Uncle Waffles & Royal MusiQ – Wadibusa ft. DHP Sage, PCee, and DJY Biza (Single Review)

The meteoric rise of Uncle Waffles and her contributions to Amapiano and all related EDM subgenres it simply go hand in hand. Originating from Eswatini, Lungelihle Zwane aka Uncle Waffles broke into the scene after learning to DJ during the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though she merely started practicing nearly four years ago, her dedication, perseverance as well as a natural inclination to music helped to bolster a stellar start.

Some of her musical influences include the legendary Black Coffee, a pioneer of South African deep house music, Lebo Mathosa as well as DJ Kent. Her debut single ‘Tanzania’ was received with none other than praise, eventually receiving a certification of 7x Platinum by the Recording Industry of South Africa in 2022. In fact, that song changed the trajectory of my own musical journey.

I had been hip to Amapiano for a while by that time, but this particular song deviated from all the other Amapiano songs. It had a depth, a pseudo-nostalgia, an existentialism, and a fiery intensity all at once that I’ve never seen any other artist try to replicate before. No surprise though, as it has been stated that she took three months to fully perfect that masterpiece.

All of her subsequent releases have been marked with the same niche that makes her completely stand out from any other Amapiano act. Her tracks are rarely generic, they are all infused with a particular depth and character that I don’t think any other artist has. She isn’t the most experimental, ala sgija or Mozpiano artists, but she makes up for it with a militaristic approach to percussion and a sense for harmonies and bass akin to deep house or even trance songs at times.

Lastly, the artists she chooses to provide vocals for her tracks tend to have an interesting and resounding timbre to their voice, complementing the general soundscape of her work. In Amapiano, I find that a lot of artists ruin their production with a vocalist that has an extremely irritating or a non-befitting-of-the-track voice. Her gift for composition and production truly shines as she avoids this problem entirely.

After releasing two albums that symbiotically displayed ferocity and technicality, she then released an album titled ‘Solace’ towards the end of 2023. I found this album very interesting as it seemed like it was stylistically meant to parallel and contrast her previous two releases and themes, showing a different side to her artistry. Uncle Waffles by this time was known for being the hardest and most intense DJ in the world of Amapiano.

This release showed a sound that was more ‘soulful’ in its choice of harmonics, and a little bit more mellow. More artistic direction was taken in using techniques of dispersion as well as distance between vocal chops as well as sounds to lengthen the typical ‘build-up’ of a track. The album felt like an ode to the peace of deep house, itself. It was extremely serene, but still technically proficient.

It felt like the right thing to do or expand upon after establishing a particular type of rapport with her previous releases. My personal favourites from the album are ‘Peacock Revisit’, ‘Solace’ as well as ‘Waffles Anthem’. However, after this release, I was met with anticipation as I wondered what next step Uncle Waffles would make in her artistry. She continued touring and posting updates on social media, as well as started carving a niche for herself as a fashionista. She is an ‘all-in-one’ package artist with many crossovers. For the sake of this website, I will not do a fashion analysis on her distinct sense of style, but like everything else she does, it is extremely distinct and once you get the hang of it, you will definitely be able to ascribe it to her- just like her music.

Months pass, and we enter the year 2024. There was no sign of ‘new’ Uncle Waffles music per se. This all changed sometime towards the end of March and entering April when she started teasing her new look and the theme for her new single itself. That single, of course, is ‘Wadibusa‘. It marks her first single after her last album release. Anticipating this song, just like many others, I was extremely excited to listen to this song.

The song immediately starts off with an interesting buildup. It bears a distinctly succinct beat, with the classic introductory Amapiano snare. The soundscape gets built upon with the addition of various vocalisations, all singing different percolations as well as melodies, leading to a sort of harmonic polyphony. The sounds do not end up clashing with each other, as they are carefully panned and some of the underlying vocals have the volume set lower, making them more mellow and airy. In turn, it gives the dominant vocal piece at a given snapshot of the song a bit of an operatic feel. The bass then sets the undertone of the song, creeping up with every new wave of the vocalisation. There is an underlying chord in the background of all of these elements, leading to an existential sense.

It then evolves further, with a bit of experimentation and funk with the use of external synthesized clips. I hear Uncle Waffles employing newer techniques hip to Amapiano, such as a longer delay with the log drum and even a ‘bubbling’ syncopation in the midst of the log drum. The only person I’ve heard used this technique is DJ Tarico, so it is interesting to see this aspect of log drum experimentation expanded upon and added to a typical Amapiano soundscape. The song gets elevated even further in terms of musical variability and whimsicalness through the use of slightly off-chord vocal clips that are also layered with high and low undertones, almost akin to the vocal techniques used in Naira Marley’s previous productions but with more technical flair to it. I think a more apt comparison that could be made is to the vocal chops in Art of Noise’s Close (To The Edit).

The general sound of this song is quite interesting to me. It morphs Uncle Waffles’ typical professional fire with a sound that to me, sounds more militaristic. Perhaps that influenced the choice of dress she chose on her single cover. I can totally envision a militaristic dance routine or sequence to this exact song.

The song closes off with a slew of vocals that guide the song melodically toward its end, with the percussion hits gradually reaching a crescendo peak before fading out.

This song was genuinely quite interesting to perceive. I found that Uncle Waffles finally added more experimental techniques to her song. However, in her quest to accommodate this aspect of instrumentation, the other aspects of her usual instrumentation ineffectively mellowed out. While some who prefer the predictability of music might find this to be a turn off, I think this is actually interesting as it forces us to look out for the aspects of this particular instrumentation that she wants you to pay attention to, which I infer in this case is the intersection between a tight, calculated beat and a slightly whimsical and experimental approach.

The production quality of this song is expectedly stellar, as one can expect from Uncle Waffles. A very astute use of EQ and panning can be displayed throughout the song, with regards to which motif dominates the song at a given point of time.

If this song is the gateway to her future releases, it will definitely spark your curiosity in trying to imagine what she’ll make next. That is her true skill, not as an artist or a musician, but as a storyteller through music- to keep you begging for more.

Score/Excellent: Uncle Waffles returns to the rat race of music with a stellar approach to combining aspects of Sgija with Amapiano. It is subtle yet powerful at the same time. ‘Wadibusa’ is a great song that will definitely keep you wanting more, as if it were a chapter in the book of Amapiano.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]