Regulars/Columnists

B!tch3z B Cray Cray

I say that with conviction because before it, language and communication in general was brought down to a level of basic word exchange between a minimal number of people in a tiny demographic from a discourse of false understanding about the world around them. Dissidence against what was the decided reality and perception of the world was considered unacceptable, outside of the norm and therefore couldn’t be understood. These people showing strange and diabolical perceptions were called crazy, uneducated, depressed, black, women, children, lower class and sometimes even artists.

Designated portals called ‘artistic outlets’ were what authority allowed when language and transcending perceptions needed an inch of flexibility outside of assigned methods of communication. Even then, those allowed the right to have their art understood were only those who authority deemed credible and worthy. Sorry to be a vibe killer but women never cut the standard. Without coming over like a Nazi Feminist which I am not and find the whole current feminist drivel totally irrelevant; I do feel that some history is needed here to fully get why the likes of Iggy Azalea, Soko, Lana Del Rey and Grimes are some of the most powerful artists and communicators online and therefore in the universe.

Musicians all over the world have been given a new platform that allows them a global audience. What’s more, the exchange for their contribution is no longer monetary but free. Creatives create and consumers consume no matter who they are or where they are and they do it without any kind of green handshake.

In one foul swoop the laws of language have been removed because the bartering tool that is cash-money used by an authority that is a history of gendered communication and business was brought to its knees in cyberspace. Right now the masonic men at the forefront of the music industry can’t believe that they’ve been reduced to navel level of twenty something white-girl rappers who spit more relevancy with YouTube than any Sony record deal could. As Ms Azalea would say,

“im nasttttyyyyyy

baby what you thinking?

aka titanic

so much wet will have yo ass sinking

treat that tongue like a bullet

give me head Abe Lincoln

this is so out this world

but no you not dreamin’”

There is no post, post, post modernism in language and art anymore. Social media not only squashed, slowed, screwed and distorted time and space for music online, it has conjured up new magical worlds where talented little girls are going to get lost in the most relative and unique compositions. An easy access example would be Lana Del Rey. I may have the biggest girl-crush on her ever but for real, this time last year she was cutting and pasting cool little music videos while warbling in her bedroom. Thank baby Jesus for YouTube who by channelling her gangsta Nancy Sinatra style, have made sure morons like Nicki Minaj are no longer winning so many awards. Lana is an honest-to-god icon and has talent for days. Drool.

Next up, one of the sorriest looking little chickens; Soko. She’s a French singer, songwriter who lisps some of the most profoundly heartbreaking lyrics you’ve ever heard whilst shrugging at a handy-cam in her bedroom. Her art actually says something about who she is and what she feels, especially when muttering about killing pretty girls with guns. Ten years ago she’d probably still be crying at the wall about her ex but at least now people can hear her.

Add Grimes and Kreayshawn to your list of ladies to love online. It’ll blow that Gaga shit out of the water. The next step after you listen and understand what’s out there, is to share this information. Post pictures, post videos, GIFs but please post. This new online language doesn’t communicate correctly even in this article. The nature of online is made up of sharing, something South Africans don’t do enough on social networks. I’ll bet most of you still think Facebook is for updating your boring-ass status and checking out your ex. Agh.

By the way, not to name names but a certain music editor in Cape Town only discovered Soundcloud a few months ago [not me!, the Ed.] Please, if any of you reading this also are as up to speed as this genius, stop what you are doing and discover the internet. It’s embarrassing. Other countries can hear us.

Jonathan Velthuysen – a maestro with many names

Photo: Bruce Geils

With a voice weaving deceptively simple melodies over plucking strings, Jonathan is his own karma incarnate, embodying lives, loves, losses and renewal. His haiku of harmoniesis found in Stepdog, Johannine and soon The O.K. Machine. What could it all mean? Find out from the man who pits profundity against mundanity daily and decodes jezebel’s VPL as “Very Plain Language”.

jezebel: I like your lyrics. “You say drinking from my cup feeds your soul, fills you up. If drinking from my cup makes you whole, why’d you stop?” You reach deep.

Jon: I don’t reach. It just comes from me. I don’t find it worth writing if it doesn’t have that spark of inspiration. For me that’s the connection with death; you know, when mortality frames the present rather than ideas of the future or feelings of the past do.

Most people are unwilling to go deep, though; they keep to the shallows, their lives are see-through, but they don’t get to swim in the beauty.

People sell themselves short. Of substance. And then they try and buy it back. Consumer society. What, then, is “The OK Machine”? Something that generates the energy to be O.K.

Why “machine”?

Coz that’s what we ARE.

But you make instruments; you know that we’re pulse and form and rhythm and resonance?

We’re very complex machines, a working, functioning mechanism that operates with a certain frequency. Have you ever noticed that toilets flush in E Flat? Or that coffee grinder motors are (sometimes) in G?

Ok, so, a guitar is a machine, and a heart is a machine. Then are our dreams just… Feedback?

Possibly; interference. But we’re just very, very complex; I think we function on frequencies, the most complex of which is what we’re always aspiring to. We operate on vibrations, on our emotional intensity. If we’re willing to engage that, then we’re willing to ascend. That’s how I feel about that; without that we are mundane, droning machines, completely analytical. And what changes those frequencies, what alters them, is the emotional content of your intention and your perception.

What do you think of the triumph of instinct and nature over our controlled systems and lives? We’ve got these complex social dynamics, but ultimately, we hunt and pair; the advertising industry is oriented towards sex or desire because of this. Do you think courage and expression can take you higher and return you to your essence?

I think mundanity is a state of mind. To hunt and mate isn’t as mundane as we’ve been made to see. Essentially, you’re comparing two things that exist on different planes – you’ve got the mechanism of the world driven by a select few who are in control (and it’s a conspiracy theory)

- that could be the president of the United States; that could be your mother.

People whose intention is to be in control

- it could be your ego -

and to gain power, to give in to that other side of the spectrum, rather than looking for ascension or advance, which happens through a cycle of constant rebirth. Dying, surrendering, and then accepting and being born again and being helpless again, rather than maintaining power. You’ve got people who are driving industries who are focused on selling sex, and it doesn’t make sex bad, and it doesn’t’ make -

selling bad!

Yes, it doesn’t make all those things bad. It’s the intention with which it is done and the fact that people aren’t equipped enough to deal with -

- their own needs?

their own responsibility to their own world.

And their own freedom of choice

Which is their enjoyment and their perception OF their enjoyment. A good trip every now and then helps.

***

Take a trip with Johannine (on Facebook), the discontinued (but not disavowed) stepdog and if you like the two, keep an eye out for the launch of The O.K. Machine in small towns all around.

Legends of Music: The Kalahari Surfers

Kalahari Surfers founder Warrick Sony is recounting the moment his fate slotted into place – his future of raising several inflamed and sonically subversive middle fingers to the establishment; of making albums that quoted the Apartheid government’s inane yet dangerous assertions back at them, clothed in angry upside-down and mangled music, Punk electronified; a future of eloquent, brave new sound, found and rerouted, untangled, strummed, reborn.

Sony was thirteen when he conducted the metaphysical transaction, listening and watching spellbound as the older brother of a friend picked the opening notes of The Eagles’ The House of The Rising Sun through a Wah-Wah pedal. The legal name change would only come later, but in that instant, in that sonic epiphany, Warrick Swinney became Warrick Sony.

Around a dozen albums, ranging from deeper-than-Derrida Dub to forward whizzing techno, from Punk spat through a genetic modifier to brutally blissful soundscapes of ambience, from traditional African scenes to improvising computers to bass in your face would follow. And woven through all of them were Sony’s mischievous satire of found sounds – eerie clippings of idiotic politicians and bovine actors, jingles and jangles of Life In South Africa, from Apartheid to Azania.

Well-directed anger.

The Kalahari Surfers, in its first wave circa the early Eighties, was a shifting collective of musicians, with founder Warrick Sony at its centre. Live performances featured Sony on bass or guitar, and samples of everything from Traditional African music to ironic shards of speeches by Die Groot Krokodil (‘The Big Crocodile’, then-president PW Botha, may his soul rest in unease) and other idiots and clowns, often featuring angry and sarcastic banners.

The Surfers’ music had rhythm, was propulsive, but it wasn’t grooves of sunshine – Sony used the medium of music to seep lyrical outrage and passionate invective into the minds of revelers. The vinyls throb with anger at The State Of The Nation; the imagery is claustrophobic; the melodies schizophrenic, careening from hip-swinging beats to Burroughsian cut-ups.

Way too challenging to become big in Suid-Afrika, The Surfers’ music nevertheless attracted the attention of the white-haired reptiles in the cabinet, who proceeded to ban the first four albums (fourth album, the deliciously ironically titled Bigger Than Jesus, succeeded in getting its banned status reversed in court, establishing a legal precedent at the time). For the same reasons the apartheid government banned the music, liberal British record label Recommended Records snapped them up and put them out. In the early Nineties Sony took The Surfers on tour through Brazil and Europe, taking along fellow activist, avant-garde poet Lesego Rampolokeng, who collaborates with The Surfers to this day.

Recalls Sony, “The best audiences were the Germans – I think they get my music. Enjoyed the East Bloc concerts too. The Russians were also interesting, in that they didn’t have the 60’s – they didn’t have Hendrix and Soul music and Gospel, all the things that made modern Rock music – but they did have a different soul. Dark soul. I liked playing in Moscow but I think today it’s a different story. They’re pretty much in the same situation as us, with crime and corruption, and, as Zappa said about communism not working because the people want stuff – they also want stuff. But their leader is a bit of a nasty; I prefer ours. He laughs more and I get the feeling has a better sex life.”

Righteous Contemplation.

After a spell doing soundtracks and scoring for TV, The Kalahari Surfers surfaced in 2000. And, like their country, something had shifted. The new Kalahari Surfers was sonically streamlined – gone were the coughs and spatters, the crude angles and violence of its beautiful, brutal teenage years. With the brilliant album Akasic Record [2000, African Dope records], The Surfers announced a new sophistication and sheen of sound. But the essence remained.

The messages were still heavily political and humanitarian, but the voice had wisened – eloquence replaced howls, caution replaced damnation, and experience replaced outrage.

Bass and Dub-heavy recent albums Muti Media, Panga Management and 2011’s One Party State are still strewn with samples of Seffricana – the sonic flora and fauna of our myriad overlapping cultures and dialects – but the morose, ominous English of Afrikaner politicians have been replaced by the morose, ominous English of the new government.

Blerrie politicians! Can’t live with ‘em, can live without ‘em.

Inside The machine: Music News

THE FUTURE IS NOW

The 27th April sees the rainbow nation turn 18. Music critic Greil Marcus described the youth as having a loan to the future. In SA too often we look to the past for inspiration. Post-modernism means not quoting your sources – sources that have yet to produce a truly great super band again. It’s high-time we kick our borrowed ideas in the face. Let’s find the new. Here’s to looking forward to the next eighteen years.

CLAP YOUR HANDS AND SAY YEAH ON SA TOUR

Indie favourites, famous for their pubescent David Byrne vocals, and having David Bowie as a fan, will be playing @ Wittebome Civic Centre in Wynberg, CT (13 April) & Joburg’s Town Hall in Newtown (14 April). Both start @ 8pm.

The show forms part of the Adidas Originals Live Performance Series in association with We-Are-Awesome Events. The series features four carefully curated, relatively underground international indie artists in carefully selected venues over 2012. Ultimately bringing you an original music experience the likes of which South Africa has never experienced before. Tickets are available through Web Tickets and are priced from R275 to R375.

CHURCH RESPONDS TO EVOL POSTER

Dozens of yellow posters plastered in Kloof Street CT depicting Jesus Christ in an Adidas tracksuit has gained the attention of Cape Town Union Congregational church, also located in the street. “The Christ-like portrayal is the old gimmick of grabbing attention” said a spokesperson from the church, “In this instance it is brave enough, and it seems, to show defiance. John Lennon of the Beatles was at his most unimaginative, when he imagined no heaven. It’s so last year. Since Christ broke the sting of death sin, the true muse is to ponder eternity with Him. Now that is heaven!

The bravado of the rockers, who don’t believe, is sad. That most talented Californian electric poet, Jim Morrison of The Doors, in his pre-occupation with death’s finality – This Is The End – scorned God’s mercy when he sang, ‘cancel my subscription to the resurrection!’ Like a young fool I sang that along with him, and aligned myself with this short span: ‘we want the world, and we want it now’. Music that goes with the gravity of the natural man, will not elevate but degrade people. King David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, showed the beauty of sanctified music, which is a stairway to heaven. God bless.” Amen brother.

FETISH REFORM TO RECORD A NEW ALBUM AND PLAY TWO SHOWS

Exactly 10 years after the band played its last South African shows Fetish is regrouping in Cape Town to record a highly anticipated full-length album and to perform two live shows. Recording began on 26 March at Digital Forest Studios in Constantia, produced by long-time creative partner Chris Tuck. The two shows take place at Mercury Live in Cape Town on 13 April, and Tanz Café in Joburg on 14 April. The band will be supported by the acclaimed Matthew Van Der Want. Michelle Breeze, Dominic Forrest and Dave Fiene have all flown into Cape Town to join Ross Campbell and Jeremy Daniel for the shows and recording.

This is the original band line-up that played on So Many Prophets and Shade of a Ghost. Formed in 1996, Fetish sadly called it quits in 2004 leaving a bunch of unfinished demos. Finally after years of talking about a reunion, in 2010 the members all gathered in London and managed to rediscover their unique sound and passion to play together.

MR CAT AND THE JACKAL, FUTURE PLANS

MCATJ winning an MK Award was always a given, their nomination for Best Score at Fleur Du Cap was the real nail biter. In the end they lost to James Webb’s work on Athol Fugard’s The Bird Watchers. But the future remains bright and busy. The unusual 5 piece are currently shooting a video, featuring a cameo appearance by Jack Parow and others. And on 20 April they play Dirty Bouncy – an event with “four sets, and only three bands, with the fourth set culminating in a collaboration between all three bands.” R50 gets you in.

The Bone Collectors, also performing on the night, have plans of their own. The rickety blues act is presently close to mastering an album planned for launch in the next two months.

The Wailers play Cape Town again. As far as we can recall their one and only performance in SA was on the bill with Burning Spear and Culture over 10 years ago. Headed by original bassist and long time friend to Bob Marley, Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, the new look band covers all the famous tracks from the Marley repertoire, fronted by vocalist Koolant Brown.

Aside from the Marley songs the band has released four studio albums and four live albums of original material. The event is called ‘Stand Up’ and will take place on Freedom Day (27 April) at Trinity Club in Cape Town.

The event is being hosted in association with Rhinoprotect and Concert for a Cause and will include The Rudimentals, Fox Comet, Mix and Blend as support acts as well as a DJ set by UK electro artist, Dino Psaras to close the event. For more info go to standup.rhinoprotect.org or check out their Facebook page

Tickets are R 250 (VIP: R 420) through Webtickets

NEW MUSIC

Wild Eyes drummer and bassist, Len Cockcraft and Gareth Dawson, have started a new synth project. Tannhäuser Gate, described as coldwave, industrial synth and techno, the sound expresses their major love for gargantuan analogue systems. TG has already received airplay in France and Moscow, and are currently finishing their debut EP. Listen to: Automatic Lover & Sex, Money, Crime

East Londoners Quin Maritz Trio dig up reminders of bands like Dane Taylor Trio – blues bands with impressive frontman resumes. The stats read: started playing at age 4; first show age 8; next 12 years performed in Germany with the Gules Aquela jazz band in various theatre productions and cabarets; the list goes on and on. Taxi and Great Apes might hold majority shares in the genre, but if you’re looking for a more refined, I dare say academic choice (think BB King), look no further. Check FB for more.

“There was a time when metal was metal, when it didn’t matter how many Facebook friends you have. When it didn’t matter how many breakdowns your song has. A time when real men wielded guitars like weapons.” Reading it sounds serious, but it’s a total piss take by Sindulgence, a new hard hitting metal act from Durbanville. Their debut album Recollections was recorded in a week, live from the floor, and launches in June. YouTube search “Sindulgence Recollections Album – Release Date” for a laugh and a tease.

BLACK KEYS -EL CAMINO

The new Black Keys album produced by the man with the Midas studio touch, Danger Mouse, won two Grammys this year, not that we care about the watered-down ceremony, but hey this is definitely one of the albums of the year. Titled El Camino this 11 track offering is jam-packed with catchy blues-pop with a real quirkiness to it.

The Black Keys have been bubbling under with cool albums for some time now, but with Danger Mouse – best known for his work with Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, Broken Bells and MF Doom and Grammy ‘Producer of the Year 2011’ – the album reaches new levels of damn fine songs mixed with real radio accessibility without the Keys losing their musical credibility.

State of the African Metal Nation

Welcome to ERUPTION, Muse Magazines brand new column for those whose audio taste takes a serious detour from the mainstream (with a healthy dose of Metal and other Extreme, true Alternative and off-centre musical genres). It also aims to make it possible for those who may not be familiar with the power and impact of this music, but are interested in taking that next investigative step.

For our inaugural page we thought it apt to lean in favour of our home turf and what better organization to aim our sites than Metal 4 Africa, SA’s flag-bearers for all things Metal. I pelted a few crucial questions at Darkfiend (one of M4As founding players and active band member of several bands) to get an insight into the current.

I am a firm believer that it is often essential to do something yourself if you want it done right. Especially when it comes to a concept in which you have a personal stake or extensive experience, something the commercial world does not exactly grasp. None of us are holding our breath for 5FM to reinstate Alternative shows like those of the 80s helmed by DJs like Barney Simon and Rafe Levine. But with the rapidly expanding cyber world, many new possibilities present themselves.

For bands clamouring to get their music heard (in a country that greatly ignores these genres), they could, but shouldn’t however solely exist on-line, because after the likes and free downloads, at one point or another they may need to head out onto a live stage. Enter Metal 4 Africa, covering both these realms.

Paul Blom: How, when and why was Metal 4 Africa born, and how does it function within the Metal music community?

Darkfiend: I discovered MySpace around 2006 (the most popular social network at that time). I was amazed at how much local music I was discovering, and so created the concept of Metal 4 Africa which was initially just a space where we posted links and gig info on all local Metal bands, making them all more easily discoverable by centralizing to one place. The idea evolved quite dramatically from there into what you see today, and continues to evolve. We treat M4A as community property. We’re open to ideas and contributors of all sorts from all over, as long as the music is about Metal, and the place is about Africa. The fundamental remains the same: we’re creating a global gateway to African Metal.

PB: This gateway has expanded to include two successful seasonal annual music festivals, the M4A Summerfest and Winterfest. You’ve taken great care and put in a lot of effort with live shows to ensure a brilliant experience for audience and bands. Frequent fly-by-night productions swing by slapping a bunch of bands together. Is there a case of quantity over quality when it comes to local bands popping up and being crammed into Fest line-ups to bulk it up and get as many heads through the door (in order for promoters to cash in)?

DF: There has definitely been a quantity-over-quality phase. As the scene boomed out of its relative slumber of the early 2000s, many people assumed that there was money to be made. While some did, it was usually by shortchanging their performers. Being a successful host of live shows means building a relationship of trust within the community. Our own live events sport good turnouts, yet we select a strict number of bands, operate strict hours, and we respect the pockets of our patrons, offering them the best entertainment for their money’s worth. There are some other operators who go by these principles, but they are sadly very few. Some bands should also not be out of the garage yet, sorry to say. Playing a show for some mates at home is one thing, but when stages in venues are booked out with bands still a little too rough around the edges, the public loses faith in live music. The unscrupulous promoters who put them there for their own financial gain should be flogged!

PB: How prevalent are cliques within the SA Metal scene, with factions preferring certain styles over others?

DF: Metal strikes me as being almost tribal in a sense, particularly in terms of one’s pride. We’re all the same race, yet we stick with our tribes through times of both peace and war. M4A tries to behave more like the Holy Men who in ancient tribal societies could walk amongst all and the same, irrespective of enmities between each other and remain impartial.

PB: From your perspective, what is the future of South African Metal and Extreme music genres?

DF: I’d say that we’ve observed great improvement of production over the years. But that is only part of the battle won. There is still a LOT of understanding that we lack regarding how the international industry actually functions. However, we are convinced that knowledge equals empowerment, and we at M4A are doing what we can to drink up more knowledge and to share it locally. We have great expectations for the future of local Metal, else we’d not be putting in the kind of effort that you’ve seen.

Get connected to Metal4Africa for the extended M4A interview, Check out Eruption on Flame Drop

PLUG MUSIC:

Celebrating its first year as an entity, Plug Music is headed by Warren Gibson who’d been inside the local music scene since the 90s (playing in bands like Seed, Oddball, Diesel Whores and Roswell Kings, as well as spending time within the label world at Just Music). The drive behind Plug is passion for music and includes PR for local indie artists (which have included David Owens, Wonderboom, Ramblin’ Bones, Arno Carstens etc.).

Plug also takes care of PR & distribution of international Hardcore / Metal / Punk labels like Deathwish Inc., Bullet Tooth and Napalm Records, with more to follow, including some big Metal labels. (See some of the Deathwish titles on the review page). A booking agency division is being developed with plans to eventually bring international acts to our shores.

Explore what plug can do for your band or listening taste.

AFTERSHOCKS:

With Adele’s Grammy- and Brit Award wins, now is a good time to check out the cover of her hit Rolling in the Deep, by AMYST, which in my opinion is a far more superior version! (if you download, please make it a legal one).

Local Metal stalwarts AGRO will again play Germanys Wacken Metal festival in August. One great advantage with their name means they pop up first on the alphabetic list! www.agro-metal.co.za (Now residing in Chicago) ASHTON NYTE, South African Goth kingpin and The Awakening mastermind, has released Moederland, his first ever Afrikaans album!

And lastly, we are knee-deep in post-production for 3 music videos of my Industrial-Metal project TERMINATRYX, incl. the long overdue release of the Siek+Sat clip (shelved after its production late-2008), an updated re-edit of the song Midnight for The Awakenings remixed version, and the Obsession cover version (both from the new Remyx v1.0 album).

About Paul Blom:

With a strong leaning towards all things Alternative, for decades Paul has been involved with music, movies, gaming and writing. Bands have included V.O.D (Voice Of Destruction), F8, K.O.B.U.S., The Makabra Ensemble and Terminatryx.  Movie productions include short films, music videos, DVD releases, and half a dozen film festivals. Entertainment writing on music, movies and gaming kicked off in ’97 for a wide range of publications, plus the creation of various web portals like Flamedrop.com. His work is far from done here. Have some SA Metal news to share? Email Paul: info@inflamed.co.za

Better Red Than Ded: New York City: The Psychedelic Sno-Globe

In one of my favourite stories there is a quote from the White Queen which goes, “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards”. What she was telling Alice was that using your imagination to anticipate the future is just as important as the memories you make and can recall. It’s all part of the process of experience and conjuring up themes and patterns without even noticing you are doing so, and can open tiny doors to a new dimension of fun.

So, to get to the point, knowing that I would be off to New York City and to see Spindrift and The Black Angels gave me lots of day dream ammunition. I set about drenching each day leading up to the trip in Big Apple flavours by watching Chelsea Girls and Gossip Girl, looking at pictures of Audrey Hepburn and Bianca Jagger, reading books about little girls getting lost and listening to lots of Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth. With a pocket full of these kinds of big ideas, it doesn’t matter what you do and where you go because it’s all going to be big, bright and exciting no matter what.

I’m proud to say that I spent the whole of that week in the world’s most electric city under the influence of many NYC clichés, ghosts and dreams whilst gently yet consistently inebriated thanks to the free Moet and Godiva chocolate. New York is as one would imagine, the most inspiring man made environment a creative soul could wish to be swallowed up in. Being strung out on champagne and sugar always helps too.

The night my brother and I went out into the bitter cold streets, black vampires huddled against the sides of skyscrapers under a glassy glaze of the city’s first snow. We were dressed to kill and ignorant enough to be killed yet we had a gig we were squeaking to see and a subway full of Halloween vamps and blithering tramps to conquer. The show was at the Williamsburg Music Hall in Brooklyn. We ran all the way from the underground turnstile to the entrance where musically spoilt teenagers were hanging around waiting to be let inside. Being young and wild in that city is a never ending joy ride of amazing party after party. Living there would give me a nose bleed. I have to admit.

Spindrift are to sum it up, the soundtrack to a Western Tarantino film. It’s a psychedelic kick in the dust of empty Indian graves stained with lysergic acid diethylamide. Kirpatrick Thomas, vocalist and guitarist is a stand up gentleman and his band put on a stand out show. And what were we saying earlier about synchronicity? Spindrift is one of the spin off bands behind the creative explosion that came out of the insanity that was The Brian Jonestown Massacre. So is Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club who confirmed their presence at Synergy during my flight home to SA. A great background story to that group of musicians to check out if ya’ll ever get the chance.

The Black Angels put on a sensational show that sounded perfect as a performance and may I just say that being right on top of the speaker in the front row was a damn good choice. I also got to see Christian Bland do some of the sickest guitar work out there. The show resonated kaleidoscopic colour that pulled you down, down, down and my brother said at one point I fell asleep while standing up. What a trip in every sense of the word.

That all being said, there’s no place like home as was so apparent to me the second I walked into a local gig recently. The day I see people actually dancing at a show and having a similar kind of hedonistic fun that they aspire to in all their idols, I’ll eat your ironic knitted beanie.