So I heard about this band once upon a time, and far far away my head was at that time. Time. Time, just keeps going, keeps ticking, spinning into twine and then…I heard The Frown. All of these neglected images, feelings and non feelings seem to bubble out of this infinite repeat… of The Frown. The sound, how can I describe. A wild, wild wind blowing through the streets of delicately crafted purple flowers. Wind in hair. A prayer, we never have the courage to say in front of anyone else than our mid night despair, our gentle triggers and angry tigers. A tingle of the painful feathers our souls pluck from youth. Do I think it a revolution in South African Music? Yes.

A sound that expresses all the emotion we fail to find important. The rock star, the Robyn, the muse and the true god in all of us. It embraces the dark side that we neglect to have and it reflects the magic that can be found in all this complexity we so much dwell on, but struggle to create from.

Tim Apter from Double Adapter has crafted this epic pixie tale vibe, fused with Max Lehr’s phat  beats that mimics the sound of a woken heart, that sound that truly makes your heart sink a little, deeper. The man truly knows how to hit things. And just when you think you are drowning in ink, you get picked up with poppers that are delicately composed with piano, violin, bells and all the other intoxicating things that rush up your spine. The rub up, epic! To say the least. It makes you want to lift your arms and conduct a thunder storm. It not only sounds incredible, but feels magical.

The first thing I thought when I heard Eve Rakow’s voice was Coco Rosi meshed in a Burton & Lynch film. She has this mystical essence in her performance; dark, honest and powerful. Her harmonizing fades in like an ominous lover’s hand on a bare neck. Oh and she knows it, like this muse, she creates a world of maya around her and plays in it like a goddess dancing around a fire.

As I journeyed through the album, in the car. Naturally, to forget about traffic I started creating images of what their videos would look like. Surrounded by the odd beggar, Jesus in a Mercedes and a few taxi’s, nothing interesting came to mind… Yet when I saw the music video (Before the Sun Sets by Red Team Go – Watch it below!) for the first time I was quite surprised. It has this rawness to it that I hadn’t notice in the album, because of the ill pimped production. The music video reflects a real story, or just real people with a story, standing on top of a building opening their art to the city. Its vulnerable yet tough. This rawness carries with it a beautiful balance between feminine/masculine; urban/jungle; mystical/real; dark/white all meshed into a poem, a poem with attitude. The sort of ATTITUDE South African music hungers for!

The album art done by Niall Bingham also resembles the anti-art fag pretentious bullshit people ask us to like on Facebook. I would not give it a thumbs up; I would give it a fuck yeah. Love the hand-made rough printed typo-look, flowy-edgy etching trees expanding into a cross layout. Nicely complementing the name of the album; ä’-men.

With its dark romance appeal, the sound also has epic little pieces of classical instruments: cello (Caroline Leisegang) and trumpet (Twyla Spiller) which adds to create a med-evil twist.  If you allow their magic to captivate you then you might find a little darkness quite aMUSE-ing.

Watch the “ä’-men album teaser“:

Watch the video “Before The Sun Sets“:

Grab the album from Howl Records here!

Technorati Tags: The Frown, Amen, Review, Eve Rakow, Tim Apter, Niall Bingham, Twyla Spiller, Caroline Leisegang, Max Lehr

Pretoria, South Africa, is uncannily good at producing incredibly talented musicians that are not afraid to take on unfamiliar genres within our country. Singer-songwriter Ola Kobak is no exception in this regard. She is the beautiful voice behind Fulka, a Pretoria based folktronica act. The word Fulka is derived from a Germanic noun meaning “people” or “army”, ironic as “army” is not something that comes to mind when listening to her sing. Fulka’s debut album is entitled “The Mystery of the Seven Stars” and is definitely something I have been looking forward to.

The album as a whole is incredibly uplifting yet still retains Fulka’s signature peaceful quality. Soft, delicate and melodic, a beautifully fine balance has been crafted between traditional instruments, synthesizers, electronic drums and Ola’s powerful voice. Ola also plays the banjo, piano, accordion and guitar. She is assisted by her husband, Jacob Israel, who brings his many years of experience in building soundscapes using drum beats, vintage synthesizers and solid production. Corné Roodt and Christian Henn also bring a multitude of instruments to this colourful party with Jean-Louise Nel assisting on the viola. The music has strong spiritual themes with several references made to figures from the Bible, composed in such a way that you will find yourself singing along without even realising it.

The hardest part of reviewing an album of this quality is trying to pick tracks that stand out. “Misunderstood” was the first Fulka track that I ever heard and it is still my favourite. Songs like that make you feel like you are listening to the lovechild of Sufjan Stevens and Laura Veirs. “Lazy days in the streets, Rumbling for soft ice cream oh, What a shithole” – it gets stuck in your head! “I Fell When You Spoke” is a hauntingly beautiful track that builds up to some lovely electronic drums with a lo-fi folk feel. The album titled track, “The Mystery of the Seven Stars”, inspired by Revelation 1, showcases the diversity that Fulka has to offer to us all, the goose bumps song if you will.

This is a warm, beautiful and engaging album that stands out for me as one of the finest records – right down to the artwork – produced this year. I implore you to listen to it, love it, buy it and support this phenomenal Pretoria project. The album will be released on 11 October 2010 and will be available at their shows, various stores with good taste as well as a digital download on their website, fulka.bandcamp.com.

Rating:

Give them some Facebook love as well… here! There are also three tracks available for free download from the album over at fulka.bandcamp.com, so go and check them out! Previews below!

^5!

Technorati Tags: Fulka, The Mystery Of The Seven Stars, Ola Kobak, Jacob Israel, Corné Roodt, Christian Henn, Jean-Louise Nel, Folktronica, Pretoria, South Africa

Genres are a necessary evil. The good ones help us organise music, so that if we want music with a particular kind of rhythm and melody we need only to look at artists in that genre to find something we probably will like. Think Funk, Reggae, Hip Hop, etc. The bad ones however just confuse you. Experimental is probably right at the top of the list of meaningless genres. By labeling music as experimental you simply acknowledge that it doesn’t follow any conventional musical paradigm, nothing more. Experimental music can range from deep droning synthscapes that seem to continue ad infinitum to raging guitars squealing in terror. In some cases it is possible to use experimental as a qualifier, as in, experimental hip hop. In some cases however experimental is the perfect tag for the music. Pretoria based The Watermark High is experimental and their debut album Loneliness As An Art Form is their experiment.

The Watermark High – “Love Made Code” Music Video from The Watermark High on Vimeo.

Read the rest of the review and grab the free downloads after the jump!

Combining both sampled and synthesised drums, the rhythmic base for the music is at times simple and straight rock, at others intricatetly programmed and very much electronic. The vocals throughout the album are gentle and linger within the melodies created by accoustic guitars, paino and synths.  If you could touch music, this would feel soft and fuzzy. Like a teddybear or … soft fuzz.  Guiding one through tracks are the soft drones of synth pads which adds to but also ties together the tracks.

I don’t need Serotonin is for me the stand-out track on the album, with it’s epic instrumental build-up which makes the second part featuing vocals feel like a different song.

As a whole the tracks on this album come together to form an aural entity that can be described as greater than the sum of it’s parts, as the saying goes. Cheesey saying or not, the album is cohesive thanks to the songs on it. No matter where I go, I end up me is a good example of one of those tracks which transforms itself from a crazy drum led piece to a simple melodic one.

To pick up the metaphor where we left off, if Loneliness As An Art Form is an experiment, then it surely is a success. Beautiful and at times haunting, the music on this album is not harsh but never dull. With this album The Watermark High has revealed its intent to create some of the most interresting electro-accoustic music that is being produced in South Africa today.

Finally, in today’s digital world one always needs a compelling reason to purchase music on physical media. The packaging for Loneliness As An Art Form is perhaps as beautiful as the music, with just as much attention to detail.  You can get your copy at shows as they are very limited in numbers, alternatively you can grab a free download of the album from the bands website (for a limited time only!)… www.thewatermarkhigh.co.za!

Technorati Tags: The Watermark High, Loneliness As An Art From, I Don’t Need Serotonin, No Matter Where I Go, I End Up Me

‘Shakawon’, the second offering from Jozi based Mtkidu, continues the groups’ efforts to change the way music is created and performed. This is primarily done by combining visual elements with the music, which enhance the stories told rather than simply offer a pretty distraction during live shows.

This audio-visual combination is carried onto their album which features an interactive multimedia element when it is inserted into your computer. Apart from the links, downloads, press pics and info that give you some insight into the world of MtKidu, there is also a comic, each page of which is tied to a track from the album and which tells a story that links the tracks on the album together.

Full review and song downloads after the jump!

The ever evolving sound of MtKidu is evident when comparing this album to their first release. The music on ‘Shakawon’ is more cohesive and accessible; however there is still no danger that it is overly commercial. The line from Chains “don’t give a fuck about records sold” best sums up MtKidu’s attitude towards music. The produce music because they like it and want to push the boundaries of what is possible, not to make millions, buy cars and bling and show off their houses on MTV Cribs…

On to the music. The album opens with the dreamy, aptly entitled Lulluby [sic]. I love Zulu girls is definitely a crowd favourite. It is a slow burner with a grinding bassline, a sharp saw-toothed synth and pounding kick drum, which by the time the chorus hits has most of the kids in the club jumping. Tokoloshi Two Step is more ‘bouncy’ and features the dirty synth sounds for which MtKidu are so well known. Shadow Nation has more of a break-beat. A personal favourite, Walk through Joburg, is a bass heavy track that gets your head nodding from the get-go. She talks in the dark has a strong surreal element, while the beautiful Forest Song is slightly touched by sadness. The album closes with the super fun Kool Klone Kid, another favourite of mine.

All in the album covers a large variety of emotions, rather than ‘genres’. The 11 tracks that form the album are a solid selection, which is further contextualised by the above mentioned comic. MtKidu have come a long way since playing in the basement of Horror Café at Secret Parties. If you love MtKidu, you will love this album. If you’ve never heard of MtKidu, but like music that doesn’t follow the same formula that is found in most genres’ I recommend checking it out. You can get the album at MtKidu live shows and you can order it through their website.

Since everybody loves this one
MTKidu - I Love Zulu Girls

And ’cause i love this one even more
MtKidu - Kool Klone Kid

As part of their album launch, they got several artists to interpret their songs. Below are to of these ‘covers’: The first is by Givan Lötz, who takes I love Zulu girls and changes into an acoustic guitar based folksy-buskeresque song.

Ola Kobak takes the already beautiful and sad Forest Song and makes it even more so, creating a piano based ballad, which is bound to give you goose bumps.

Currently rapping up their tour of Europe, Gazelle is bound to stir things up both nationally and around the world. Consisting of Xander Ferreira and Nick Matthews, Gazelle are uniquely South African and yet strangely familiar. CHic AFrique is both a product of Xander’s rural Limpopo upbringing and a range of influence including 1970s Nigerian Disco Funk, ragga and electro pop. Mixed together this forms what they calls ‘Limpop’.

The sounds of rural Limpopo and traditional South Africa feature on tracks such as the opening track ‘Barbarella’, ‘Neondebele’, the end of ‘Die Verlore Seun’ and the playful song ‘Try’. His ragga roots can be found in tracks such as bouncy ‘Chic Afrique’ from which the album draws its name, the slightly darker, deep and bassy ‘Just Now’ which features Weez and the above ‘Neondebele’. Songs such as ‘Options’, ‘She Did Me In’, ‘Strange Things’ and ‘Golden Sun’ lean towards disco funk and electro pop, creating catchy bass vibes along with fun synthy melodies.

It is refreshing and apparent that Gazelle do not take themselves too seriously. This is evident not only in Cold-War era African Dictator get-up worn by Xander but also in tracks such as the semi-autobiographical ‘Die Verlore Seun’, which talks of a boy leaving his home farm for the lights of the disco found in the big city and in the hidden track at the end which I shall dub ‘Die Durban se Jaarlikse Poepwedstryd’ which, as the name implies, covers a (fictional I hope!) annual farting competition.

The album covers a variety of sounds, yet remains a coherent entity thanks to the unmistakable lazy voice and song writing found on the record. The album will be available in Musica and Look & Listen soon, along with a number of your favourite independent record stores nation wide. I recommend you grab a copy of what I suspect is one of South Africa’s most underrated groups.

Check the Downloads Section for a taste of their music and just because I know you guys love it so much, grab Die Verlore Seun below. This is a promotional download only available until Saturday!

Gazelle – Die Verlore Seun

Listening to ‘Errors of Enthusiasm’ one gets the impression that there is a major influence is derived from Rock (and perhaps even a bit of Roll). This is conveyed through the use of live drums in the recording of the tracks along with the electronic drums adding to the overall beat rather than forming the main focus. Another strong element in the music is guitar which can be heard in many of the tracks on this album including the opening track ‘Mechanism of the Universe’, ‘Roll under Milk Wood’ and ‘The Perfectionist’.

Some of the more synth driven, electronic tracks such as ‘Supercilious’, ‘A Quiet Separation’ and ‘Ag Club (An Unconscious Celebration)’ seem to have more of a down-tempo feel to them. The vocals on this album are drawn out and have an ethereal feel to them, which gives many of the tracks an almost ballad like quality. ‘You’ll Poly Die!’ and the first single off the album ‘Lines and Colours’ have a more electro-pop like quality to them which adds to the overall diversity of the album. It’s a pity that ‘Lines and Colours’ is not getting the airplay it deserves simply because of a cocaine reference.

Overall this album is as diverse as it is well-rounded. Yesterday’s Pupil has a sound that is entirely his own and yet is strangely familiar. Capturing the energy of his live shows is no easy feat and while nothing can ever compare to seeing an artist live on stage, this album does deliver. For those that have seen his live show, this album will not disappoint, while those unfamiliar with his music and who crave electronic music with something a little different will no doubt enjoy it as well.

While we don’t have any of his tracks for you to sample you can get the Haezer remix of ‘You’ll Poly Die’ in our Downloads section and you can watch the music video for ‘Lines and Colours’ here.

Where: The Woods, 66 Carr Street, Newtown

Cost: R30

SL mag’s Student Night’s at the Woods presents these two rad and rocking bands:

The Shadowclub

Voodoo Child

And then Rich III on the decks and his friend from Cape Town, Binary who is one of the top Dubstep DJs from the Mother City and a regular feature at Step Up, the biggest Dubstep party in Africa quite possibly.

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As mentioned in our previous post, Richard the Third has released his debut album entitled Third World from the Sun. The album contains previously released tracks as well as brand new ones. Read the full review after the jump!

The track How can you tell? featuring Bride Reunion is the number one downloaded track here. You may have also heard Flux Capacitor on his MySpace page, which is one of my favourite songs on the album. It has the feel of New Order with a 2008 twist. Dancing with the DJs girl which features the vocals of Shane from Desmond and the Tutus is his most recently released track and is also available for download on our site. It features that deep squelchy bass that we love so much and should be a big hit this summer with the party kids!

The album starts hard and winds down to more chilled out electronica. It is just under 44 minutes long which I consider to be the perfect length for an album. Blast em into orbit is another great track which features samples of speech on electronic music from what I can tell. What I also like is that he has collaborated with a number of other artists such as Themba January on Soul Trader and Michelle Freeman on Haunt.

The album is an amazing journey from the dance floor to your car on your way home at 4am. Richard the Third has produced something awesome and the fact that he is offering it to anybody who asks is great! All I can say is go out and get this album. You will not be disappointed. In the mean time check out our downloads section to get a taste of what to expect!

It’s about damn time that local books started getting the publicity that they deserve. Honestly, if Bryce Courtney is a South African writer, then I’m part of Jamaica’s Cool Runnings bobsled team. Lauren Beukes is a pretty talented lady. She’s the chief writing force behind the award winning URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika, a featured columnist for Cape Town’s Big Issue and has also released an eye opening book called Maverick, dealing with some radical, both good and bad, women from South Africa’s past.

Moxyland, her first novel, centers around four young adults trying to get by in a dystopian Cape Town set in the near future. It’s Apartheid all over again, although this time the lines are drawn between economic classes rather than race.

Read all about the soundtrack after the jump!

It’s a gritty, darkly humorous look at corporate Big Brothers deciding our every move and will appeal to any kid who likes anything ranging from Palahniuk-esqe graphic descriptions to those who love the whodunit genre.

Moxyland is an enthusiasts dream; the launch was abuzz with fake protesters and evidence of sinister experiments, as well as awesome Moxyland toys. These toys are super sweet and the best thing about them is that R100 from each toy sale goes straight to the underprivileged women who make them. This makes me feel warm and fuzzy, just like the toys.

On the 7^th of July, the official Moxyland soundtrack was released through African Dope, one of Cape Town and South Africa’s oldest and biggest driving forces behind electronic music. These guys were behind the totally rad Constructus Corporation double disc/graphic novel release, ‘The Ziggurat’, and also hosted one of the dopest acts around, The Real Estate Agents.

Beukes got together with Honey B of African Dope to compile the album and it fits with the novels uncanny sense of unease. Tracks range from the dark, noize assault of Jacob Israel, one of South Africa’s bright new stars on the scene, to Cape Town’s ever-popular rock machines, Taxi Violence.

After one listen, you can tell the soundtrack was put together with great care. Certain tracks like Mix n Blend’s ‘Beautiful’ (a fitting title if ever there was) and Mr Gelatine’s ‘Frank’ take you to another place. I can’t stress enough how keen I am to hear more of these two acts. I was also super stoked to hear two of Jacob Israel’s tracks on the release. This guy is incredibly talented and, except for two digital releases, I haven’t seen or heard of his tracks on anything but an SL or two.

As well as new tracks that are sure to cause a stir in clubs and studios around the country, crowd-pleasing favourites have been also been included on the soundtrack. These include my personal favorite version of ‘Super Evil’, The Real Estate Agents’ Pizzas Mix, Pug (Lagos Disco Machine) who’s track ‘Pornography’, was a favorite on African Dope’s awesome release, Cape of Good Dope, and African Dope founders, Krushed & Sorted whose track ‘King Of The Swingers’ is mixed by none other than Animal Chin of Homegrown and Counterstrike fame.

It’s pretty unfortunate, though, that when compiling a soundtrack, there are generally a few tracks that just don’t fit in quite as well as the others. For me this is Damn Right’s ‘Kreature’. It’s just nothing special and doesn’t flow with the book or album. This can also be said for Taxi Violence. Even though ‘Question X’ is an awesome song from an even more awesome album, it just doesn’t glue with the other more electronic tracks.

Besides the two above mentioned tracks, the album flows incredibly well. In fact I haven’t heard a compilation go down so well since Garden State. Don’t mention Juno. It sucks, okay?

The majority of tracks on this album haven’t been released before, so if you’re keen to get your hands on some of African Dope’s lesser known, but equally infectious gems then be sure to get yourself down to a store soon, word on the street is that it’s selling faster than koeksisters at a NG Kerk Bazaar.

Jason D over and out!

[image via Outlaw Design Blog]

So we’ve been quietly plotting things, which meant that the blogging side of things were on the back burner. Sorry about that, but these things happen. The good news is that in some new an exciting stuff will be happing from our side soon, which we hope you kids will dig! In the mean time, why not download a few tracks from the music we’ve been listening too and let us know what you think!

Berlin’s queen of minimal, Ellen Alien, has just released her new album Sool, which is described as “subtle and misterious”. This album is quite different to her previous release which featured Apparat and was almost ‘minimal-pop’. Sool is darker and remeniscent of the Ellen Alien of old, while still managing to be something unique. The track Bim is a good example. Click here to download [via XLR8R]. Visit the BPitch Control page to stream and/or buy the album.

Another German release, this time on Gomma, longtime ET favourite Munk just brought out cloudbuster. The first single is Live Fast Die Old. The prerelease single features remixes by Juan Maclean, Headman and Maral Salmassi. You can get the latter remix here [via tonspion]. Part two of the Live Fast Die Old remixes features Ed Banger Allstars as well as WhoMadeWho.

The new CSS (Cansei Der Ser Sexy) album is to be released soon and will be called Donkey. Weird, I know…
The band is losing some of its pop-sound on this album and going for a grungier sound, which is appropriate considering they are signed to Sub-Pop. As a teaser they have released the track Rat is Dead (Rage) which you can download here. You do have to go through a small signup process in order to download, however it requires only your country and email details, so its pretty painless…
Their first single will be Left Behind which you can pre-order here and is to be released on the 14th of July.

Finally, Sébastien Tellier released the sexy and beautiful album Sexuality earlier this year. For those of you who missed it, be sure to check it out! As an added bonus to those of you who liked it (and as a teaser for those of you who haven’t heard it) download the Donovan remix over at betterPropaganda.

keep it dirty!