“We’re Tryna Bring House Home” - Meet SSensational Sounds, the EDM Collective Challenging Perceptions About the Genre They Love
SSensational Sounds at Laylow for Gnocci Jeans [source: @SSensounds]
“We’re Tryna Bring House Home” - Meet SSensational Sounds, the EDMCollective Challenging Perceptions About the Genre They Love.
UK music has undergone, and is undergoing, a paradigm shift. Just 5 years ago, listening habits of the Black British collective were dominated by Rap & Trap. Afrobeats was burgeoning, but Afro-House sounds were considered particularly niche. But here in 2022, the music that soundtracks our lives is increasingly from the House world, with the sounds coming from the continent driving the surge. AfroHouse collective, SSensational Sounds (SS), have put the full force of their weight behind the ongoing shift. In the space of two years, they’ve built momentum that’s carried them as far and as high as All Points East and Glastonbury. But their mission isn’t a self-serving one. It’s all done in service of the sound they love.
Over the course of our discussion, the core duo of SS (they prefer not to be named individually, wanting all attention to be focused on the SSensational Sounds brand itself) outline their three avenues of approach to fulfil their mission to transform existing perceptions of House music as a ‘white’ genre and create timeless, feel-good sounds. One such approach is the ‘House Sounds’ playlists and mixes that have brought their platform a lot of traffic. Incidentally, the idea of curating playlists to allow beginners in the space easy access to the latest heat, was itself born out of lockdown-enforced compromise. With their plans to release their first original music in early 2020 scuppered by the covid outbreak, SS had to readjust. SS recall their thinking at the time: “How can I grow a page and a following, an audience when we can’t release our music? The whole point of SS is to debunk the notion that House is just ‘oonts oontz’ [A colloquial term that undermines the complexity and versatility of House music]. So, we started creating playlists”. Each of the playlists has their own flavour, leaning into different sounds within the wider House space, whether it be AfroHouse, Amapiano, Tribal House or otherwise. “Yeah, that’s so when people hear “House”, they associate it with these sounds [of the playlists]. I wanted to get people’s appetite ready for the music we were gonna start releasing. It was our way of marketing without spending any money and whetting their appetite for the music we were gonna start releasing”.
Coming out of the pandemic with a decent following, SS went about transforming their online clout into a presence felt in real life, dancefloors and in festival grounds. House music after all is made to be heard at bone-rattling decibel levels, its sole aim to drive crowds into fits of self-irreverent dancing. And with the creation of their ‘SSensational Shoobz’ events, in no time at all SS have garnered a reputation for throwing some of the best parties around.
“That came about because with House so many of the best producers are DJs as well, because you need an outlet for your music to reach the masses and a lot of the time that’s you DJing yourself. A lot of the biggest Amapiano DJs produce their own music and a lot of the House ones – if you're looking at Peggy Gou, Kaytranada, Black Coffee, Calvin Harris, all these people are producers also. So that was always gonna be the next step when it comes to Sensational Sounds, to have DJs bringing our sound to the masses. And that’s where the idea of SSensational Shoobz came about. The shoobz are the parties that we throw, where we could dictate what we wanted to do for ourselves. We’ve always wanted to have things in house and have people as part of the family.”
Safe to say, SSensational Shoobz is a hit. Their first live booking was in the basement of London’s famous black-owned pub, the Prince of Peckham. “To this day, Prince of Peckham say to me that what we did that day, they haven’t seen before. We rammed it the hell out! There was a line to get down to the basement that ran all the way upstairs and out of the building. The second [DJ booking] we had was at Brixton market house, 250 capac’. So, as we’re growing, people are clocking that we have a collective of DJs that shell off dances. The brand is growing.” Now the SSensational Sounds DJ roster is 6 selectas deep and much like the House Sounds playlists, each one brings something different to the table. With the likes of SuperMidz, EllaDHC, TayoIKU, ReCeBe, Shodem & Guy.In.Glasses, SSensational Sounds can claim to be home to some of the best DJs in London.
The live music arm of the SSensational Sounds has propelled the collective right into the heart of London's AfroHouse scene. But it has always been a means to an end, a vehicle to enable them to fulfil their biggest passion and the most important avenue for SS – making original music. The duo has developed a working tandem, founded on a friendship that’s lasted since school. While one has the technical skills to operate FL Studio, the other offers his creative direction on what the song ought to sound like. Between them, they’re committed to bringing the full scope of the AfroHouse sound to UK shores, beyond Amapiano's recent surge.
So far their 5 releases have amassed a modest number of spins but the duo is comfortable in the knowledge that their success isn’t to be measured by counting streams. For example, their second release, “Ss’amapiano B”, was chosen to feature in the BT Sports series film, Prep To Win: Harlequins. Now, they’re ready to announce themselves as premier music-makers in the space. “We’re in EP mode right now. So far we’ve released 5 songs so far and I think it’s time to release a project that encompasses what SSensational Sounds is. We’re done introducing the sound. We’re tryna bring House home. First and foremost, SSensational Sounds are artists and producers. We’re artists. The [DJ] collective is a bypass of the music but it’s important that the music is number one, that it’s paramount to our vision. Cos the number one mission is releasing music that makes people feel good, that resonates with people and demyths the misconceptions [that House isn’t made for and by Black people]. We want all the DJs around the world playing SSensational Sounds music. SSensational Shoobz and the roster of DJs comes with us wanting to have fun with our peoples.”
Stream SS’s playlists HERE
SSensational Sounds brand logo [source: Facebook]
Written by Dwayne Wilks