Spoek Mathambo/Nthato Mokgata is a musician and filmmaker. He’s a master of collaboration, with roots tracing all the way back to the seminal The Fantastic Kill with Watkin Tudor Jones and Sibot, which lead to projects like Sweat.X, Playdoe, Moleke Mbembe, Fantasma, Batuk, and his most recent collaborations with Laliboi. I’m definitely leaving some stuff out, and that’s not even to mention his personal catalogue of albums, but the point is that the man has kept himself busy.
Not just with making music. In 2014, he worked on a documentary called Future Sound of Mzansi that is, to this day, one of the best explorations of South African electronic music. He’s worked on a number of documentaries before and since, and has delved into a number of facets of filmmaking. Most recently, he was a writer and director for the “Surf Sangoma” episode of Disney’s Kizazi Moto animated anthology series.
We get into all of the above as well as learn about some of the pitfalls of working with international labels, explore the benefits and hurdles of modern music distribution, and discuss why he feels like there are still musical magic tricks from SA music history that haven’t been explored fully. Enjoy.
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Keep up with Spoek Mathambo on Instagram.
Buy his music on Bandcamp.
Watch Future Sound of Mzansi.
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