MUSE MAG - Jun/Jul '12 by Muse Mag

EDITION 20 | JUN/JUL ‘12 | Proud Supporters of SA Music!

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Marcus Miller

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Nibs van Der Spuy & Guy Buttery

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CONTRIBUTORS: Dave Mac, Thomas Whitebread, Terri Love, Mary Honeychild, Mickdotcom, Paul Blom, Alan Ratcliffe, Alistair Andrews, Kurt Slabbert, Damien Albetto, Jess Henson, Jonathan Pike, Greg Bester, Chantall Nortjé, Sergio Pereira, Nicolai Roos, Johann M Smith, Eliza Day, David Chislett and Michael Harmse

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From The Editor Better Red than Ded - The F-Email Eunich Two Glints in the Shade: Nibs van Der Spuy and Guy Buttery Apocalypse Now! - Myles Kennedy on the new Slash album US Jazz legends unified, echo a theme of Jazz for the youth Dead Alphabet: Expanding Their Vocabulary Beyond SA jezebel's VPL: with Louis Nel Henry Rollins: A Muse interview Fetish: Secret Sauce for the Soul Legends of SA Music: Moses Taiwa Molekwa Rock's New Dawn Fades: Bicylce Thief Inside The Machine: Music News Classic Albums: Herbie Hancock Thrust Eruption: State of the African Metal Nation Eruption Album Reviews New Albums Game Reviews Venue Guide & Live Events

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Slash, Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators

Moses Taiwa Molelekwa

No part of this magazine may be imitated or reproduced in whole / in part or online, without the permission of MUSE Magazine. Any views, opinions & visual material expressed in MUSE Magazine by contributors are not necessarily shared by MUSE Magazine or its staff. We do not accept responsibility for any omissions or mistakes, as we do everything possible to make sure all information published is accurate.

MUSE Magazine 2012

EDITOR’S NOTE | JUN/JUL ‘12 | Proud Supporters of SA Music!

SHOULD MUSIC BE FREE?

usic. It’s a given that we will always be surrounded by it. No matter what the future holds or how slim one’s chances are of earning a decent income from music, every day another guitarist is born, another singer, another kid wanting to bang those drums. Music offers so much to so many, whether your are a performer or a fan, it is an integral part of all our lives; even to those who don’t think it is, they too are being affected daily by the mood of a soundtrack on an advert or their favourite soapy and even the lager louts and sport jocks can’t escape it. So why are less and less of us buying music? It’s a conundrum the industry itself has not been able to solve so I won’t even attempt to draw a conclusion. I will say this though. The industry knows it has itself to blame for not moving with the times. Whilst the slightly older generation (say 25 and upwards) are fully aware that copying or downloading music for FREE is, well, not so cool – and illegal - (although many do it anyway) it’s the younger generation – the 13 to 20 year olds that have never actually grown up with a formal method of buying music. It’s all digital and all Smartphones these days so Blue-toothing tunes to each other is as natural as “BB’ing” your mate. Ask any 15 year old if they bought any of the music on their phone and they’ll look at you as if you’re daft. Now the industry is to blame on many fronts. There is the well documented fact that the cost of music got totally out of hand years ago; let’s face it the major labels were all making a killing (perception or fact, it doesn’t matter) – the buying public simply got tired of paying a fortune for an album. Then of course there’s the matter of digital and the music industry’s failure to successfully market this medium and embrace the new way of receiving one’s music. Ask any teenager where they can buy music online and they’ll quite likely mumble “iTunes?” Now did you know that the only way to buy music on iTunes from South Africa is to get a US iTunes account? And did you know to do this you need to fabricate an address in the US? In other words pretend you are in the USA. The industry that wants you to buy music is making you ‘fool the system’ to enable you to do so! So even though Apple took great measures in their technology to restrict being able to transfer music direct from one iPod to another (generic MP3 players can all do it though), the fact that one cannot buy on iTunes - South Africa simply gives people more reason to pirate. Reality check, music lovers will always find a way to get their music. Paying or for free! So let’s forget about the rights and wrongs of whether music should be free or not. Let the industry rather take a long hard look at why people aren’t buying and fix that problem by improving their image, getting the mechanics right and making it affordable! Dave Mac

WRITERS' OPINIONS JEZEBEL Well, it worked for Radiohead, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Nine Inch Nails, Strangers Family Band, Arctic Monkeys, Yesterday’s Pupil, The Lua Union, LA.VI, and The Very Wicked. Why wouldn’t it work for all? The times they are a changin’.

SERGIO PEREIRA The topic of recorded music being free or not should really be up to the artist. They need to think about the bigger picture and consequences. If he/she is cool with it, then great – download away. If not, who are we to devalue his/her art by stealing it?

ELIZA DAY Yes. Recording artists should be subsidized by the government handsomely. This way, we won't have to loot their craft online, nor will they have to skulk around record labels like bugeyed prostitutes trying to pay their way through law school.

MARY HONEYCHILD Music is free. Songs operate like commercials of what artists can do, if you listen to a musician on your iPod long enough, you will want to see them live. That is the reality for any artist wanting to make a living out of music, get back on the tour bus.

MICKDOTCOM Artists should be able to choose to make their work gratis or not. In fact, I personally think there exist albums which should cost R 1000 or more. Certain works of art - mass-produced or not should cost sweat and tears to own. There are individual compositions in my collection that I prize more highly than my car. And I really like my car.

PAUL BLOM How about free food, free petrol, free internet service and other necessities? Why not? Musicians don't have expenses, they don't have car payments, don't need to cover rent or a bond. Everyone knows that all musicians get free instruments, free rehearsal & studio time, and briefcases filled with cash. Yeah right!

JOHANN M SMITH Yes, as long as we know what it means and consider it a privilege, not a given and start thinking on how producers can still earn a living.

Better Red than Ded | THE F-EMAIL EUNUCH | words: Eliza Day

The

F-EMAIL Eunuch “I FELL IN LOVE WITH GIRLS, STOPPED LISTENING TO CLUELESS SELFPROCLAIMED MUSICOLOGISTS WHO WANTED TO GET IN MY PANTS AND LITERALLY STOPPED CARING.”

used to hate female musicians. I found the lyrical themes to be sappy, watching them play was perfunctory and their lack of balls was infuriating. It was, for most of my teenage years, much like watching lesbian porn when you’re straight as an arrow, whenever somebody turned up the sound on the girls. I couldn’t help it. Guys spoke about music more than girls did and they weren’t listening to chicks. It was hard rock, thrusting hips and phallic guitars all the way. My femininity never stood a chance. Falling into the trap of wanting to be a dude and listening to cock-rock was an easy hole for me and many other girls in history to fall into. Turn up to a gig wearing anything other than ripped jeans and bovver boots and get comfortable in the knowledge that you’re viewed as a wannabe groupie or a slitsy-writsy Goth. Either way, don’t expect anyone to take you seriously if you open your mouth about music. Shut up little girl and write this down... When I started writing about music, it wasn’t about what I really thought. I was writing about guys, for a guy so that other guys could read it. I thought giving readers what they wanted, was me doing my job. Copy and paste then commit to memory all those conversations where you’re being preached pearlescent tripe about the latest in mediocre music according to the pretentious, middle-class white-boy. What was I thinking? Nothing at all. It was only in my twenties that I realised a lot of what some of these guys were saying was some severely stupid shit. I fell in love with girls, stopped listening to clueless selfproclaimed musicologists who wanted to get in my pants and literally stopped

caring. So what if they didn’t like what I had to say about their bands? “Freedom is to write the wrong words,” said Patti Smith. She may have been a pretentious wench but the chick had a point and she said it in the fucking 70’s, so what, man, is your excuse? Social media allows everyone the chance to be a writer. This is all very democratic but doesn’t mean you should go impose your opinions on the public. Especially if you can barely get your head around which bint you’re zoning in on at a gig. All this spit and sleaze after you’ve whined to the global audience of Facebook that the very same girl should go pull out her tampon instead of write anything about your band ever again. After a gentle reminder who I was, I thought the poor guy was going to cry. The point is, we’re all allowed to be online. Social platforms belong to us all and more than that, so does music. Gender is something that I nor any other female journalist should have to feel nervous about.

We’re allowed to hate each other’s art but why hate each other for being the opposite sex? Discourse is in every single one of you and the reason you are who you are is because of what tainted and tinted your experiences of life. At fourteen, I was dumb enough to let society affect my brain to the extent that I was ashamed of what I really thought. Don’t be dumb enough to agree with the me back then. Music transcends sexism, elates us, relates us and makes us feel like having sex among many other metaphysically awesome things. Trying to bring those feelings down to the brass tax of written language is another bag of bollocks altogether and we all know it gets lost in translation. Stop caring so much about what people think whether you are a critic or being criticised. Make whatever you want because you can and should. Confidence in your creativity is the bravest thing you’ll ever do, so screw ‘em.

Feature | TWO GLINTS IN THE SHADE: AN INTERVIEW WITH NIBS VAN DER SPUY & GUY BUTTERY | words: Mickdotcom

TWO GLINTS IN THE SHADE: An interview with Nibs van Der Spuy & Guy Buttery

process was completely free and uninhibited. We didn’t over think everything. No more than 2 or 3 takes per song, with 90% of the album tracked live on the studio floor. Two musicians at the same time making music. Isn’t that how it should always be?

Photo: Greg Lomas

fter a decade of mutual admiration and several gig collaborations, Guy Buttery and Nibs Van Der Spuy have unveiled their gorgeous, longawaited, collaborative album, In The Shade of The Wild Fig. We asked them if we could have a seat.

dates back to when you tutored Guy. How did In The Shade of The Wild Fig come about? Nibs: A year ago we ended up sharing the stage at the Rio Loco festival in Toulouse, France. It was there a seed was planted to do this collaboration. As clichéd as it sounds, I’m glad it only happened now. It has come out way beyond our wildest dreams, because we did it with the right heart and intentions.

Muse: A Martian lands and for some reason approaches you, asking you who Nibs Van Der Spuy is. How would you describe Nibs to this first-time earth visitor? Guy: Nibs. What a legend. One minute you’re laughing your head off with him and then the next you’re getting fully deep about life and this crazy world around us. There is something very Zen and instantly lovable about Nibs. If you’re lucky enough that your paths do in fact cross (either on this planet or some other inter-galactic jol), you’ll know exactly what I mean.

How do you feel your playing was altered/affected during the collaboration? Nibs: First of all, we didn’t want to make it a guitar album per se’. Guy plays mbira, sitar and percussion and for a whole bunch of songs I’m playing a Puerto Rican 10-stringed Cuatro guitar. We chose old songs from our various albums which worked great for duets, wrote some fresh new duets on the fly, as well as some interpretations of songs of artists we love. We've included a version of Ralph Towner’s gorgeous Beneath an Evening Sky and an interpretation of Mark Kozelek’s version of AC/DC’s Up to my Neck. Guy: Personally I felt the recording

You two have often collaborated together, and your musical relationship

Have specific guitar models/ guitars directly influenced any of your compositions? Nibs: Yes, all guitars have a feel and tone which dictate a particular writing style. More recently my 10 string Cuatro has been my muse for writing more lyrical and vocal-like harmonies in an instrumental format. Guy: Every guitar has a story. I’ve been playing a really kak R 50 number around the house lately, that my brother picked up at a flea market, and it definitely has a few stories to tell. Writing music is a strange thing. Whether different guitars’ varied characteristics inspire or influence a specific idea or composition is up for debate. A large part of me thinks it does. Favourite memory of/moments with each other? Nibs: All my memories with Guy are joyous. One particularly great memory is driving up the North Coast on a clear warm Friday night in Guy's old faithful Toyota Tazz. We were blaring a 22-minute bootleg version of Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused. We laughed, we dreamed, we told timeless stories and it was great to be alive with a beautiful dear friend. Guy: Wow. That’s a tough one. So many to choose from. There’s a bunch of them but a large portion of those always involve us sitting around my turntable in the afternoon spinning tunes, laughing our heads off with the smell of samoosas and bunny chow in the air. In The Shade of The Wild Fig can be bought here, in all its textural glory: www.nibsvanderspuyandguybuttery.ban dcamp.com For the full, unedited interviews, check www.museonline.co.za and catch the album review on page 35.

Feature | APOCALYPSE NOW! | words: Sergio Pereira

APOCALYPSE NOW! Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy and lead singer on Slash's new album Apocalypse Love, talks to Sergio Pereira about the Apocalypse recording sessions, hanging with Slash and his love for Cee Lo Green...

yles Kennedy is a humble and soft-spoken chap. He doesn’t sound anything like I would imagine the guy who fronts Alter Bridge, wrote and rehearsed with Led Zeppelin, recorded a killer album (Apocalyptic Love) with the Mad Hatter guitar icon Slash, or recently jammed with the original line-up of Guns N’ Roses at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In fact, ask him if he’d consider joining the real GNR on a tour, and he politely dismisses the notion immediately. “Oh, I don’t know about that, man. That’s a pretty tall order,” he laughs.

Slash vs. Alter Bridge From juggling his time in Alter Bridge to recording and touring with Slash – as well as pursuing his own solo project – Myles isn’t exactly shying away from ‘tall orders’, now is he? Possibly, the biggest test he faces is deciding which songs suit which project best. “That’s a good question,” Myles says. “I think because they’re all such different entities, feel-wise, it’s pretty easy to know where everything is going to fit. And a lot of times with Slash, he’ll send me a musical idea first, which will then trigger me – the melodies, lyrics or another musical part of it – so, it’s already kind of established. It makes the process really easy that way. I actually have

more of a problem sometimes deciding whether a part is going for Alter Bridge versus a solo thing, to be honest. Between Slash and Alter Bridge, it’s pretty easy.”

The Voice One of the big selling points of Apocalyptic Love is that it’s a full-on collaboration between Slash and Myles. Also, unlike Slash’s selftitled album, this effort will only feature Myles’ vocals on the tracks. Did he and Slash ever talk about bringing in anyone for a guest appearance? “We never did talk about that. Actually, that would’ve been cool, though.” From his response, you get the impression that he likes the thought of guest appearances and the unpredictable – so, if he could choose any vocalist to perform his songs from Apocalyptic Love, who would he

choose? “Any vocalist?” Myles asks. “I’m not going to lie; I love Cee Lo Green. I think he’s an amazing singer. I’d love to hear his take on the tracks. He’s just got so much soul.”

Slash, Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators The Soundtrack to the Apocalypse Myles has already mentioned that Slash sent him musical ideas during the writing process for Apocalyptic Love – but did they ever sit down and just compose songs in an old schooltype jam session? “We did it through sharing files on the internet, because I was touring with Alter Bridge a lot of the time. It worked out really well. I’d send the demos back to Slash, and he’d take it to Todd [Kerns, bass guitar] and Brent [Fitz, drums], and put together arrangements. It was a really cool process, because we utilised the internet more than anything, as opposed to getting in the same room and hashing out all the tracks; there were a few tracks where we did that, but for the most part it was filesharing.” Speaking of sharing, Myles opens up about the various topics covered in the new album – not just the drug issues which have been highly publicised by the music media hounds. “There are a bunch of different things. There’s a song called Standing in the Sun, which is written from a point-of-view… speaking for myself, I can be a bit of a pessimist sometimes, looking at the glass as half-empty as opposed to half-full –

so, that song addresses that. Then, there’s a song called Far and Away, which is about longing. There are a few different themes explored throughout the record. I will say it was actually a really challenging record to write, lyrically, just because of what I learnt about this specific style or genre of music – from where I come from as a lyricist – is that I had to dig a little deeper and evolve as a writer. It was a good process; difficult but good.” “There were songs, lyrically, that I must’ve re-written a number of times until I was content,” he adds. “Not For Me is definitely one of those songs; I don’t know how many times I re-wrote that until I felt it was ready to be sung. Surprisingly, [the title track] Apocalyptic Love was [also] a challenge – even though it’s kind of simple, but I think that’s part of what was challenging about it: the simplicity. For me, you can make things too cerebral, but then it loses its magic; so, that’s what I was trying to avoid with these tracks.”

Hanging with Slash

stressed side of the man born Saul Hudson. “If he’s got certain things on his mind, he kind of keeps it to himself,” he says. “He’s really good at not showing his emotions. At times, he gets really quiet – but he’s not the guy who shows what’s bothering him.” Myles also reveals that he’ll be hanging even more with Slash and the band, because Alter Bridge will only be doing a new album in 2013. “We’re discussing next year to do another record, so I’ll be touring with Slash and The Conspirators throughout this entire year and part of next year, and then when I’m not touring I’ll be working with the AB guys.” In closing, Myles leaves fans with a glimmer of hope that there will be another collaboration with Slash after Apocalyptic Love. “Yeah. Hopefully, we’ll continue to make music in some way. There’s a certain chemistry and comfort with each other – and with Todd and Brent as well. Any time you make music that you enjoy making and you find the people cool to hang out with – and it’s a healthy environment – you hope it will continue.”

Slash has always been portrayed as a cool cat – as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. Spending a lot of time with the legendary guitarist on the road, Myles has inevitably seen the

For more information on Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, visit www.slashonline.com.

Feature | US JAZZ LEGENDS UNIFIED, ECHO A THEME OF JAZZ FOR THE YOUTH | words: Mary Honeychild

US Jazz legends unified, echo a theme of Jazz for the youth “The universal theme that Jazz music carries is a form of pure expression. Expression is something young angst leans heavily toward.” Donald Harrison and Ron Carter who performed on stage in one divine display as The Trio. The concept of linking the culture and joy of Jazz music to the next generation was evidently a clear discussion theme at the press conferences. This idea is one that is often overlooked and Jazz in its entirety has been dismissed as out-

DAVE KOZ

place every year a few days before the main show. The free event is a wonderful way of making Jazz accessible to any and everyone who may not have been able to get their hands on a ticket to the sold out festival. “For our opening performance at the free concert on Wednesday, there were these ten talented kids who opened up for us [Western Cape Education Department All Stars and Grandwest Casino open mic winner and singer, Spha Madelse]. It was truly amazing to see them perform so passionately.” The free concert and its inclusion of young people performing live Jazz music is an excellent reverence. The fact that they do the music justice is categorically relevant to the truth that Jazz is birthed in the hearts of the cubs and grows from the roots it finds there.

Dave Koz is a well-loved Los Angeles based saxophonist who has been playing for over twenty years; he has released twelve albums and holds a firm position in the Contemporary Jazz community. Koz on the saxophone is something South African smooth Jazz fans adore. In 2000 his album The Dance went platinum in SA. Something about the sweet, uplifting sax melodies he plays speaks to us… “The instrument [Sax] for me is like a life-line; it became my best friend and served me well throughout my life. It’s a transparent instrument and helps tell a story that is filled with emotion. A saxophone in the right hands adds so much beauty to a song. That is why I love playing ballads, they’re filled with feeling.” Koz continues, “I think the song The Dance translated so well with South Africans because to me it’s a song about celebrating life and overcoming difficulty, challenges and changes which is something South Africans had been facing at that time.” Onstage at Greenmarket Square, Cape Town, Koz was joined by SA Hip Hop artist HHP, Allen Stone and celebrated 70’s R&B singer Patti Austin for performances at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival’s free community concert, an event that takes

dated music to a lot of youth. This thinking though, can leave a true music lover at a loss for genuinely beautiful musical experiences in my opinion. I had a look at the repertoire of these prolific artists, what they said on the topic and also what they considered to be a cure for reaching the next generation…

Dave Koz

CTIJF2012 |Courtesy: espAfrika | Photographer: Amin Gray

he Cape Town International Jazz Festival took place this year on the 30th and 31st of March. As we have come to expect from this musically decadent event, a slew of honorary Jazz musicians were billed to play. Among them were Dave Koz and Marcus Miller, as well as Lenny White,

13 MARCUS MILLER Grammy award winning, New York born and raised, Marcus Miller is one of Jazz music’s cream of the crop legendary bass players. He has an affinity for playing instruments that are often born within those with a true gift for music; specifically the depth, character and purity that Jazz music demands and also builds upon inside someone. A member of his extended family, Wynton Kelly, was a jazz pianist for Miles Davis during the late fifties and early sixties. From 1981 Miles Davis became Miller’s mentor until his death in 1991. A long list of musical achievements and over six hundred songs worked on by this multi-instrumentalist best known for his bass playing, spells a lifetime of magic in Jazz, and is a truly mind-blowing artist. The album he did with Miles Davis in 1986 titled Tutu (named after Bishop Desmond Tutu) was celebrated with a tour named, ‘Tutu Revisited’ in 2010 marking 20 years of Miles’ passing. “I hadn’t realised that the time had gone by so quickly; it was 2009 and we had set up the Miles Davis exhibition in Paris. We had all these different rooms depicting different eras of his life. The museum director asked me if I would do a concert as a tribute to Miles and play all the music from Tutu. I considered it and put it together with a group of twenty young Jazz musicians, most of them weren’t even born when the album was made. That tour was a pleasure and an amazing experience. To see young musicians display such an understanding of the music and interpret it their own way was great,” enthused Marcus as he lamented on his past.

RON CARTER Ron Carter sits at the very top of the Jazz hierarchy as one its true pioneers in acoustic Bass, with a career spanning more than forty-five years. Naturally he has achieved an endless list of accolades with a few of them being Grammy awards, being named Jazz Bassist of the Year by Downbeat magazine, and Most Valuable Player by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. I was in the presence of an original OG. A humble demeanour and wellbalanced confidence is what I experienced upon meeting him in the coffee area at the Table Bay Hotel. This left me enthralled at the synchronicity between his sophisticated beautiful music and his character. You play what you are. He was joined on stage at the Cape Town international Jazz Festival by Lenny White III and Donald Harrison JR. Lenny is an iconic versatile New York drummer since the sixties. Lenny went

Marcus Miller

CTIJF2012 |Courtesy: espAfrika | Photographer: Terry February

The Trio

CTIJF2012 |Courtesy: espAfrika | Photographer: Rafs Mayet from playing Latin Rock to the harder Rock of the 70’s where he is best known for playing with Chick Corea’s band, Return To Forever (1973-76). Donald Harrison Jr. is the saxophonist dubbed as The King of Nouveau Swing. He is the originator of the Nouveau Swing style which merges acoustic swing with modern R&B, Second-line (New Orleans Jazz), Hip-Hop, New Orleans African-American roots culture, and Reggae rhythms. Their decadently delivered musical ensemble was billed as ‘The Trio’ for those who came to see them play. Ron was asked what he made of the need to bridge the generational gap between more mature Jazz appreciators and the youth; “People have a hard time accessing acoustic music, it’s not made so readily available to younger people much like

Dance music is. We have to let people know the music exists, journalists have to report on it and we have to make it more readily available on the internet. Modern electronic music is great with that and they are able to reach so many people which is good! We also have to get to the college radio stations and let people know it exists. I think with this we could really have a voice. I don’t consider myself as old, this music isn’t just for old people. It is for people and we need to nurture the next generation of Jazz lovers. They exist.” The universal theme that Jazz music carries is a form of pure expression. Expression is something young angst leans heavily toward. If you are still sitting in the category that's decided Jazz is for old fogies in tweed jackets, you are selling yourself short.

Feature | DEAD ALPHABET: EXPANDING THEIR VOCABULARY BEYOND SA |words: Sergio Pereira

Dead Alphabet: Expanding Their Vocabulary Beyond SA

“We want to be a band that tours all the time that's our main goal…”

fter struggling for the good part of a week to find a gap for a chat, Dead Alphabet’s vocalist/guitarist, Adam Edwards, breathes a sigh of relief (and so do I, because my deadline was scaring me more than a Double Take music marathon), as we finally manage to set up a meeting. It makes you realise how tricky it is to juggle band business with a daytime job. “Incredibly difficult,” Adam laughs. “It’s actually the most frustrating thing you can be involved in. The band is obviously a passion; something that I hold very dear to my heart and gives me a creative outlet. It’s something I want to push and pursue, but the only real way to do it, in this current climate of rock bands, is to have a day job. So, we all work incredibly hard during the day, and the band kind of comes secondary – in terms of time – not necessarily in our hearts. We prioritise it, but it’s difficult balancing and juggling your time.”

SA vs. EU Parity Game Adam obviously has a sensible head on his shoulders, and isn’t under any illusions about the state of the music industry. However, he says that one of their collective goals of working is to raise funds for Dead Alphabet to travel – and that they did on a European run last year, which saw them visit England,

Holland, Germany, Belgium and France. “It seemed like a fun thing to do; play in Europe and see what it’s like there. See what the venues are like. How much different it is from South Africa? What are the bands we are possibly playing with? Is there a gulf in talent? Are they doing things completely different from what we’re doing? It was a bit of a factfinding mission,” Adam states. So, what can he report back? Are we on par, or just plain lagging behind our European counterparts? “In certain aspects, we’re absolutely on par. We didn’t find any of the bands we were playing with, in Europe, were necessarily better or worse than the bands we play with in SA – or ourselves. There’s a high standard here. What we did find the difference was is that you can get professionally there far more easily. There are a lot more people, venues, and a bigger support base. I mean, you walk into the smallest venue in the middle of Holland, or Belgium, and they have their own PA. Every club has their own PA. Musicians don’t have to pay out of the door to cover sound, like we constantly do here.”

Dead in Hollywood With Europe done and dusted (for now), Dead Alphabet have set their sights on another foreign shore: America. “We went to Europe, and enjoyed it a lot, so where to next?” Adam explains. “It’s

interest. We don’t have any other way of checking it out, or finding out what it’s like, so we might as well play while we’re there. We spoke to our manager, who started finding people who would be interested in bringing us over. He found a couple of people – but, in the end, he actually managed to book most of the shows himself. It’s a 2 week tour with 10 shows in it, mainly around LA. So, we’re checking out what it’s like across the pond. Ultimately, we want to travel. We want to move. We want to be a band that tours all the time – that’s our main goal.” Regardless of future migration, Dead Alphabet are still a local band, and their debut music video Eat You Alive being nominated for an MK Award certainly did them no harm with the Suid-Afrikaanse public. “Ya, the nomination was great,” Adam beams. “Everyone says when they lose awards that it’s just great to be nominated – but it’s rather true. It’s really nice to be recognised as one of the 5 rock bands that MK chose. We’re really happy with that, and the opportunity to just get a little bit more on the map.” Question is: which part of the map will Dead Alphabet finally settle in, if they settle at all? For more information on Dead Alphabet, visit www.deadalphabet.com.

jezebel's VPL | 'bel and Nel in a kiss-and-don't-tell

Or is it the other way around?

|words: jezebel | photo © jezebel

“IT'S FUN TO WORK WITH OTHER MUSICIANS WHO THINK DIFFERENTLY AND CREATE DIFFERENTLY. YOU CAN LEARN FROM THAT.”

'bel and Nel

in a kiss-and-don't-tell Or is it the other way around?

Louis (mobile) Louis, I think we need to talk.

having two bass guitars in a band is already something else.

Shit, why? I know what you’ve been doing. I’m surprised. I’m a little confused. What have you heard? Do the others know? You’re freaking me out! Don’t play dumb with me, you Beast.

Do you think if bands invested in online strategy they might have a better chance at getting their message out there? Absolutely. The internet is a wonderful platform to use, because it’s so accessible, and it’s worldwide. If you know how to use it correctly, and do it well, it’s a great tool to push your music out into the world, and really cheap. And easy.

Louis Nel is in an open relationship and he’s glib about it. I guess you can be when the only risk is rhythm and you have enough of it to serenade seventy sirens without a pipe. The backbone of Taxi Violence and the quiet conscience of a creative scene in flux takes it in his humble stride, walking all over the clay-footed musician cliché: Louis will never stand you up or let you down, and there isn’t an inch of diva in this drummer-bassist’s bones, so why is he getting involved in dark dances?

So you’re going to do that with Beast? I’m all for giving away free music; I think the sale of the CD is dying. The only way that bands make money is by playing and touring. Giving things away for free, the virus spreads much faster.

Louis : Taxi Violence will always be my wife, but… I needed a mistress. Because after seven years of being in one band jezebel : The seven year itch! Probably. It’s just nice to have another place to go and express yourself in a different way. Is it more exciting? It’s more exciting because it’s new, and there’s a big unknown, and because we all allow ourselves and the others a lot of freedom. You’d never see Sasha play drums in The Plastics like he does in Beast, because we urge him to be free. He’s like Keith Moon - wild abandon. That really excites me, because I’m also a drummer, so I’m always next to him, jamming with him. Rhythm, bass and Inge. Eerievocals, assertive on stage, there’s an amazing blend of energies. A good mix? The music’s not easy listening. It’s very loud and at times it’s very experimental, but that’s what we wanted. It’s dark, it’s loud, it’s rock n roll, and I think visually we’re quite a cool band to watch – we all really get into what we’re doing, and we have fun and we laugh, and there’s a lot of eye contact. Obviously

Everyone seems to be regrouping, but keeping the core. For me one of the nicest aspects of being involved in something else with other musicians is that you learn new things because you’re not locked in with the same people that you have been writing music and creating something with over an amount of years. It’s new musicians, who might think in a different way, whom you learn tricks from, and that’s cool, because then you take that back to your primary band. It unlocks a few other creative doors in your mind. It’s nice, because I’m learning new things. Collaborations are big nowadays... Originally I thought, ‘ag, everyone’s collaborating, what’s all the fuss about?’ and now I get it. And it benefits the fan. We’re also fans. We started off fans, and we’ll always be fans of music. And I think this is just a different way to be a fan; I’m a fan of The Plastics, and I’m a fan of Lark, and what Inge does. I’m experiencing them in a different way, I guess, than someone in the crowd. But, uh, you’ll be surprised. He’s right. And that wasn’t the only thing he is right about. Definitely not a dumb Beast, this one. www.facebook.com/BeastBand was [allegedly] approached by Rocking the Daisies and Oppikoppi before they’d played their first full gig.

Interview | HENRY ROLLINS: A MUSE INTERVIEW | words: Johann M Smith

HENRY

ROLLINS: A MUSE INTERVIEW

interview Henry, as much as ask for advice and insight on matters high on society’s priority list. I’m curious, ever gotten a question that you couldn’t answer at all? At least one – ‘if you were a colour, which one would you be?’ Being a man of many words, how do you find Twitter? I used to let people know when tours start and when show notes are posted for the most part. I try not to bug people too much with it. The internet functions essentially as a bastardised potlatch-society and the majority of the human race already seemed amused to death prior to its existence. Can we still fully appreciate and understand the true value of information? That’s a good question. I think that information now has a different currency. It’s “cheaper” in many ways. Almost any album is available for free, etc. The truth is as a blogger finds it. I think there is a sea of information out there, as well as miss and dis information, so, there’s an upside and a down side. As to its true value, the value is as you find it – case by case. What is your opinion and criticism on Soft Power? Would you consider the benefits and concept as a promising and reliable benchmark orb signifier of sorts for Africa? Do you think art, specifically music, can be South Africa’s most valuable and influential global export? Soft Power, as a theory to me, as Joseph Nye [founder] defines it, is one thing. I think it gets immediately co-opted by those who deal in rougher rooms with harder thrown elbows. The big money will only allow it if there is something in it for them. I think there is only power, and it comes and goes really hard.

reat effort can go into defining Henry Rollins, whether as the frontman of 80’s punk act Blag Flag, public speaker and well-doer fighting ignorant beliefs, or

the man you get to know when speaking to him personally. No doubt, when you attempt the latter, you go in prepared. He’s known for answering questions with a respectful reverence, backing it up with a dissertation that makes you wish you read more, and steamrolling blissful idiots with the same. One doesn’t

You once explained in an interview there’s a lot you don’t understand about Africa. Is that still true? Could you perhaps elaborate on what exactly? Sure. Why do people choose to live in certain parts that are so hard to live in? Why do people make more people than they can feed and hydrate? Why can’t government systems work with less corruption? Why do some men refuse to use protection in sex? Things like that.

You’ve often expressed a deep love for America and a belief in European ideas. However, how do you feel about McDonalds and, not that they are at all the same, Rolling Stone Magazine and other examples of American and European Soft Power brands in SA? Do you find third-world countries often lack the ability stemming from a lack of confidence and imagination that comes with the aforementioned? (Never mind the budget or the global appeal that resulted from neo-colonialism). I think countries will integrate or reject these entities as they see fit to do so. Starbucks pretty much left Australia.These are electives. Just because a McDonald’s is there, doesn’t mean you have to go in it. I don’t. In the long run, do you think that artists should be concerned that their work and surrounding communities didn’t originate from their own country? I think artists should feel no constraints at all. It’s one thing that can be free. What, you tell the German guy he can’t play Jazz? What a drag. Would you say stereotyping, racism and genre-hating has mostly been replaced by an unidentifiable sensitive society that tolerates difference and refuses to understand hard-core beliefs? No. I don’t think things are as bad as they were, but things are still pretty bad. In America we have a lot of racism, homophobia, misogyny and other drags on the wings of progress but things are also changing. I think things are getting better but have a long way to go. More education would speed things up. Some people wear their ignorance as a badge, and that makes things difficult.

According to MTV’s marketing analysts teenagers no longer have anything to rebel against – the majority of which they claim view their parents as friends and guides. Does rebellion and music, together or separate, still hold a function for the curious ambitious teenager that wants to change the world? Rebellion never meant much to me. I would rather just do what I want. Rebellion, in a lot of ways is just reactionary – the rebel, very often gets played like a sucker. Music for me has always been about expression. Real rebels don’t know they are rebelling. Do you agree with the popular consensus that rock and roll is dead? Is it presumptuous of us to think our kids will one day have any interest in guitars? And what new genres and artists (if any) do you consider the most important today? I don’t agree at all. I don’t think that will ever happen. Not while I am around, at least. Guitars are always going to be picked up, are you kidding? I listen to a lot of noise music. Bands like Wolf Eyes and Stare Case. Guitar music is raging. I can’t wait to hear the new High on Fire album. It’s waiting for me at the office. The new J Mascis solo project Heavy Blanket is total guitar insanity. Your claim to fame can be “the only punk to ever do what he preached”, “the rock & roll uncle you wished you had” and “the father-in-law you don’t”. Most people who’ve come across you have become instant fans, because what you have to say changes lives, regardless of anything. Many prolific politicians and persuasive analysts can’t hold a candle in comparison. Is your individuality

perhaps a blueprint, or at the very least an excellent example, for the aspiring 21st century individual – a person who can accept the turbulence of change, adapt, aspire and get on with ‘it’; a citizen of the world who views the right to express (oh-so easy digitally) a privilege, and a potentially loaded gun? I don’t know if I agree with everything you said, but thanks. I know I am listened to by a lot of people. I choose my words very carefully. I think I am a pretty good guy in that I am not trying to hurt you or do you any harm, so I don’t make an effort to censor myself as much as I strive for clarity. I don’t know if my life is a blueprint for anyone else though. Do you ever regret not having any children? No. What advice would you like to give to young people living in third-world countries like SA, with special consideration to aspiring musicians? Would you consider staying around for a bit longer in SA in the near future? South Africa is a third-world country? Doing music for a living is difficult anywhere, really. I guess the advice I would give is to do your own thing and play live as much as you possibly can – that’s where you really get your chops, beyond your formative training. Live is one take, that’s the real thing. I would definitely stay longer if I could, hard to do on these tours though.

Interview | FETISH - SECRET SAUCE FOR THE SOUL | words: jezebel

Fetish secret sauce for the soul

etish is a band from the 90s whose name still raises eyebrows, cocks ears, and sends a current of nostalgia through those old or wise enough to know their material. They were powerful, their time is past, it’s a pity, is the running thought. Or that’s what we thought till they twisted the timeline again to launch a new album at 2012. And while they may have grown up, they’re still dark and beautiful. Just a little… Merrier. I’m not going to talk about Dave’s groupies or Michelle’s habits – so passé so what can I say about a band that disbanded ahead of its time that wouldn’t be a rendition of a past I wasn’t part of or another double entendre? I can say something about the music, past, present and future, something about the emotive

urgency of Michelle’s cracking croons - a sublime and scarily emotional voice - and the precocious mix of electronic and acoustic that might have given them dibs - had they not dispersed to find themselves- on the aural real estate that other agents and larks have since populated. But then I’d be in too deep, wouldn’t I? I’m new to this Fetish. Well, they found each other again, alright; all grown, and grinning and finding it funny how a night out now includes babysitters and bass guitars in equal proportion, that their children can listen to their lyrics and relate, that it’s somehow simpler and easier to create together. Time has ironed out the cracks, not widened them. In testimony to the scope of their compositions, they’ve straddled two eras with a big gap between without losing their allage appeal. They noticed teens alongside adults in the audience at their recent gigs in Cape Town and Johannesburg “and we didn’t have any idea where they came from,” Ross muses, stirring his cup of something. My theory is that musical tastes (and the music industry) have grown dramatically in the time that they’ve been bringing up children, to the point where youngsters who wouldn’t have been around during their first incarnation can appreciate their sound without dumbing down its rep. Then again, despite emotionally articulate music, they were a little awkward in some ways back in the day. Fetish used a lot of technology in their live shows and this sometimes caused complications.

“There’s an understatement for you,” says Jeremy, without finishing his statement. “Understandably you were doing it ahead of your time,” I prompt patiently. The reluctant rock star?

“It depends on the momentum” - Ross “That was half the problem,” Ross interjects. “We had a few people tell us that this was ahead of the market. It’s strange because they were listening to music from the UK incorporating all those things, but were not able to translate that to going out and seeing live [music].” “When we made the So Many Prophets Album, we had quite a few programmed beats coming in and out, and we had a special effects thing and we put a little bit of that onto some backing tracks, so that we would play live to a click for about half the set-“ “And you were triggering the little drum things,” Jeremy again; again the halfsentence. “And an electric drum beat would come in and there’d be a bit of a synth backing to it, and …we had quite a hard time with the technology.” Ross’s understatement, now, syncopated and alliterative, the way I like my parallels. You can dance between them that way. Only, they didn’t. “It was a difficult balancing act” explains Jeremy (finally), “you want to give people the full sound experience, but at the same time it’s detracting from your spontaneous performance. So it was always a toss-up.; I’m much happier now.“ “Happier to be playing live,” Ross continues, “with no click, and no technology behind it – it’s nice. When the band started out, it was all acoustic, in the middle bit we had some technology, and now we’re back to none.”

For Michelle, that’s “a natural progression for most artists – our group’s just done it over a very long period. You start off following your gut and doing things simply, and as you start being more successful, you do start experimenting and trying to make it better, and then you get to the point where you realise you don’t need all that stuff.“ Ross points out that they’ve “still got Dave on keyboards, and the sounds that he uses still add in that element of electronica that we used to have. So on the new album, there’s still a little bit of a throwback to that, even though the album on the whole is way more straight ahead rock.”

“Dave, can you make a what-what-what sound?” - Jeremy Did all the fiddling inform their compositions now? “Possibly,” says Michelle. “Sonically, song-writing differently, also using the voice in more of a sonic way, a rhythmic way definitely; but then also when you realise the mistakes you’ve made you can come back and look at something afresh again. It becomes better because you’re able to make the right decisions.“

So, do they think the break was good for them as a unit, as a sound, as a message? “It’s been the best thing, ever,” says Michelle. “I don’t think any of us ever expected this to happen.” “We didn’t really take a break,” Ross demurs definitively. “It was over.“

“We didn't fit into the general RAAAAAAHk vibe of the day”- Michelle “We’d spoken about it [since], but it was always a silly joke,” explains Michelle. I’m starting to think she might have been hoping, deep down, for a reunion. “Jeremy was actually the one who was most instrumental in getting us back together – he was the one who was most enthusiastic.” Cue Jeremy. And keep up, jezebel. “Now Ross is the most enthusiastic,” says Jeremy, passing the bucket amiably. No, dryly; it would be amiable if there were fried chicken in it. “We have a sliding scale of who’s the most positive and negative at any one time-”

“-but some peoples’ positions are quite fixed towards the bottom end,” Ross smiles with narrowed eyes. He doesn’t need to be dry, it seems. And none of them seem to need to try – they just work together. Sounds like a relationship to me. They finish each other’s sentences, they banter and counter like new lovers, and yet they have the ease and respect of love-youlong-time friends. Are they going to tour again? They’re not sure. Certainly a few key gigs to support the release of the album, scheduled hopefully, says Ross, for mid-July. “If it is well received and the offers come in, then we’ll do our best to make that happen. But we’re feeling very positive about it all.” That’s all I need to know for now. That, and the fact that Fetish has created their own genre, for which I’ve invented my own word : premo - the sound just before the weight breaks you. It’s a new release. http://fetish.bandcamp.com/

Legends of Music | MOSES TAIWA MOLELEKWA (1973-2001) |words: Mickdotcom

With Genes and Spirits Molelekwa aimed to simultaneously “reach wider audiences, and be more experimental”. He succeeded on both counts – outside of the first, niche Rave events, local music lovers had never heard these Drum & Bass beats, and Molelekwa wove them, along with fresh, bubbly electronic swathes, into his piano and keyboard-led compositions, as if they were longstanding instruments. The playful, upbeat nature of his use of electronica reflected his own joy at latching placid tradition to the bustle of modernity.

"... Molelekwa's solo improvisations entered the realms of pianistic genius, travelling alongside the likes of Abdullah Ibrahim and Keith Jarrett. Music beyond language.”

Darkness Pass. Fate would deem the aforementioned releases

Moses Taiwa Molelekwa (1973-2001)

was driving to work, peripherally noting the world blah past, when my arms went numb. I looked up at the next headline-bearing lamp post, and my subliminal shock was confirmed by four simple words, barely a sentence: 'Moses Molelekwa found dead'. The rest of the trip was a blur. I had seen him live just seven months before. It was the most illuminating musical performance I had yet been immersed in. A young, gently powerful sun behind the keys – a sprawling future waiting to be lit by his radiance.

Genes and Spirits Born on 17 April 1973 in the township of Thembisa, in then-Transvaal, Molelekwa was already playing piano for the likes of Miriam Makeba and Jonas Gwangwa at the famed Kippies Jazz club a mere 14 years later. At fifteen the prodigy joined Hugh Masekela's band, invited by the legend himself. Molelekwa was born, like many other talented South African musicians, into a family impoverished but steeped in music. “Music, quite literally, saved my life,” he would assert. His father, a musician like his father before him, was nicknamed Monk, for his detailed knowledge of Thelonious Monk’s music, and, despite financial struggles, set Molelekwa on his musical path by presenting him with his first musical instruments (a guitar, and later Casio Keyboard) and getting him enrolled in the

Federated Union of Black Arts Academy. By the time Molelekwa graduated, with a ‘Best Student’ award, he was brightly on a roll. Over the next couple of years Moses toured with Masekela’s band whilst simultaneously holding down two outfits of his own, ‘Brotherhood’ and ‘Umbongo’ (both of which, successively, won Best Jazz Group at the then-‘Gilbeys Music Of Africa’ awards.) In 1994 Molelekwa was spotted playing at a music festival by then upand-coming producer Robert Trunz, of MELT Music, who was sufficiently taken by Taiwa’s talents to invite him to join a very special musical project. Along with other, more established local Jazzbo’s, Molelekwa joined the Outernational Meltdown sessions, which saw them travel to London to experiment with pioneers of Jungle and Drum ‘n Bass, as well as collaborating with South American icons like Flora Purim and Airto Moreira. This sudden rush of exotic stimulation left a deep, fertile imprint on Molelekwa’s musical spirit – his natural brilliance also allowed him to soak up these foreign sonic grammars as quickly as he was exposed to them. When they returned, Molelekwa penned his solo debut for MELT, Finding One’s Self, and three years later, the quietly glorious Genes and Spirits. Both received ‘Best Contemporary Jazz’ SAMAS, with his debut also scooping ‘Best Traditional Jazz’, telling of the work’s supple variety.

Molelekwa’s entire catalogue of studio albums. Two albums, released three years apart. That this should be the entire legacy of a brilliant young pianist just setting off on his sonic adventures is unthinkable. Thankfully Molelekwa’s industriousness affords us several albums featuring his contributions as sideman and producer, as well as several posthumous live releases thanks to MELT Music’s glinting archives. One of these, a two-disk collection of solo, improvised piano music by Molelekwa, Darkness Pass, reveals his true depths. While Genes and Spirits was excellent and innovative, Molelekwa’s solo improvisations entered the realms of pianistic genius, travelling alongside the likes of Abdullah Ibrahim and Keith Jarrett. Music beyond language. The gig I’d attended at the 2000 Grahamstown Arts festival was such. Taiwa performed with acclaimed British concert pianist Joanna MacGregor, their two grand pianos interlocked in sonic Ying-Yang, their formally distinct musical languages dancing, then teasing, then exhilaratingly meshing while traversing everything from electronica to John Cage to hitherto undefined sonic worlds. That performance changed me physiologically. And for hours after the last, impossible notes, the natural world of sounds around me leant into music; was transformed.

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Feature | ROCK'S NEW DAWN FADES | words: Johann M Smith

ROCK'S NEW DAWN FADES

andom souls ask me: what’s the future of rock & roll? I say: what does it matter? We’re so fucked these days we don’t know who to hate and praise, yet we consider this our pain and suffering, when we’re so privileged – a fact we all forget as we go whinging all over the place. Ten points if you recognised the words above, taken from Trail off Dead’s 2005 single Worlds Apart – the wisdom couldn’t be better applied to a time and place than right now in SA. The song somewhat explains the sound and reality of Cape Town’s latest indie-pop instalment, Bicycle Thief – who will be the first to admit: they don’t sound like anything new. Right before telling you: nothing is worse than discovering your favourite SA band sounding like an already existing overseas one. “Everybody’s begging for attention, you have to wonder what they do to get it,” explains frontman and guitarist Tim Lester, “a lot of it is fabricated.” And when does it end and the honesty start? “On and off stage, either with an image they’ve digested or a clean cut image they hope people will dig.” Guitarist Peter Atmore elaborates: “Nothing’s cooler than liking your own music, a great song is a great song, don’t mess with it.” No doubt, bands have long been stuck in limbo complimenting the past,which had dibs on subject matter and genres that ironically created the

present they can’t escape. Reviewing their respective CV’s reveals dozens of past and current attempts, most noticeably Ashtray Electric (Sheldon Yoko, drummer). Bicycle Thief initially started as a desperate solo project by Tim, after an overambitious attempt to create ‘the new’ with defunct Anaphys, that quickly turned into auditions for a bassist – an amusing anecdote of 8 bassists sitting outside Kill City studios waiting in anticipation, “as one does outside of a dentist’s office,” muses Peter. Debut EP, Ammunition, reflects early naivety replaced by the wisdom gained through the experience of trying something different, not necessarily with music, but one that certainly doesn’t deny kudos to dead legends like Ian Curtis. Thankfully in rock, often the difference between dull and wow is a decent melody. Live, there’s no denying their ability for invocating the dying spirit of guitar music. “Essentially, we’re not a musicians’ band,” reflects Tim. “Our writing has taken a turn, and we want people to enjoy it. The music should be bigger than us, and in the end outlive the band.” Peter concludes “that will validate what we do.” Present success is promising. Their collective experience recently guaranteed an opening slot for upcoming London act, The Scoundrels; and excellent production values from a minimal setup – guitars were recorded using only a PC with direct XLR input and amplification

“NO T LIKIN HING’ S CO G YO GREA UR OW OLER TH SON T SONG N MUSI AN IT,” G, DON’T IS A GRE C, A SAYS MESS AT B PETE ICYCLE WITH T R AT MOR HIEF’ S E

simulation software. The only challenges are journalists not being able to properly define them, and jumping over the same hurdles they left behind. Of the former ‘mild fire’, they say: “If you dislike our music, at least say it right.” And the latter: “5FM’s auto-generated reply reads: ‘if you don’t hear from us in six weeks, consider your application unsuccessful’. [Laughs], by that time we’re already making another single.” There’s a fine line between bands sounding similar to what we’ve enjoyed to death (and never want to again) and those that give instant satisfaction by doing exactly the same. The trend nowadays is listening to genres no one’s heard; the effort involved often requiring a keen willingness to indulge something that takes time to enjoy (only to discover several more pending in your playlist). Perhaps rock isn’t dead as much as it’s reached a cul-de-sac. Can it still tell the world something it doesn’t already know? Hopefully like the near future of super-cars, there’ll be gems to take home as a parting gift. September sees the release of Bicycle Thief’s new EP, following a music video and December tour – a privilege despite impending doom, and if it means anything: in the years to come, rockers will share the same social worth as 90’s Levi dungarees. Or in Peter’s words: “Call us average. Make of it what you will.” Get Bicycle Thief’s debut EP Ammunition free: www.bicyclethief.co.za

Music News | INSIDE THE MACHINE | words: Johann M Smith

Inside the MACHINE SAVE THE DATE FOR ROCKING THE DAISIES 2012! Rocking the Daises were quick out the starting blocks this year with their first announcement well ahead of the event in October. Notable news is that this year they will be opening up the campsite on the Thursday (as opposed to Fri) along with the promises of campsite entertainment to keep you company. Tickets have gone on sale at a handsomely reduced ‘earlybird’ rate of R 400 which is a 1/3 discount. So if you’re certain you’ll be attending, now’s the time to grab that ticket, el cheapo! They’ve also revamped their website so hop over to www.rockingthedaisies.com. No line-ups as yet but word on the street is they’ve got some surprises up their sleeves. We’ll be watching closely.

THE LOW DOWN ON OPPIKOPPI 18 – SWEET\THING FESTIVAL Due to Oppikoppi being sold out the last few years, they are trying to expand the camping terrain (underbrush clearing, new dirt road creation etc.) and laying out more water reticulation. The capacity will be increased to somewhat (probably 18 000 to 20 000), to avoid those ugly scenes of grown-ups lying on their arms crying in front of their main entrance. It is strongly encouraged that you either buy tickets in advance or stay in the city; there will probably be no sales at the gate. You can make a permanent impression on the OppiKoppi experience by suggesting new street names in the camp site via Twitter and Facebook. OppiKoppi announces that they will probably have 7 different stages in operation this year. Some stages are being broken down, new ones built, moved or expanded. Another extra bit they brought in after comments from the OppiKoppi faithful is a more up to date

camp site shop (odds and ends for campers looking for forgotten-at-home utensils/ tricks to make yourself look or feel pretty). And possibly/ probably a cold beer exchange mechanism for Windhoek cans so you don’t have to try or be tried by the cops in the roadblocks more than once. Tickets have gone on sale: Sold from their Facebook at R 700, or R 750 from Ticketbreak. The sweetest deal is buying from the Standard Bank youth portal for R 600. They supplement each ticket for the fans and you DO NOT have to be a Standard Bank client. Keep tabs at www.oppikoppi.co.za

YESTERDAY’S PUPIL releases Part 3 Formative Years, and promises Part 4 in July. 15 May saw the third instalment of Yesterday’s Pupil album, Muscle & Skin. Part 3, titled Formative Years, follows Part 2 (Duel!) and Part 1 (Singularity). “I think Part 3 is the part where people can start seeing a glimpse of the album as a whole… the two songs are about growing up and being human,” says PierreHenri van Pletzen. A lot has apparently changed from the original idea, “lyrically and musically the song has had time to mature and has grown a lot since its original idea.” Part 4 is set for release in July 2012. Download Formative Years on Yesterday’s Pupil Facebook, and post a thank you on his wall afterwards.

the search for the truth behind life after death (The Stone) and a related documentary (Secret Societies And Sacred Stones), a look at the meaning within Harry Potter, exploration of UFOs in the most active year of 1973, and more. All info at www.celludroid.net With an array of instruments, The Makabra Ensemble has created brand new original soundtracks for half a dozen legendary silent films since 2005, performing them live beneath the big screen at the South African HorrorFest and OppiKoppi. The groundbreaking futuristic movie Metropolis will get an exciting new Makabra soundtrack makeover at Celludroid III. The Terminatryx-driven Makabra Ensemble also features Lark members Simon & Sean (aka Mr.Sakitumi) and Matthijs Van Dijk. More info on the group at www.terminatryx.com/makabra

ISOCHRONOUS have released a DVD documenting their German tour in October 2010.“We are proud of this release, it represents what’s possible for SA bands. It captures the emotions we felt on tour and the memories, mentors and mates we made along the way.” Produced by Fred van Leeuwen and primarily filmed at their performance at the O2 World Arena in Berlin, LIVE IN GERMANY, it is around 2 hours long, and consists of good times backstage in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt and more. Available for purchase at all shows (see SA launch tour dates on Isochronous FB page), and afterwards in all major CD stores, online through Kalahari.net and on the band’s site, isochronous.net

CELLUDROID MACH 3 The 3rd chapter of the Celludroid Sci-Fi / Anime / Fantasy Film Festival (hosted at The Labia Theatre, Orange Street, Cape Town) will hit the stratosphere late-June with movies you’re unlikely to see on any cinema screen in South Africa. With amazing short films, feature films and documentaries including futuristic animation from Serbia (Technotise: Edit & I), a cult movie weaving fact and fiction as it ties together connections between UFO’s, ghosts, immortality, religion and life on the moon (Lunopolis),

ISOCHRONOUS

27 DIE HEUWELS FANTASTIES have released a three part music video, directed by Thomas Ferreira and produced by Mickie Birkett, as a short film titled Verraadplaas featuring three songs from Heuwels’ sophomore album, Wilder as die Wildtuin, and already boasts nearly 8 000 views on YouTube. THE FROWN have a new music video/hipster snuff film they want you to see. Find it on YouTube by typing: The Frown // Metallic Kiss

Natasha Meister

this year. “It's probably the most personal and vulnerable song from the album even though it has an upbeat and playful style… I open myself up and let my fans know the real me” says Natasha. Search for it on YouTube by typing: Natasha Meister Safe In The Silence OFFICIAL Music Video

JACK PAROW will be the proud father of a baby daughter this month. RUMOURS AND OTHER NASTY DISEASES Popular Cape Town club ASSEMBLY will soon be hosting their very own online radio station, featuring a mixed bag of genres and live performances. A little birdie says OPPIKOPPI organisers have confirmed RISE AGAINST and SHIKARI for this year’s festival.

BUSINESS NEWS

NATASHA MEISTER’s released her first video ever earlier this month, for the song Safe In Silence from her debut album Half Way Home released earlier

LOOKING FOR NEW MUSIC? Vanfokkingtasties family reveal their favourites. Hunter Kennedy: John Henry by Barry Belafonté. “I love understated and bittersweet protest songs. John Henry is an urban legend/folk hero who worked at a railway and ‘took on’ a drilling machine and won, but the victory cost him his life. This is a heart-wrenching antiindustrialisation calypso ditty and a

Volkswagen have partnered with Dave Matthews Band for their upcoming 2012 tour in an effort to support ‘Eco Promotion.’ Matthews and co will be stopping in 40 cities nationwide, and throughout VW will give fans the opportunity to win tickets and on-site upgrades. “The partnership allows us to engage with our fans while bringing together shared passions of great music and environmental responsibility,” said a VW spokesperson.

multi-layered commentary on slavery. Belafonté nails the vocal delivery with emotive story-telling and a loose rhythm rarely heard nowadays, the last verse gets me every time.” Francois van Coke: Alcohol by Gogol Bordello. “My favourite at the moment. I discovered their album Super Taranta! a few months ago and listened to it a couple of times before I found this beauty at number 10 – a love song to alcohol. I wish I could feel like that about booze all the time, but I tend to fuck things up when too drunk. I am probably one of the guys Eugene Hutz

Mark Ronson Coca-Cola and producer Mark Ronson, famous for making Amy Winehouse famous, have released a beat maker Android app for the upcoming summer Olympics; the good news comes following criticism of the organisers’ decision to not pay musicians performing at the annual sporting event. Twitter group @Flo + Machine requests your help in getting Florence and The Machine to tour SA, if you’re a fan, join the campaign by following them. Everyone else desperately trying to get favourite international acts to grace local shores, can read an Inside The Machine Special on the matter at MUSEONLINE and in addition can keep tabs on international live events by checking www.i-musicroom.com/index.php/ liveventslist Like skateboarding? Want your music in a skating video, featuring SA hottest skaters? Contact AV Skateboarding video magazine now: clint@avskateboarding.com sings about who gives alcohol a bad name.” Snake Venter: Love like a Sunset by Phoenix. “It’s weird to nominate a mostlyinstrumental track with little drums as a 'favourite', especially as a drummer. But it’s such a journey and has one of the best 'build' dynamics of any recent songs I've heard. With every listen, there's always something new I pick up in the mix. The lyrics are spare and few as they are incredible, and brings this 10 min journey to a beautiful conclusive ending.”

Classic Albums | HERBIE HANCOCK - THRUST |words: Mickdotcom

HERBIE Hancock

Thrust "...HANCOCK DECIDED TO GROUND HIS THEN-STRATOSPHERIC EXPLORATIONS, ROOTING THEM IN THE EARTHY FOUNDATION OF FUNK. IT WAS A BRILLIANT MOVE."

aters can hate, but that molten decade sprung between the mid-Sixties and mid-Seventies was a smorgasbord of innovation and adventure in music. While the heady spirit of freedom – and hyper-stimuli of psychedelics – didn't exactly wreak genius upon the average human mind (whose imaginative reach crested at tie-dye shirts, living in tepees, and emancipating body hair), artists went and dove over the edges of all kinds of edges. Music, for one, would never be the same; nor, perhaps, ever as rampantly inspired. Most of us know what cliffs and rainbows were scaled in the woodlands of Rock music, but Jazz was turning into something of a chameleonic panther – hunting in stark, steaming forests slivered with stars and explosions of light. As per usual, it was Miles who'd taken the brazen first steps into electric instrumentation (a big taboo at the time). After that, the floodgates cracked open. Leading the Fusion campaigns were rhythmic polymath Tony Williams' Lifetime, John McLaughlin's solar flare Mahavishnu Orchestra, Chick Corea's Return to Forever and Hancock's uberfunky Headhunters. The latter was the only one to eschew the electric guitar; that then seemingly crucial part of the electric equation.

Golden flights By the late Sixties Herbie Hancock was already a legend in the Jazz world. At the age of 23 Hancock had joined Miles Davis’ new band, which history would

dub Davis’ Second Great Quintet. Davis was looking to freshen up his sound again, and in 1963 launched said new band featuring young up-and-comers Ron Carter on bass (who some of y’all might’ve caught at the Cape Town International Jazz Fest some months ago), 17-yr old Tony Williams on drums, and Hancock on keys. This rhythm section went on to reach unheard-of sophistication and originality, helping shape the Post-Bop movement. During his period in the quintet Hancock also released solo albums Empyrean Islands and Maiden Voyage, two of the most popular Jazz albums of that decade. Fired from the quintet in ‘68, “for returning late from his honeymoon” (a rather unsympathetic ground for dismissal, although typical of the sometimes icy Davis), Hancock started focusing on his own music, which would increasingly incorporate mainstream elements into his otherwise challenging compositions. Following the peak of his experimental thrust, with the three commercially disappointing Mwandishi albums, Hancock decided to ground his then-stratospheric explorations, rooting them in the earthy foundation of Funk. It was a brilliant move. The result, in 1973, was Headhunters, a hip-swanging, fingersnapping Jazz Funk outing, which crossed over into the mainstream Billboard charts. This was followed by Thrust, which, across its four monstrously tight yet galaxy-traversing epics, seemed to perfectly meld the alchemic reaches of Jazz sophistry and the dizzying musks of Funk.

Like Darth Vader The best of Funk has a lot in common with the best of Cheese (well, for those brave of palate; the others can stick to Fourplay and cheddar) – they contain layers of intrigue, and something almost a little bit off. It’s got Whiff. If Headhunters was embraced by the hip mainstream for its melodic, even rhythmic accessibility, Thrust ventured deeper into the vines and stars. In the CD-reissue’s liner notes, drummer Mike Clark (who created that impossibly groove-infested drumbeat for album opener Palm Grease, and burns throughout) recalls being invited to join one of Fusion’s most exciting and rhythmically daunting groups, and waxes appropriately lyrical. He speaks of ‘the zone’ and meditation, of telepathy with bassist Paul Jackson Jr. He speaks of ‘higher levels’, and at one point describes Hancock striding into rehearsal with a long black overcoat, looking “like Darth Vader”, before swishing down to sit behind the keyboards and letting ‘em rip. The four tracks on Thrust are blistering sonic events. Even the relative ballad, the gorgeous dream Butterfly, crackles with energy. As beautiful and cool as the melodies weaving from Hancock’s hands and flautist Bennie Maupin’s mouth are, it is the rhythms (interclasped/ sidestepping/ inventing beats like some kind of flexible, temporal Rubick’s cube) that both root the album and let it flourish into Space. Highest level stuff.

Eruption | METAL – THE GREAT UNIFIER: ORIENTAL METAL

| words: Paul Blom

METAL - The Great Unifier:

Oriental Metal

ith our inaugural Eruption column kicking off on a local front, heading out to another less likely part of the world from where Metal is making itself heard seemed apt - The Middle East. Plagued by religious strife and violently conservative oppression, a powerful musical medium like Metal seems unlikely to survive. Metal from main Western regions get the exposure. We feel it is important to divert and investigate amazing new avenues you may never have encountered. While extremely proud of local bands, South African Metal lacks a distinct identity and flavour foreigners can instantly pinpoint. Local Metal bands rarely experiment with indigenous instrumentation or sounds. Issues and themes prevalent in the social and political domain do get addressed, but mostly in only two of our local languages, leaving another 9 to spare. Oriental Metal however embraces these cultural identities within their music. Not all go that route, but many make it an effortless part of their music, fusing it with whichever Metal genre derivative they express. In the '80s when the Metal boom exploded, homemade fanzines and tape swapping via snail-mail was the way to access new Metal, Punk and Hardcore music. The genre was still firmly underground and compilations were a great way to give people a broad taste of new and rare bands. Locally it has been done for decades, from Sound Action’s cassette compilations and the first local Metal compilation on CD, The Death Of Africa…?, to Witchdoctor Records’ New Breed series, and my

own Kopskoot! (An historic anthology focusing on various heavy genres with Afrikaans vocals – more info at www.flamedrop.com/kopskoot ). Orphaned Land vocalist Kobi Farhi recently assembled a compilation zoning in on Metal from the Middle East, Oriental and North African areas, aptly titled Oriental Metal. It encapsulates a range of bands adding that extra bit of spice, incorporating the exotic sounds (and indigenous languages) of their regions, from Israel and Egypt, to Turkey and Algeria (see review on CD page). We connected with Florent Jannier of Arkan (a Death Metal quintet with male and female vocals), and chatted about their music and the Oriental Metal movement. The global brotherhood of Metal is an undeniable one. Here, under the unifying banner of Metal, Jewish and Muslim strife seems to blur into insignificance. “Concerning the Oriental aspect of our music, I think it transcends ethnicity,” Florent remarks. “We regularly receive messages of support from all around the world – Europe, USA, Syria and even Siam!” The bands are networked and Florent feels there is definitely a brotherhood between bands in the Oriental Metal scene. “Like Orphaned Land and Melechesh, the Oriental musical roots of Arkan is our main source of inspiration. The Eastern side of our music is highlighted, and we have solidarity with Orphaned Land and Melechesh as pioneers.” Oriental Metal bands feature their distinct ethnically based percussion, string- & wind instruments, and haunting vocal melodies, fused with the power and speed of ass-kicking Metal. The bands manage to integrate these two distinct but vastly different genres into an exotic new fusion. “At first glance we could think that it's difficult to reconcile Death Metal and Oriental Music, but when you

investigate the matter more closely,” Florent analyzes, “you realize that these two styles can be bent. Firstly, the Phrygian mode [music scale] suits the dynamics of Metal very well. Moreover, Chaabi and Charqui, our two main Oriental influences, are melancholic music. They combine well with Metal’s dark moods.” Naturally Oriental Metal misconceptions are rife - with the ignorant ostracizing those who perform and consume it. Florent feels it is deeper seated, “I think the misconception is related to the bad image projected on Metal, more than the image of Oriental Metal within this sphere. We're based in France – here and in other Latin countries it is often viewed in a bad light. It is underrepresented. Important media only talks about Metal to portray it negatively. Hellfest, one of Europe’s biggest Metal festivals, has no mainstream media promotion. Internet is the main media promoting Metal. Some extremists intent on banning Hellfest forget that all music is art. They say that all Metal fans spread Satanic ideology, which is obviously nonsense. Our Tour Against Racism with Orphaned Land and Suidakra, gathered an Israeli, German and French band (with members of North African origin) in order to play together on the same stage. It's proof of tolerance. Metal has recognized us all, and is open to other cultures and visions”. With us here at the bottom tip of Africa becoming aware of Oriental Metal bands at the other end of the continent, I'd like to think that at this moment kids in Baghdad, Jerusalem, Dubai or Istanbul are getting their minds blown by a band from Johannesburg or Cape Town... You can read an extended, uncut version of this interview at www.museonline.co.za

AFTERSHOCKS: 28 July: www.metal4africa.com will host WINTERFEST '12! (from 4 pm, Klein Libertas, Stellenbosch). Bands include: Beeledenstorm, The Impalement Theory, Sindulgence, Zombies Ate My Girlfriend, Strident, Mind Assault, and visiting from Gauteng, Bloodbeast and Axxon, with food & merch stalls, DJ's, and dark burlesque performances by BOBs Beasties. R 60 entry. Event bus seats: R 100 p/p (booking essential). Gauteng-based Blackened Thrash Metal band WARTHANE is eyeing whiter pastures, relocating to Sweden. After touring Germany and Switzerland in 2009, the band decided the time was right to make the move to Europe. “When Nazar got killed in a car crash in 2010,” explains mastermind Sean Gouws, “planning slowed down, as I was not only dealing with the loss of a brilliant lead guitarist, but also the loss

of my best friend.” May 13th Gouws left for Europe. “At this stage I am the only one that's going to Europe with the band name. We've had a great time in South Africa and had fantastic support from the local Metal community, which we will never forget”. Find Warthane on Faceboook BLACK SABBATH fans around the world emitted a unified cry of “F*ck yeah!” (which I’m sure I heard), after announcing the original line-up’s reforming to record and tour. But, problems always lurk on the horizon. Besides guitarist Tony Iommi’s lymphoma diagnosis, drummer Bill Ward has contractual issues. (At the time of publication it seemed that currently only the Download Festival in June is set for a Black Sabbath reunion performance, Vinny Appice rumoured to fill in if Bill refuses). Stay up to date at www.BlackSabbath.com and www.BillWard.com

Alexander Paul Blake (from EDEN WEINT IM GRAB) released his first solo album Die Rückkehr ins Goldene Zeitalter on German label Einheit Produktionen. With nature mystic Black Metal & folklore elements, it will appeal to fans of Agalloch, early Ulver, and Emyprium. Find a free download of Waldkathedrale at www.alexanderpaulblake.de for a taste. Can you believe Metallica’s hit the-30 year mark?! It seems like a few years back that I discovered them in the ‘80s, snatching up vinyl copies of Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets (Elektra sending me a free copy of Garage Days Re-Revisited after a fan letter). Few of us could attend the San Francisco Fillmore celebration show but there is a special publication celebrating their first 3 decades – interviews, pictures, plus a 7” single with recordings from the night. To order this milestone: www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/met allica

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@flamedrop.com

ERUPTION ALBUM REVIEWS | Reviewed by Paul Blom

ERUPTION Album Reviews ORIENTAL METAL Various Artists This very enticing collection of Oriental Metal bands encapsulates a great spread across this genre, featuring groups from countries like Israel, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Egypt. As one of the prominent bands in the genre, Orphaned Land (the project put together by the band’s vocalist) opens the disc with a melody-rich Metal approach, featuring great female backing vocals (and Hebrew lyrics). Turkish act Pentagram has been around since the 80s (known as Mezarkabul outside of their country to avoid confusion with the Doom band of the same name). Almana Shchora offers up a slower melancholic track, with Nervecell delivering a more traditional Metal-style instrumental. Arkan contributes one of the more impressive songs, layered with diversity and style. Amaseffer’s track emits a powerful cinematic tone, while Melechesh burst forth with one of the more paced Black Metal flavoured songs. While Nile is an intense American band, their dedicated ancient Egyptian/Mysticism subjects earned them a spot on the compilation. What is very cool about these bands is the fact that it has that Western Metal sound (with equally good performances & production), but with that added Oriental touch and traditional instruments, be it throughout the entire song, just as an intro, a riff in the chorus, a percussive passage or a recurring vocal melody.

DEMON HUNTER True Defiance For someone with a short attention span, the opening track trick of the first 15 seconds or so may have them remove the disc due to the crappy rehearsal room demo sound – but the band erupts with a forceful intent and burst of well produced energy. The fact that Demon Hunter is a Christian band is irrelevant, as they play quality Metal (on a par and better than some who may claim to be a band of Satanic extraction). The obvious “preachy” expectations will be in the back of many listeners’ heads, but that is not an issue at all, as the performance and catchy nature of their brand of extreme music ticks all the boxes,

delivering head-banging grooves, moshing speed and shearing vocals (with the occasional clean voice). And maybe they'll convert a few along the way.

MARILYN MANSON Born Villain You can’t keep a good villain down. With the last two Manson albums not succeeding to fully engross me, it feels here as if some of the punch is back in the swing. The alternative nature of Marilyn Manson sometimes threatens to pull back just a little too much, especially in the more minimalist approach of the instrumentation, with far less synths / programming (this minimalism also reflected in the sleeve design). Long time collaborator Twiggy is onboard with a hand in the music of almost every song, but the place where one knows you’re unmistakably dealing with MM is his vocals and lyrical approach. A couple of tracks let loose, but for the most part the mid-tempo groove sometimes lacks the energy some listeners are dying for. The bonus cover song of Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain was co-produced by Jonny Depp (who also contributes drums and guitar).

TRIPTYKON Eparistera Daimones Painting with a range of dark shades, Triptykon is the new project of Tom Warrior, pioneering frontman of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. By his own admission this debut is a continuation of what Celtic Frost’s next album would have been (had they not disbanded). If for some inexplicable reason someone may not have realized the direction of this band from the intensely brilliant and iconic H.R. Geiger cover artwork, don’t expect these songs to follow the radio friendly structure. Each song develops its own momentum at its own pace (some running up to 7 minutes). Slow doom-laden tracks draw morose power from each chord, while others firmly whack you across the jaw with a pounding Metal pace, thematically always gazing into the abyss. Cold Lake this certainly is not(!)

KORN The Path Of Totality To some people Dubstep sounds like a stuck CD player, to others it’s the new audio revolution. In many ways it is a new label / fad for music sellers to latch onto, and contains elements far from unfamiliar, with acts like Aphex Twin and even locals like the Real Estate Agents implementing these jagged electronic techniques. Here Korn takes an experimental Dubstep leap. Collaborators include Skrillex, Noisia, Excision, Downlink, 12thPlanet, Kill The Noise and combos of some. It sounds like a remix album! (which is hardly a bad thing). Some Korn fans may fear that this is a permanent transition, but the Korn identity is very much intact, especially with the riff style and Jonathan Davis vocals. The special edition includes a DVD of Korn's amazing solo performance in the middle of a specially created crop circle (plus interviews). No audience, just them playing a selection of their best songs, with free-flow jamming sessions in between (inspired by Pink Floyds Live At Pompeii).

MOTÖRHEAD The Wörld Is Yours As soon as Lemmy’s time-tested gravel voice drawls in, you know you’re dealing with Rock Monsters Motörhead. Over 35 years later and the beast still breathes. The Wörld Is Yours is the band’s 20th album, and while it doesn’t have iconic cuts like Ace Of Spades, Orgasmatron, Eat The Rich or Killed By Death jumping out at you, the power-trio pummels you with 10 no-nonsense songs as only they can. The Motörhead sound is as intact as the Snaggletooth mascot emblem emblazoned on the cover. One could debate whether the band should be classified as Metal or Hard Rock, but that is irrelevant, because it’s f*cking Motörhead! If they must be deemed the latter, then they are by far the most consistent, roughest and meanest Hard Rock band there is.

ALBUM REVIEWS | 1 = WEAK | 2 = OKAY | 3 = PRETTY COOL |

4 = ROCKING | 5 = DEMI-GOD!

DM - Dave Mac | MD - Mickdotcom | JS - Johann M Smith | SP - Sergio Pereira | ED - Eliza Day

Album Reviews SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS – APOCALYPTIC LOVE

pocalyptic Love might be billed as Slash’s second solo album, but it’s certainly more of a 50/50 writing collaboration between Myles Kennedy and Slash than anything else. A dash different than Slash’s 2010 self-titled effort, Apocalyptic Love is down-to-the-core, balls-to-the-wall, raw rock ‘n’ roll. In fact – and Axl Rose would probably detest me more than timekeeping for saying this – it’s

VANA & THE OH SO SERIOUS FOLK COLLECTIVE VANA & THE OH SO SERIOUS @ TWEEFONTEIN MELKERY I SO want to be at Vana & co's next gig. I imagine friendly hillocks; gentle and mysterious peeps passing merriment 'round a fluffy, boisterous campfire. I imagine yodeling and chuckles and strums and howls beneath a fat, full moon. I only bumped into Vana and the Oh So Serious Folk Collective's delightful whittling recently. Three days ago, actually. I was grinningly seduced within the space of the first tune. At last! Our very own Appalachian Folk band! Vana & co's particular brand of mysteriously displaced American Barn yarns will have all the dogs, hounds and mutts in your ‘hood howling along in hysterical bereavement. Hell, they'll bring out the Full Moon each time you hit play, irrespective of the time of day. A true-as-Bob collective, Vana & co. comprise eight musos frolicking and flirting and tongue-in-cheeking with Appalachian blues and jigs and wonderment. The only reason I can fathom why Vana and co. have not yet become, well, known, is because we are dumb. That and the fact that I imagine them turning down corporate gigs and Record Label-required promo events, preferring to invite some friendly folk to join them for a moonlit, collective improvisation. Ps: This live honker be their second album. My recommendation is buy both, or you’ll be all peg-legged. | MD

much closer to classic Guns N’ Roses material than what GNR v.2.1 put out on Chinese Democracy. Prepare for combat, as Slash sets the battleground ablaze with his six-string-gun, while Kennedy leads the war cry and puts anyone who has ever attempted singing to shame (you might not have the all-star guest vocal selection of Slash’s previous album, but when you have Kennedy behind the mic, do you even care?). From the Gary Moore-inspired guitar virtuosity and spine-tingling chorus of Anastasia, to the song that’ll get the girls stripping, You’re a Lie, to the sound of Slash’s guitar gently weeping on No More Heroes, Apocalyptic Love is a marvelous throwback to the days when the beers were cheap, boots were dirty, hair was long, and rock was dangerous. Better put on a helmet, because this album is going to blow your mind!| SP

ALABAMA SHAKES BOYS & GIRLS Alabama Shakes brazens a certain brand of classic dissidence that is being spat out as a bi-product of the mechanically cold fashion that is contemporary music. It is a warm, wholesome and hearty helping of soulful rock ‘n roll. No wonder, after their debut album, Boys and Girls, was released, that Alabama Shakes were snapped up by Jack White, the all-prevailing protector of roots-music. Brittany Howard, the vocalist both crashes and croons through this album with the voracious hunger of Janis Joplin and Brittany’s own personal soul. You can hear her determination in the passion of her vibrant, harshed-out lyrics that could have come as easy as honey on a summer’s day. It’s that effortless magic that seems to seep out of the Deep South where the whole band grew up soaked in sloe-gin and rock ‘n roll. You Ain’t Alone is all you need of a chilly winter’s night - just roll back those eyes, take a slug of whatever and feel the fire of those friendly blues. My personal favourite on Boys and Girls has to be the eerie Going to the Party that sends out a jaunty warning about the temptations of liquor and lust. Brittany chants playfully through a simple melody picked out over an education of Odetta and Elizabeth Cotton. | ED

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN WRECKING BALL Wrecking Ball, Springsteen’s latest, is heavy with history, both with that of modern America – its false dreams and toxic mirages, its self-deceit – and that of Springsteen himself. Vaunted with ambition and passion, Wrecking Ball is perhaps the most dramatic album of Springsteen’s last decade; but, for all its stoic pomp, it doesn’t reach the mountaintops it clearly set out to. What it does succeed in, consciously or not, is to evoke Springsteen’s history as a politically concerned musician: The shimmer of such Springsteen classics as the desolate, affecting Nebraska hover just behind the tracks collected here. What Springsteen did, at his best, was to become a kind of gifted, humanitarian blue-collar citizen, a preacher from the pulpits, a guy you could trust in his sentiments, convictions and concerns. On the album’s best tracks, the title track and Land of Hope and Dreams (both, aptly, recorded last year and featuring saxophonist Clarence Clemons on top form) Springsteen is aflame, his glory years re-manifest. Sadly, much of the album falls short, doesn’t match the intensity of his message; but that is a minor quibble on an album that reminds us why Springsteen is as revered as he is. | MD

MORE REVIEWS ONLINE: ! ! ! ! ! !

All Mankind - Simple Desire Fields of Nephilim – Ceremonies White Rabbits - Milk Famous Liars - XvXV1 Ed Sheeran Gorillaz – The Singles Collection 2001-2011

35 NIBS/BUTTERY IN THE SHADE OF THE WILD FIG Dedicated to Syd Kitchen, this, Nibs' and Guy's first collaborative album, has arrived, like wizards do, "exactly when its meant to". The years of whispered rumour about That album, and years of live and recorded collaborations on each other's work, has seen In the Shade of The Wild Fig grow to fruition in Nibs and Guy's collective subconscious. When the day came to record, it was fully formed. Recorded in two days, mostly in real time, the songs on 'In the shade..' have a touch of immediacy to them, and a scent of Life. Years of intimacy with one another's music, and of sharing the electric glint of live performance onstage, has resulted in an almost telepathic sensitivity to each other's musicality. From the warm, metallic plucks of mbira opening the album, through to its last sigh, In the Shade of The Wild Fig entrances. Both Nibs and Guy have surpassed the stages of self-conscious, competitive musicianship, are so at ease in their facility with their instruments that their focus shifts to detail - notes are not plucked, chords not strummed so much as carefully sculpted; notes bear hues, chords are flecked with shade, dappled with sunlight. Highlights abound, such as Buttery's elegantly shimmering sitar on their inspired, acoustic reimagining of AC/DC's Up To My Neck, Nibs' almost plaintive voice guiding the song's new emotions, but the highlights are so manifold as to sparkle throughout the album. A must-have. | MD

VANFOKKINGTASTIES Essentially this is a ‘Best of Album’ with acoustically reworked favourites and a few extra added hits – so there’s not much to say you don’t already know. But as with any Afrikaans gathering, the love in brotherhood is present and felt more so in this 12-track offering. The intimacy justifies purchase. Fortunately for you rock-purists, Die Heuwels Fantasties ditched their sugary synths for the party in favour of the overall sound – their three tracks suggestive of Lukraaketaar rather than Postal Service. And we are reminded aKing are more than the sum of their parts when stripped down and not polished and sprinkled with Casio keyboard bleeps. The highlight is the delightful discovery of a new Fokof song, Dag Dronk – nostalgic of their humble beginnings as New World Inside. And Van Coke Kartel’s efforts harks back acoustic memories from their third album – Francois raspy voice eternally indebted to Peter Stuyvesant. No doubt, a collector’s item and an envy of Die Voelvry Kommisie who despite laying out a business

model for VKKT, sadly could never accomplish the same success. Question is: Is this the beginning of the end? Perhaps only for now… yes? | JS

OBERHOFER TIME CAPSULE II 20-yr old Brad Oberhofer is, based on this debut, and, well, his surname, a name to remember. Barely into the world of grownup-ness, Oberhofer already has a confident musical identity. Robust production means that what could have been a musically sparse album is chock full of sound, no air molecule is left unmoved. This slab of sounds approach distracts enjoyably from the fact that the songs, at their heart, are pretty much variations on album opener HEART, both in subject matter and style. It's pleasant, and, as suggested in the first line, Oberhofer sounds as if he might develop into an interesting artist. As is most often the case with Literary debuts - the muchmaligned debut novel - Time Capsule II is melodramatically self-centred, and blindly self-conscious. It gets a bit much to hear over and over, from this angle then that, Oberhofer's analysis and desperate crossinspections of the memories and residual traces of what sounds to be his first major heartbreak. Chin up, guy, a world awaits. | MD

MIIKE SNOW HAPPY TO YOU This Swedish indiepop trio paints a sonically sweet, space-cassette with their latest album, Happy to You. They have the extensive production and sugary-refined flavours of 90’s inspired pop a la Kylie and Britney. To my mind they are the court band to a denim-clad metropolis ruled by bleachblonde princesses. They have the credentials behind them too, having written for the previously mentioned poppets on tracks like Toxic. So when Andrew Wyatt simpers about holding back beauty queens in God Help This Divorce, it’s the real McCoy. This album reminded me instantly of Mercury Rev and TV On The Radio with their epic production, orchestral gatherings and horn sections combined with electronica. They have a similar dreamy, surreal quality with each layer of sound veiling the other beneath Wyatt’s voice drizzled on top of everything like cherry schnapps. The lyrics are the strongest element of an overall, great pop album. My favourite, stand-alone song has to be Bavarian #1 (Say You Will). Marching drums, penny whistles and haunted fairy tales. There is a certain charm about the vapid, vacancy that this album pulls together. Rather than a work of all-out excellence (and this band genuinely does hit

the nail on most heads), this is a qualified concept album, a.k.a ‘Dead-head Disney Princesses, 18 And Over’. | ED

CIVIL TWILIGHT HOLY WEATHER Civil Twilight seem intent on becoming the next U2, continuously paying homage to the Irish rockers’ earlier material (think 1987’s The Joshua Tree). The fact they’re even being compared to the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers is a huge compliment, but you have to ask yourself where U2 ends and Civil Twilight actually begins. Fortunately, Holy Weather tones down the U2 influence considerably, ups the diversity levels, and shows that the Cape Town-born rockers are duly adroit at penning characteristic material. Take the songs, Highway of Fallen Kings, Sweet Resistance and Please Find Me, as perfect examples: these 3 tracks are easily the best offerings from the album, and don’t stench of U2 off-cuts. For the first time, Civil Twilight sound like they aren’t suffering from an identity crisis, or borrowing melodies from influences. Make no mistake: Holy Weather is far from career-defining, but it shows that the band has taken an artistic leap, instead of just musically dressing up like their idols. However, it must be said, the first single from their self-titled album, Letters from the Sky, wipes the floor with the first “hit” (Fire Escape) from this effort. Bar that blip, Holy Weather beats the previous record in every other way. | SP

THE BLACK KEYS EL CAMINO The Black Keys, those two white okes hailing from Ohio, U esS Ay, have got it Down. El Camino sizzles with riff and intent. Comparisons between them and that other rockin' duo, The White Stripes, were inevitable when the tongue-in-cheekishly named The Black Keys announced themselves. Comparisons can now safely be laid to rest - Following on their sudden popularity with previous, and secretly sixth [!!!?] album Brothers, The Black Keys now operate in their own musical sphere thank you very much. El Camino not only extends this assertion, but evolves it. The stripping down from so-called 'full' rock band to The Black Keys' stompful pair is not only successful, but instructive: El Camino ploughs along at break-neck ferocity, and on occasion pauses to take in moon-flung clouds; only to plough - indeed, POW - back in again. Basically, El Camino rocks the cash out the Casbah. By now The Black Keys know they own it, and it tells. Premium 21st Century Rawk. | MD

GAME REVIEWS | Reviewed by Paul Blom

GAME Reviews Nintendo Wii:

PANDORA'S TOWER In this war torn mystical fantasy world set in the land of Imperia (and the Wastelands of Okanos), a young girl (Elena) is cursed after she is chosen to sing at the harvest festival (which is slowly turning her into a monster). Together with her beloved Aeron, the old mystic Mavda takes them to an enormous metal structure suspended by gigantic chains in the middle of a scar in the earth (preventing the hole from further ripping the land apart). In these towers Aeron has to find various beasts and collect their flesh with a special chain (known as Oraclos). Taking this pretty gruesome prospect further, these chunks have to be brought back to Elena, and she has to eat this foul flesh to keep the curse at bay and prevent a total hideous transformation (but coming from a vegan race, this proves difficult). You have to explore these deserted towers, break chests and collect coins, potions and magical items. I feared a turn-based fighting technique when accosting the variety of beasts, but thankfully you engage in sword attacks with a special move to strip the flesh from the beasts with your chain. With the Nunchuck control attachment, all the buttons get utilized for good mobility and instant actions (including a zoom function wherever you point your Wii remote). If you grab the Limited Edition set, you'll get a hardcover art book as well as a lovely metal case to house your disc. This exclusive Wii title is reminiscent of Final Fantasy in many ways, and may appeal to fans of that series. 3.5/5

PS3 & X Box 360

SILENT HILL Downpour The intensely atmospheric Silent Hill series hits its 8th chapter (a ride of which I've been a part since its debut on the PSone). After a

prisoner transfer bus crashes, an unwitting inmate (Murphy Pendleton, with an in-depth back story) finds his way to the notorious town with dark and deadly secrets, where reality is not what it seems. You're met with foggy, deserted streets and buildings, strange characters, and a horde of vicious and creepy creatures(which is also enhanced for 3D TVs). Amid the survival horror staple of exploring your environment and collecting essential items (including weapons) to ensure your progress, the cinematic tone adds that extra touch to pull you into this scary world. The 18 age restriction is there for a reason, as some scenes (in which you will sometimes uncomfortably participate) are very graphic and realistic. So please be warned. While not related to another engrossing game Heavy Rain, (besides adding to the atmosphere) the significance of the Downpour title relates to the fact that the creatures tend to emerge in the rain(!) The main theme song is performed by Korn. 3.5/5

Nintendo 3DS

SUPER MARIO 3D LAND The current platform fix of your favourite Italian plumber is a 3D experience on the Nintendo DS that packs in all the Super Mario elements you want, with added depth. The traditional side-scrolling platform feel is transposed into a more open world area, but your objectives remain intact - collect coins, hidden star medals, avoid or thump enemies and reach the goal pole. You get to use stored items by touching them on the screen, and besides the regular Mario jumping moves, you can dash, roll, slide down walls, perform a side somersault, and collect special functions like hurling a fireball, and (while wearing a raccoon suit) perform a tail attack and slow fall. And yep, the Super Mushrooms are present. You also get to unlock Luigi as a playable character. While the story is not really of significance in relation to the fun game play, this time a storm blows magic leaves from Princess Peach's tree - and, you guessed it Bowser kidnaps her(!), with Mario rushing to the rescue.

For more gaming reviews, Check out www.flamedrop.com The Super Mario following has not diminished in the least, as this is the fastest selling 3DS title to date. 4/5

PS VITA System Review Always leading the way with home entertainment systems, the Sony PlayStation has come a long way from the mid-'90s with its various incarnations of the PSone, through the PS2, the current PS3 and of course the PSP portable gaming system. The PS Vita is the next step in the evolution of the PSP. With many enhancements from two cameras (front & rear), and a left and right joystick, to the main and rear touch screen, most of the goodies lie inside. The UMD disc system has been replaced by a more compact memory card (unfortunately limiting the favourite PSP games in your collection to that console, unless they've received digital releases). On-line connectivity and social networking is enhanced, with access via BlueTooth, Wi-Fi and 3G. Browse on-line, connect with your PlayStation Network friends (and make new ones), send group messages, chat, play network games (which includes live chat during gameplay). Music, photos and videos can be copied to and from your PS3, and you can even access maps. With Content Manager you can manage all music, video, gaming and other application content, connecting to your PS3, PC or Mac, and back-up your files. This compact piece of tech is a mobile gamer's dream, and I'm interested to see what wild range of apps will be developed in the near future. Some of the introductory games include veteran PlayStation anti-gravity racing game WipEout; the fun cartoon-style Little Deviants (which utilizes the rear touch screen, allowing you to warp the landscape on screen as if you're pushing through from the back); full impact fighting with Reality Fighters (which can be played in Augmented Reality with fights happening in your immediate surroundings); Everybody's Golf; and the more adult Indiana Jones-style adventure of Uncharted - Golden Abyss. 5/5

NATIONAL GIG GUIDE

Wed 6 Jun | Make A Choice Tour | E.Cape @ Slipstream Sports Bar, Grahamstown | Live: Truth And Its Burden‘s CD release tour | www.truthanditsburden.com

Thurs 7 Jun | Make A Choice Tour | P.E @ Jesters | Live: Truth And Its Burden‘s CD release tour | www.truthanditsburden.com

Fri 8 Jun | Make A Choice Tour | CPT @ ROAR | Live: Truth And Its Burden‘s CD release tour | www.truthanditsburden.com

Café Barcelona: www.cafebarcelona.co.za

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