After a near-death experience, Mobi Dixon is blend ing his sound
LESS than a year since the release of his most recent album, the smooth and joyous When House Was House, Mobi Dixon is back with a new project, Mobi Tek, Vol 1.
It’s the veteran house DJ and producer’s third album in as many years and continues on a purple patch that’s seen him embrace new sounds more than ever before.
“I’m finding that my archive is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I’m sitting with all this content,” he said.
“Another big inspiration is how these amapiano youngsters are moving. They’ve taught us a thing or two about not holding back on content and giving people the music.
“Even when I released When House Was House, it was about reflecting back on the past and painting a picture of the different textures of house music over the past two decades.
“Even then, I knew that from there, I was going to shift the sound and focus on the current and future sounds.
“That album was about reflecting back and reminding people how dope house music is, where we come from with house music and how it’s influenced most of our genres, from kwaito right up to amapiano today.”
Mobi Tek, Vol 1 fuses the afro house sound, which Dixon has been a part of pioneering for the past 15 years, with the more synthetic techno sounds that are dominant on the global dance scene.
The combination of the two is what Dixon has coined “Mobi Tek”.
It provides a refreshing balance of musically rich sounds and an energetic and groovy vibe. It allows Dixon to remain true to his sound while accommodating a younger audience looking for more bounce.
The new album saw Dixon work with the likes of the veteran afro pop duo Mafikizolo, which he described as a “dream come true”, Naakmusiq, Babalwa M and Jnr SA.
In 2016, as he was at the height of his career off the back of the runaway success of his Tribal Soul album, Mobi Dixon was involved in an accident when he crashed into a cow on the road and wrecked his car.
While he was uninjured, the brush with death took an emotional toll on him. Now, as he looks back on the accident, he believes it was one of the moments that shaped his character.
“I respect and appreciate life,” he said. “It actually just hit me today that if I’d left that time, there’d be no Live The Music, no 10 Steps Forward, no The Chapel, no When House Was House and no Mobi Tek.
“Now it’s also inspiring me, going back to my first point, to not hold back and to just drop and chase everything in real-time.”
Abakithi, featuring Lady Du, one of the standout cuts on the new album, speaks about his ancestors and their protection over his life.
He explains how while the message behind the song correlates with his life over the past few years; it’s something that wasn’t planned.
The pair initially linked up earlier in the year, as part of a team that came together to write a record for another artist. When that artist postponed their session, Dixon and Lady Du decided to work on some other music together.
“I was like: ‘Okay I’ve got two beats. Let me play you one.’ I played that first beat and walked out to handle something. Before that beat had even finished playing, Lady Du came to fetch me and said she was ready to record.
“The beat hadn’t even finished playing. Naturally that’s what came to her mind, that’s what came to her soul.
“We believe that there was an immediate connection of a message that was coming from my ancestors, and she was just so brilliant in delivering it in her way.”
When they sat down a few weeks later, they came to the realisation that the song told the story of his life, particularly the past six years.
Dixon says that experience was what drove him to decide to release another album.
“Initially, the vision was to release Mobi Tek in 2023, but the song just drove me. She encouraged me to go for it and was just like: ‘Go with whatever you feel in your soul and whatever your ancestors are telling you to do, do it now.’
“Then, I just started putting together the album and, within five or six months, the album was done.”
After making it through the personal and spiritual challenges that came his way over the past few years, Dixon feels prepared and ready for a successful next chapter in his career.
“I’ve managed to pull through and I’m still here and going stronger than ever. I feel like it was a series of tests to build my character and to get me ready for what I believe are going to be the best years of my career.”