Mamohlakola Letuka
ZAGRO Deejays have dropped their debut album, Unison, which is expected to foster unity among House music artistes.
The 12-track commercial House album has already received thumbs-up from local music lovers.
The first single to the offering, Your Groove, featuring songstress Tsoamathe, was released in June last year and it scored positive reviews on social media and call-in programmes on local radio stations. It was also nominated for the Best Dance as well as Best Collaboration at the Ultimate Music Awards 2017.
Unison boasts three tracks, featuring international artistes and eight local house music artistes.
Zagro DJs comprise, Nthethe ‘DJ Allegro’ Sekoli; and Siyabonga ‘DJ Skizo’ Chefa, who have been releasing singles such as Your Star, featuring Linkeng and Signature; and Malesehlana featuring Lala and Imithandazo.
The group was formed in 2004 as a trio, which also featured DJ Khepza who left in 2015 to start a solo career.
They proved their versatility when they incorporated a Bongo drum beat, played by DJ Allegro, into their original sound. They also featured rappers L-Tore and Nirex on a House beat of the track Slega which became a club anthem during the last festive season.
They received the Best Producer Award at the Ultimate Music Awards 2016 in November 2016.
Speaking to the Weekender this week, DJ Allegro said they hoped that through the album, House DJs will start working together.
“‘Unison is when artists sing the same musical notes, and we want to start working together as house DJs,” he said.
He said that the album took longer to release because they had to find their own sound as Zagro DJs; and at the same time, remain relevant in the competitive industry.
“We had to ensure that our sound is one we trust and be regarded as the best in terms of quality and originality. We released different singles to introduce our sound and have also performed at various events even for free, just so we could form a solid followership,” DJ Allegro said.
The outfit also released, “Your Groove” as their first single for the upcoming album. “We wanted people to know what to expect from the album, and the response has been overwhelming.”
DJ Allegro said since then, House music lovers have been itching for their offering. “We have kept our promise not to disappoint our fans,” he said.
He said before they became sure of the path they wanted to take in the music industry, they tried working with Deep House DJs but failed to click with their kind of music. “We realized that Deep and Commercial House music are parallel genres and decided to work with artistes with similar interests in terms of the sound or beat.”
Since then DJ Allegro has worked with various musicians including, local vocalists Nel Rivers; Lala; Mapule; and Tsoamathe. He has also collaborated with South Africans, Lesley Mbatha; and Beyond Song, as well as Sadi from Botswana.
“The idea of featuring so many people is to promote unity among musicians irrespective of the genre, by showing that if we work together we can release better products. It is also important to work with musicians from other countries to broaden our market, DJ Allegro said.
He said to improve the coverage of their music in the country, he said they have mapped a distribution plan that will also inform places they are going to be touring this year.
