FRATPACKER WORLD.

You’re in a dark room with bright flashing lights, filled with bodies as they dance energetically and passionately throughout the room, not a camera insight to make content out of this moment but everyone there sharing a lived experience.

 You yourself can’t stop dancing as you feel the sweat dripping down your face as the base of the speakers enter into your body and replace your heartbeat with it’s own and you think to yourself, “This is paradise…or maybe it’s just something in the water?”, but either way, you’re happy to be here and finding yourself not wanting to leave and when you finally do leave this dark room you walk out to the morning sky as the sunrises.

You’re probably asking yourself what the hell is going on here, what’s this place and where is this place? Well, let me tell you about the Sonic Euphoria called Gqom Therapy.

Gqom is a South African genre of music that was birthed in Durban and came to popularity in South Africa around 2016, with Babes Wodumo being the standout superstar and face of it. Sonically the best way I could describe Gqom is that it sounds as if though someone was sitting down trying to score a movie scene of Zulu people practicing cultural dances but the person scoring it just came from an all-night raver, high out their mind and tripping serious, major balls and that’s how we were blessed with what the kids call Nguni EDM. For some reason the popularity didn’t last too long with it falling off the mainstream consumption radar around 2018/2019, the same year we started to see the rise of amapiano.

Fast forward years later to the present and we are seeing the resurgence of gqom and Gqom Therapy is the wonderland that everyone needs to visit. Taking place at AndClub [Newtown] where their unbreakable rule is no cameras allowed. If you’ve ever attended a Toy-Toy or Heavy Rotation, you’d know the same rule applies no matter the event and when entering security cover d know the same rule applies no matter the event and when entering security cover your phone cameras with stickers to enforce this policy. Upon entering Gqom Therapy, you’re greeted by smiles and friendly faces. You’ll also find glow sticks, Gqom Therapy shirts and Gqom Therapy towels (trust me, you’ll need it) available for purchase.

Once you make it past the entrance and step inside, you’re instantly teleported into a whole new world and realise everything you know about the world doesn’t apply here. Now, I want to make it clear gqom therapy is a spiritual experience in it’s own, allowing you to lose all thoughts and worries so you can just feel the music and feel it intensely as though your heart has been replaced with the subwoofers and the flashing lights (not recommended for those with epilepsy) feel like stars shooting throughout the night sky. Talking about the sky, I like to arrive a bit early around 10pm and that’s early because you usually find yourself and people leaving between the times of 4-7am with the sunrising.

After a crazy night, you get home, sleep it off and wake up feeling like you’ve just gone through a transformative experience where you were able to release and clean out some bad energies within. A truly therapeutic experience.