Event Review: An Evening with Animals

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Inge Beckmann very recently appeared in Lark’s latest video release Stole the Moon doing strange things with time in the network of tunnels that run under the Cape Town CBD. I’ve no idea how long she spent down there but it looks like she brought something back from her stay in the underground and, thankfully, Read More »

Some Fun with Michael Anthony – Chickenfoot

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In the twenty minutes I had to chat to Chickenfoot’s bassist Michael Anthony, one of the most oft used verbs coming through the phone at me was ‘fun.’ The dude is almost 60 yet the youthful exuberance with which he shares his tale belies the fact that he’s older than my dad. Had I not Read More »

Lark – Invocation Age

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“The band is something like a “Vitamin B-complex – slow-release, high-energy…” There is something undoubtedly elemental at work in the aural concoctions that flow from the band, LARK. For the better part of a decade they have siphoned from the ether sonic potions capable of rendering vast throngs by turn both mute and manic. And, Read More »

Album Review: Terminatryx

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We thought it’d be interesting in light of the release of their Remyx v1.0 to take a retrospective look at Terminatryx’s debut. Positively received back in 2008, the record was rather unique in a local context – dark and serious and industrial – really something only Battery 9 had previously had any success in plying Read More »

Album Review: Terminatryx – Remyx v1.0 [4/5]

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Terminatryx – Remyx v1.0 [4/5] This record has been three years in the making – a complete suite of remixes of the band’s acclaimed eponymous debut – an ambitious project for any South African band, especially so in such a niche scene as the one that Terminatryx occupies. They’ve done an impressive job of pulling Read More »

The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Still in Fruit

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The Chili Peppers have been around for as long as I have walked the Earth. 28 years. They have not only survived but indeed thrived through thick and thin. Their history reads like the Shakespeare of rock ‘n roll drama and they reside comfortably alongside the likes of the Rolling Stones, Metallica and Motley Crue Read More »

Album Review: Arctic Monkeys – Suck it and See [3/5]

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Vocalist Alex Turner is most definitely the centrepiece of this group and remained the locus of the lion’s share of my attention throughout a couple rotations of this, their fourth record. His contribution to the fray, both lyrically and in terms of his delivery, is attention-grabbing in ways that the music simply couldn’t match. Turner’s Read More »

Album Review: Laurie Levine [4/5]

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I knew nothing of this lady prior to playing the record. I was struck by its maturity and soulful tone, its unfolding melodies and the exquisite innocence in the timbre of Levine’s voice. Inspired seemingly entirely by the grand country & western voicing made famous by the output from Nashville, Tennessee – the songs pluck Read More »

Album Review: Bon Iver – Bon Iver [2/5]

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Opener Perth wells up out of the ground like a sonic volcano; it marches along effortlessly and swamps anything in its path. It saturated my attention, even at low volumes (damn late night listening sessions with paper thin apartment walls!!), and was quite overwhelming. There is magical music here – oft chill-inducing and certainly not Read More »

Album Review: Ben Harper – Give till it’s Gone [4/5]

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I was quite seriously taken by Ben Harper’s sound around the time of Fight for your Mind and The Will to Live. His musical direction subsequently lost my attention and I’ve paid little mind of his output since. This disc however finds him frequenting that same headspace that had me swept up back in the Read More »

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