While straight-up South African amapiano continued to be the single most influential new dance genre in the world in 2022, it was inevitable that it would also mutate at source into more extreme forms. Thus Toxicated Keys, two teenagers from the township of Mamelodi East, in Pretoria, who are making the sound bigger, fiercer, more dramatic in all senses. They’ve re-emphasised the influence of the tense, tough sound of Durban gqom on the style without ever actually adopting it’s more techno/grime like sonics. In fact the sound this comes closest to is probably early UK dubstep like classical Digital Mystikz. Where amapiano has tended to be tantric in dynamics, its sub-bass emerging into tracks without disrupting the groove, From Thutlwane To The World comes much closer to reintroducing “the drop”: that bass coming with a warning, then slamming in so hard it knocks your breath out of you. If this goes further, there’s a risk of losing the prolongation of pleasure and succumbing to EDM style need for aural spectacle, but right at this precise point the balance is perfect and the drama is immense.