LISTEN TO GINSENG FEATURING BAMAO YENDE 
AND MALEMBE FEATURING PIERRE KWENDERS, 
BODDHI SATVA AND MC REDBUL

WATCH VISUAL FOR GINSENG 
(ZAIRE SPACE PROGRAM | ACT I) HERE

Toronto, ON – April 8, 2021 – As we move into a new season, Moonshine delivers a soundtrack of deep bass, percussive Afro-funk and moody synth melodies. Today, the Montreal-founded and globally based collective share two new singles: Ginseng from Parisian producer, DJ and Boukan Records founder, Bamao Yendé, followed by Malembe from Boddhi Satva, in collaboration with Congolese-Montrealer, Moonshine co-founder, JUNO and Polaris-nominated singer-songwriter-producer, Pierre Kwenders and Kinshasa-based atalaku MC Redbul. Listen to Ginseng and Malembe. Watch a vibrant visual for Ginseng here. 

“Ginseng represents the kind of energy that really uplifts the performers in the music video,” says Kwenders. “Bamao Yendé has such an intriguing way of starting the track, and within a minute the energy goes wild – he wants you to get up, enjoy life, have a breath of fresh air and a moment of pleasure.”

A champion of marginalized musical styles with African roots, Bamao Yendé weaves a soulful sax melody through a UK garage-meets-batida beat on Ginseng. Known for his sweet South African house and syncopated breaks, Yendé also curates events where diverse artistic communities converge, as with the YGRK KLUB multimedia collective. He is also one-third of Parisian “boy band of the future” Nyokô Bokbaë, setting the beat for vocals by MC Diouck and singer Boyfall, exhorting universal love, unity and a good time for all.

Recorded between Montreal, Lisbon and Kinshasa, Malembe is the first collaboration between friends Pierre Kwendersand Boddhi Satva, who craft a lithe melody that rapidly explodes with heavy bass and commanding vocals. A prominent independent artist and protégé of Grammy winning Lil Louie Vega, Boddhi Satva (a pioneer of the Afro-house movement and the father of Ancestral Soul in Central African Republic) has also added his future-driven electronic production to tracks by Nigerian pop star Davido, DJ Maphorisa and many others. Dropping MC RedBul’s energetic, booming voice into the mix alongside Kwenders’ lyrical resonance turns Malembe into a multi-layered musical conversation fit for pulsing dancefloors. 

Ginseng and Malembe are a sample of a new album Moonshine is cultivating to release this spring, through a label partnership with FORESEEN Entertainment. Fans can expect a vast array of sounds and international collaborations that embody the energy of Moonshine parties to underground UK clubs, Parisian Afro-electronic soirées to Kinshasa’s inventive electronic scene. The tracks link directly to Moonshine’s first pilgrimage to Congo, where Montréal-based collective members and Congolese artists collaborated on multiple projects and events, including a hybrid short film/documentary, Zaire Space Program, exploring the collective’s roots and the narratives that shape an African Utopia.  

The visual for Ginseng (Zaïre Space Program | Act I) was filmed with Congolese artist collective FARATA in a township of Kinshasa, and directed by award-winning Congolese director Nizar Saleh Mohamed, with co-direction by Moonshine’s Pierre Kwenders and Hervé "Coltan" Kalongo. It was filmed in one of the artist’s neighbourhoods to depict the reality Kinshasa life in Kinshasa, capturing the local response as the crew walk through the city donning vibrant costumes that weave together transformation and tradition. 

“We get to witness in these images the powerful language of percussive music, the ancestral language of traditional costumes in DRC, the social commentary the artists are making by using plastic and other discarded materials to create new forms of these costumes,” Kwenders says of the visual. “We see all these perspectives. The collective works together embracing the theory of Congolese utopia, which resonates with Moonshine’s Afro-utopian vision.”

Last month, Boiler Room’s Collective TV broadcasted live from Kinshasa, with atmospheric sets by the collective’s co-founder Pierre Kwenders, Congolese band, Kingongolo Kiniata, Congolese Montrealer AKAntu, and more artists. Watch the set here. 

Stay tuned for more Moonshine as the phases wax and wane in the months ahead and learn more about the collective below. 

Listen to Ginseng  | Listen to Malembe

DOWNLOAD – Ginseng Artwork | DOWNLOAD – Malembe Artwork

DOWNLOAD – Moonshine logo | DOWNLOAD – Moonshine Photo

www.moonshine.mu

About Moonshine
Depending on whom you ask, the esoteric effects of lunar cycles can be wide-ranging: good fortune, human fertility, ocean tides, werewolf prevalence and loss of sanity among them. For the like-minded musicians, DJs, dancers and visual artists who make up the Moonshine collective, the planetary satellite above all inspires their eponymous monthly event, driven by an inclusive ethos and a shared love for experimentations in dance culture.

Since its founding in 2014, Moonshine has carved out an enviable niche in Montréal’s nightlife milieu by celebrating a wide range of fledgling local talents, championing Afro-futuristic, bass-heavy, electro-funk sounds, and bringing together communities that wouldn’t necessarily cross paths otherwise. As the name indicates, the lunar-based Moonshine recipe has the collective throw an all-night, sensory-soaked party on the Saturday after every full moon in ever-shifting, unpredictable locations across the city, always strictly disclosed via text messages. With fresh cuts supplied by resident DJs Pierre Kwenders, San Farafina, Odile Myrtil and AKantu, visual installations by Boycott, and a slew of live musicians and performers that have included Kaytranada, Dâm-Funk, Le1f, Venus X, DJ Windows 98 (Arcade Fire’s Win Butler), Bambii and Branko, the parties have become a staple of the after-hours scene, in Canada and abroad, with appearances in NYC, LA, Paris, Brussels, Milan, Lisboa, Barcelona and Santiago.

“The essence of Moonshine came out of parties we used to throw in our kitchens,” recalls Kwenders. “We felt like we couldn’t go out and find what we had cooked up in that kitchen. It’s one of the reasons we started Moonshine: to share that with more people who felt just like us, and who didn’t have access to such sounds or vibes.” Still going strong four years on, Moonshine has also begun making use of the aesthetic, network and structure it established with the parties to promote affiliated artists, expanding its vision from ephemeral moonlit soirées to an expanding catalogue of genre-busting music, art and apparel. www.moonshine.mu

About FORESEEN
FORESEEN Entertainment is a black-owned record label & publisher based out of Toronto, dedicated to exposing cutting edge talent.  FORESEEN invests in talented creative artists, who can provide content that we can expose to a global audience. FORESEEN is dedicated to exposing talented artists and not creating them. 
www.foreseenent.com