The Singles Jukebox

Drifting straight into our all-time top ten…

[Video]
[8.67]

Nortey Dowuona: As the drums jingle their keys, they pass a worn-down nightclub. Inside, Simmy sings softly over her half-empty Castle Beer with Sino a safe seven feet away, downing Alvaro while both of them watch the bass and synths weave in the corners. As they stand apart from each other, the cloth being woven sweeps over each of them. Sino is first to grab hold of a corner, with Simmy catching another edge while the drums set up their own sewing machine and begin to add to the cloth. The whole town, watching the cloth bloom, add more lengths to it and balloon it into a massive cloth, one big enough to cover Table Mountain, which it does, with the name Simmy emblazoned on top.
[10]

Katherine St Asaph: Closing-credits music for a film set entirely amid lawns of dew and gauze.
[7]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Sometime when we’re all allowed to freely roam around outside again, my friends and I will listen to this song while having a picnic in a park. It’ll be a sunny, crisp day without a cloud in the sky, and we’ll cut an ice-cold watermelon into slices and drink pamplemousse-flavored La Croix. Dogs will pass by, and we’ll play and make short, friendly chatter with their owners. We’ll smell like sunscreen and sweat and spring. And we’ll be together for so long that we’re sick of each other again by the end of the day. 
[8]

Will Adams: Sun-El Musician has a way with what I call a “post-chorus burst”: the music crescendos with additional vocals, a light melody, and a wash of synth pads, elevating the song to an even more euphoric place. It’s there in “Akanamali,” “Sonini” and now “Ngihamba Nawe.” As if the arrangement weren’t gorgeous enough, Simmy (with the help of labelmate Sino Msolo) is as inviting a vocalist as ever. “There are many others, but still I choose you,” she sings; fitting for a song that feels like a warm embrace.
[8]

Scott Mildenhall: “I choose you” — is there something about that phrase that lends itself to such ambrosial music? Given the existence of this Pokémon song, maybe not — credit must go to Simmy, Sino Msolo and everyone in the Sun-El universe. There are other exponents of South Africa’s multitude of house-adjacent genres, but none quite hit these heights of apparent effortlessness. It’s 1% perspiration and 99% expiration, with both vocalists so breathy and direct as to offer you a go at levitating on their breeze.
[9]

Alex Clifton: Everything about “Ngihamba Nawe” flows so damn easily. It’s like sitting by the ocean, watching the waves crash into shore, but in a dream; it’s smooth and liquid and I don’t want it to end. Somehow Simmy has managed to translate the act of falling in love into actual sound in a way I’ve never quite heard before. The music swirls around but there’s an overwhelming sense of safety and security, a haven to return to whenever things get rough. It’s really reassuring to have a song like this to spend time with in the midst of an extremely chaotic global event. I hope it helps you find peace on some of your hardest days.
[10]