Port Elizabeth has always been dubbed as the “Manhattan” of the South African music industry. Also known as “The Friendly City”, no wonder PE (Port Elizabeth) has produced legendary jazz musicians, vocalists and generally more soulful music – as compared to the likes of the other major cities like Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, which had a more varied approach to music styles.
Born out this city is Lunga Nombewu, Baainar records label owner/producer/artist/DJ. It’s a mouthful just mentioning just a few of his job descriptions.
Nicknamed “The Sid”, Lunga’s musical journey started by a simple task of collecting music and experimenting with the sounds that he liked as a young boy growing up in Port Elizabeth, to keep himself company, spending most of his childhood indoors.
Also dubbed “Lunga music” by Motherwell locals due to his unrelenting playlists at maximum volume, the bald-shaven DJ moved to Johannesburg to pursue a career in Aviation. However music had become essential to his existence and he started Djing on the weekends with friends, mostly playing hip- hop. Lunga then discovered house music.
Lunga gained a reputation for being the go to guy for the latest and hottest music amongst his friends across the country. He saw an opportunity to start a movement. That was the beginning of Baainar records, initially operating as an outlet to sell vinyl LP’s.
He left his position as an Aircraft Engineer for the national carrier airline to focus all of his energy on building Baainar records into a formidable force in the local music industry circles and garnering international acclaim.
To date Baainar has worked with almost every major artist in South Africa. The House music greats such as Fresh, Oskido, Euphonik, Dj Sbu, Tira, Sox, Black Moses, Zaki Ibrahim, Jacqui Carpede, Zano and Shota. In addition, he has worked with Afro pop star Theo Kgosinkwe of Mafikilzolo and Durban based Kwaito artists Smallz, Professor and many more.
On the international front, Baainar has worked with Zandy SheJay, Nick Holder (Canada), Mr Mama (Italy), Claude Monnet, Azee Project and BSC (Brazil), Salvatore Agrosi, Pascal Morais (Netherlands), Martin East (UK), Rocco (France), Eliki, Jellybean (who has worked extensively with Madonna), Ocha records and Kafele.
With Lunga as the head, Baainar records artists’ music has been included in no less than 15 CD’s in 2010 alone, and have released almost 500 songs digitally. Lunga was a member of the panel at the 2010 South African Music Conference (SAMC) that presented on the field of distributing music digitally.
Three months into 2011 Lunga has been profiled on German based Beat magazine and “Baainar underground selections” EP has been reviewed in 5 Magazine distributed in Miami and Chicago. All relating to Baainar’s distinctive sound can be described as Deep Afro; however, it also includes elements that range all the way from minimal to Afro and even progressive house.
The Baainar stable is home to young and upcoming production, djing, mixing and mastering, remixing and vocal talents. Its missions as a record label is to nurture and grow potential from the musical underground and market it to the world, while bridging the gap in terms of the digital integration of our current music industry.
The ultimate goal being to provide affiliate labels and artists with resources and mentorship that will result in them growing towards self sustainability in the highly competitive international music arena.
Nombewu’s first published production was on Antonio Lyons album “We Dance We Pray”, his first international remix, released on Arrecha Rec (Netherlands).
His career boasts 5 physical albums as an Executive Producer, including: Lunga The Sid – Sounds of Baainar and Antonio Lyons – We Dance And We Pray both Soulcandi releases, Eltonnick – Touching Mournful Emotional, and Nkokhi – Journey of Life – under his own label Baainar Records.
Currently he is the executive producer of Anga “NaakMusiQ” Makubalo – Love And Music album and he recently signed Zano to be managed by his label, the publishing side of the Baainar stable boasts such talent as Sol Phenduka, Dj Fortee, hip-hop duo S-Squad, Linah Sanga (Tanzania) and many more.
For bookings, contact:
Lunga: +2776 041 8360
E-mail: baainar@gmail.com
Facebook.com/djlunga & Facebook.com/BaainarRecords
Twitter.com/LungaNombewu & Twitter.com/BaainarRecords
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