There's something particularly beautiful about the feelings that can be conjured up by the experience of house music.
It could be the ear rattling claps, the driving percussive grooves, the crashing crescendos, or the moments when tension is released by silence and a wave of emotion washes over you just as hard as if you've experienced a beat drop. You feel like an elastic band pulled to its limits, and as it breaks apart it miraculously finds itself whole again.
This is the feeling of house music. This is Samuel Cosmic's ROOTS!
The 8th edition of the event was hosted at Harare's Beach House restaurant, a sandy oasis in the middle of Borrowdale Racecourse that allowed us to free our voices North of Samora without the neighbours complaining - the only complaints on the night were from me when I saw the price list.
Now I feel like should begin by explaining the complexities of a back to back set, yet that would be jumping the gun. Because before that came, Josh Major, who was making his ROOTS debut, opened proceedings with a set that had "Abalele" - his forthcoming collaboration with MJ Sings & GhostZWE, as its exclamation point. A song that will undoubtedly have us seeing a lot more of him on the house scene.
Mimi took us on a dive through deep house cuts of lush chords, that showcased a maturity in the art form of DJing, and was easily her best performance on decks. It instantly earned her place on my list of top 5 white people to come out out of the country - it goes Zed Koudounaris (he gave us Chicken Inn), Kirsty Coventry, Bruce Grobelaar, Gemma Griffiths, then Mimi.
Ash-T had us dancing with Drumetic Boyz' "Waffles" and we didn't stop until he left. His blending of Hypno's "Travelling" with Kanda Bongo Man's "Monie," the Moonraiser's "Rise Up" with Yves Larock & LVNDSCAPE's "Rise Up 2K16," DJ Aertee's "Singabantwana bakho (bootleg)" with DJ Maphorisa & Xduppy's "Abantwana Bakho" was close to the touch of Midas himself.
Jay had us in an enthralling sonic grip, and as puppets on a marionettes cross we moved to whims. The peak of which was Mr Kamera and Murphy Cubic's "One More," a house track voiced by Jah Prayzah.
When Samuel Cosmic took the reigns there was a palpable energy shift. ROOTS' landlord was a man clearly at home and it showed. From selections within his catalogue like "Ineko," "Halele," his "Hinde Remix," to Shimza's "Fire Fire," Jazzwrld & Thukuthela's "uMA weNGANE," and Emmanuel Jal, Bun Xapa & Murphy Cubic's "Lelah," not a single moment felt unintentional. As the crowd sang his praises, Ibiza could be heard calling in the distance.
The chants of "Samuel We Wanna Party!" turned to "Mabhena We Wanna Party!" with Nitefreak's arrival, and it was a night when the old adage, "The third time's the charm," was proven true. Because this was my third time watching him perform and it was certainly his best performance yet.
"Not The Same," "The Masterclass," and "Premier Gaou" might've received the loudest noise but his true brilliance was in mixing Crystal Waters & The Basement Boys' "Gypsy Woman," with Teriyaki Boyz's "Tokyo Drift" and GTOalex's "Beyonder," alongside placing together his collaboration with Francis Mercier & Idd Aziz "Kamili" and DJ Flex's "Put Your Back In It."
As the hour winded down, Samuel Cosmic made his return, and the duo traded songs on the decks.
What I had glimpsed at last year's Deep End with TAPIWA and Rorri, was on full show with a deeply ingrained musical chemistry. Michael Jordan had his tongue out when he pulled off a devastating move, Muhammad Ali had the iconic shimmy, Lebron James has the stomp, and when their wizardry on decks goes just right: Nitefreak has a smirk on his face and Samuel Cosmic triumphantly flicks his hands in the air.
On this occasion, we saw a lot of the last two. For a moment in time rhythm was life, and we became one, one melody, one drum, one bass, one people, all moving to Samuel Cosmic and Nitefreak's masterclass.
Greedysouth rating: 8.4/10