beat.
The middle section (23:00 – 48:00) is more percussion heavy (the kick drum, the snare, the hats are more full and pronounced) and the tracks are also more bass-heavy. In addition, the mood of the tracks feel darker and less melodic.
The final section returned to more melodic sounding tracks, characterised by motifs that were driven by the mid/high frequencies – and therefore feel less intense / more chill.
You can certainly see this difference in the crowd’s reaction – the slow swaying in the first 'chapter' @5:22– the more energetic feel in the crowd @28:42. And then return to swaying with a lower intensity energy @57:54

However, the movement to the sound was created not so much through the storytelling but through creative mix & blend techniques.

In terms of key observations and emphasising what was done very well:

Mix & Blend

The majority of movement (and interest in the sound) was created by mix/blend detailing. There are a couple of very nice techniques that Nkosinathi uses (which I’ve seen him use in many of his other sets on YouTube). Almost akin to adding a little bit of ‘mustard’ to the sound to spice up the tracks!

"EQ tweaking" – for those unfamiliar with a DJ mixer, there are 3 EQ dials – lows, mids and highs. This allows a DJ to remove or emphasise those frequencies – which Nkosinathi uses to great effect to create emphasis on rhythmic aspects throughout the set.
One example is @20:42. We can see Nkosinathi boosts the mids to emphasise the claps and brings this rhythm to the fore. Likewise @28:12 we can see he boosts the mids to emphasise the short rhythmic stab. And for the third example @53:36 he fluctuates the mids dial to creates movement in the violin – emphasising and de-emphasising – making the sound come alive.
These are just 3 (out of many) examples of Nkosinathi using the EQ to shape the sound and create movement.

"Cue" – Another interesting rhythmic effect that Nkosinathi introduces is created by hitting the cue button on the CDJ (hitting or hold Cue starts the tracks and stops the track once you take your finger away). By hitting the Cue it plays a very brief excerpt from the track – and therefore can become a de facto rhythm if played as such.
The first example of this is @15:49 – the high pitched ‘whoop’ vocal sound – you can see he taps the Cue button in time to the track which is playing on every 4th beat. @16:46 he increases the frequency to tapping every 2 beats… and then at 16:58 he hits the cue on every beat.
Not only is this creating additional rhythm and layering to the sound but the increased frequency tapping into the drop of the track playing creates tension ahead of the release.
Similarly @32:40 he uses the same technique to bring in the ‘Music is the Answer” acappella - hitting the cue on the ‘Y’ of the “yeah… dancing... and prancing…” vocal to create a brief rhythm before letting the vocal play through.

There are other areas to the set which are also noteworthy which Nkosinathi uses to create interest in the sound – the use of FX (in particular echo) and the changing speed of echo to create movement. Furthermore, there are a couple of moments in the set where Nkosinathi pulls the music away entirely for a few seconds before returning the beat again.

In conjunction, all these aspects helped to add more interest / movement to the set and make the set feel more ‘alive’. And this worked well when contrasted against the stability and cohesion created by the mood and tempo.



If you're interested in reading commentary on other Cercle DJ sets; I've included a list of the Cercle video links with my commentary at the top:


More to come soon!

[jennyjenny]

This is so extreme he is Genius...he takes us from electronica..dance
..space zip..trance..tribe..house to orchestral..in seconds the beat of his heart and the rhythm in his ear is soul fire..all hail BLACK COFFEE

[NkosiyaphaMcCedamour]

South Africa should celebrate you while you still alive coz wow, you raising our flag with your tremendous work

[nessska]

His style is so unique, can listen to this 100 times ☕️

[aisthetic.art]

It's so amazing how Black Coffee's music not only sounds deeply tribal but also so futuristic...He truly is an Afrofuturist.

[claireholtak]

Black Coffee, thanks for your discipline, creativity, love for Africa and her talent - South Africa is so proud of you!

[charlieskosana-yrjx]

If DJ'ying was a nation, black coffee would be a great president ❤🔥✨🇿🇦