Various - 8/10

The default sounds of South African house, which has been big business for years, are the slow, funky local variant Kwaito or the ultra-sophisticated and soulful stuff full of live instruments.

Now, though, there's another significant and dramatically different variation: Gqom (it's a Zulu word pronounced with a sharp click for the "G"). It's a generally dark, oppressive electronic sound that hints at dubstep, trap and footworking in mood, but at a slow tempo, with sparse and echoey drum syncopations rolling over vast bass drones, and heavy compression adding to the tense vibe. Something fresh that gets very addictive, very quickly.