The first time I opened the Soundcloud link to Jakinda’s Afrika 3000, I felt a powerful surge of the uncanny. And by uncanny, I don’t just mean mysterious. Rather it was the sense of what Freud famously called ‘ the unheimliche’. That is the sensation of a strange familiarity, the jolt of déjà vu. Or,…
The Karolinska Institute in Sweden has recently published a study that indicates musical talent may have a lot to do with genetics. Researchers compared pairs of identical twins, and found that no matter how much one twin had practiced up until that point in their life, the other twin, who had practiced much less, would still…
Writing about music from day to day usually isn’t that difficult. A lot of releases are so one-dimensional, cliché and uninspired that you can name drop a few genres, say some shit about a hook here or a beat there, give some info about the artist, throw in some hot-takes and you’re good to go….
If you’re a South African musician, there’s quite a bit that you can learn from Muzi. The charismatic producer from Empangeni seems to have one of the most level heads out of anyone I’ve met in the music industry, although he claims he’s “still figuring things out”. So there’s the first thing you can learn…
The dominant theme in the innumerable ‘best of 2016’ lists is disappointment, failure and despair. A year categorised by the rise of the Far Right, war, random acts of violence, hate speech, death and the ominous cracking of the polar ice caps. In the parts of the world that weren’t already in social crisis, this…
I feel an intensely personal connection with the mighty Texan punk band At The Drive- In. Let’s go back through the fog shrouded mists of time- October 2000, to be exact. I was up late on a school night, listening to the Barney Simon show on 5FM, trying to record songs from Radiohead’s Kid A…
The Bateleur eagle is a ubiquitous traveler above African skies. Its name is French for street performer, referring to how its wings bob and glide like a tight-rope walker as it stalks its prey. Like their animal namesake, Cape Town experimental collective enjoy the high places. Their newly released “first and final” full length self-titled…
The career trajectory of The Weeknd aka Abel Tesfaye is almost unbelievable. Just five years ago he was a fairly mysterious Canadian singer who spent 2011 dropping an awesomely debauched mixtape trilogy. I distinctly remember reading an article in 2012 which anointed him as the next Michael Jackson, which seemed hilariously optimistic at the time….
Cape Town has hope on the horizon. A city well known for its social segregation and physically apparent apartheid-born economic divides has a new underground-ish musical savior being birthed. A brand new festival, put on by Nomadiq Music, Black Major, We House Sundays and Wax On aims to create a space of exchange for the…
Since the genre first screamed to life from the frozen wastelands of Norway in the early 90s, black metal has accrued a number of stereotypes. There are the associations with church burnings, Satanism, shady political views and misanthropy. More benignly, there is the cartoonish image of ridiculous poseurs, dressed in corpse paint and running around…
A lot of 2016 releases have been underpinned by a sense of profound dread, of something terrible slouching its way into reality. The cosmic horror alluded to in David Bowie’s Blackstar, the inner horror of Danny Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition. Fatima Al Qadari`s riot porn, ANOHNI`s bleak portrait of environmental collapse Gaika’s paranoia, the witch burnings…
Just over a month ago we featured Hlasko on the cover of Bubblegum Club. He described music as “a calling” and even a process of divination. Today he opens up a portal into his future through a stirring 11-track mix which includes 5 new Hlasko productions. For a little more insight we spoke to Hlasko…
