There is a remarkable fluidity in Maputo’s music scenes, with musicians often working between electronic, hiphop and traditional music without missing a beat. These songs, ranging from ambient to electronica, R&B to hiphop, spotlight some of the talented artists orbiting the capital’s new DIY venues.

Tégui “Open For You”
Singer and Maputo venue 16Neto regular Tégui sings about risking everything for love on this woozy R&B cut produced by Pizzaw/Pineapples.

Trkz “Hope”
One of the biggest stars of Maputo’s alternative scene sings about love at long distance on this gentle composition mixing tentative guitar with a flurry of bristling hand percussion.

Midnightmachiine “Natürliche”
This experimental sketch comes from Marco and Dercio of Mapiko Mweya, who infuse electronic music with distinctive Mozambican traits and co-run the Berlin party Hekaya.

May Mbira “Tarremba”
Musician May Mbira runs a workshop where he teaches people to make the mbira, a southern African thumb piano. “Tarremba” means tired in his father’s ndau language – the song itself discusses the current political and social malaise in Mozambique.

Fu da Siderurgia “Mother Earth Song”
One of the capital’s best beatmakers turns in a beat which he says “is about a deep respect to Africa’s most valuable characteristics, the fact they have rhythm in everything they do”. It samples mbira alongside an 808 kick and unquantised hand percussion to add “that human swing”.

Terapia “Esú”
A collaboration between beatmaker Nandele Maguni and Brazilian artist Yuru Yayungai layering a patient rhythm with meditative vocals.

Nandele “Roaches”
This is from Nandele’s debut album Likumbi, an instrumental hiphop LP inspired by his frightening childhood experiences in a tribal initiation ritual. The song is inspired by the fear he felt during a dream in which cockroaches captured his family and took them hostage.

Kachowsky “Manko”
Kachowsy is the alias of producer Chris Born, who moved to Mozambique in 1989 and now runs a studio there. He is influenced by Mozambican comics and the vision of a post-apocalyptic future Maputo, responding to massive unregulated development in the region.

Iron Br11 “Nada A Provar”
Pronounced iron bronze, this producer is a key member of The Other Room Collective and has collaborated with many musicians on the scene. “Nada A Provar” is an experiment with a local music style called pandza incorporating modern touches. It’s a demo from his upcoming album Pawa.

King Cizzy “By Your Side”
An introspective trap ballad which accents hiphop with influences from dancehall and kwaito.

Hyuta Cezar featuring Tayra “All My Life”
Two members of the collective Dream Inc get together for a simple but affecting slice of romantic trap.

$orr¥ “Sozinho” (produced by Vezo Breeze 3000)
A lo-fi hiphop track from $orr¥ aka Kevin Marrengule, a musician and visual artist, with hypnotic vocals and a soft rhythm buried deep in the mix.

Revorev “Feelin’ On You”
A throwback to the tropical sound of electronic music popular in Mozambique in the early 2000s, sampling “Kuloya” by Swit.

Sir Lovely “Holocausto”
Sticky piano chords anchor a heartfelt song where Sir Lovely discusses the wounds inflicted by ageing and trauma, whether from war, unemployment or love.

Milton Gulli “Jogador”
As well as managing the key alternative label Kongoloti Records, Gulli is a singer-songwriter. Here he tells the story of an African boy who grows up to become a famous player in the European championships, only to be met by racist slurs when he thinks he’s finally made it.

Read Tom Faber's full Global Ear report in The Wire 433. Subscribers can access the full article via the online archive.