I catch up with Shanumi and Noli, Amen Gyaldem co-founders and Black dance music veterans with two vastly different journeys to the decks, and one shared party line: raving is soooo b(l)ack. “My household was like, ‘no oontz oontz music, that’s that white people music’,” Shanumi shares, a nod to the epidemic of white (mostly) men at the helm of white-led raves presiding over white-majority crowds. “When I realised that I liked this music and could see someone who looks like me playing this music, it was just a different feeling.” But the upward trajectory of equitable and representative lineups aside, it’s good to see that the studying-viola-at-a-classical-conservatoire-to-Black-dance-music-DJ-community-pioneer pipeline is alive and well. Noli’s ascension is intriguing to all and speaks to the different (seated) audience that can only clap when directed. “DJing was the complete opposite,” shares Noli, “I heard a jungle tune and I was like ‘woah, what is this?’, and have never looked back.”
In June 2024, Shanumi and Noli did what all diligent students do and made use of their student loan to fund their extracurricular studies (namely, throwing their debut party at Four Quarters in Peckham). Shanumi echoes a stat that the late great Kanya King referenced, finding that more than 80% of the UK’s recorded music market over the past 30 years is thanks to Black music traditions.
