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 entitled “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 already knew that from there I’m going to now shift the sound and focus on the current and future sounds.
“So that album was about reflecting back and reminding people about how dope house music is and 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.
This combination of the two sounds is what Dixon has coined as “Mobi Tek”.
It’s a sound that provides a refreshing balance of both musically rich sounds and an energetic and groovy vibe. It allows Dixon to stay true to his sound, while also accommodating a younger audience looking for more bounce.
This 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 collided with a cow on the road and wrecked his car.
While he was left uninjured, this close brush with death took an emotional toll on him. Now, as he looks back at the accident, he believes it’s one of the moments that have 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’.
“So now it’s also inspiring me, going back to my first point, to not hold back and just drop and just chase everything in real-time.”
“Abakithi”, featuring Lady Du, one of the standout cuts on the new album, speaks on 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 at all.
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 was even finished playing, Lady Du came to fetch me and said she was ready to record.
“The beat wasn’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 tells the story of his life, particularly the past six years. Dixon says that experience is 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 and 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.”