LISTEN TO MY COLOUR & LOOK AT MY SOUND SOUTH AFRICA’S POP CULTURE QUARTERLY - ISSUE 24 SA R48.50 / UK £3.99 / US $7.99 / CA $7.99 / AUS $7.50 printed in south africa
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SKINNY
KINGJAMES 22491
THE UNIFORM OF PROGRESS
issue 24 founder / editor-in-chief
editor
designer
giuseppe russo
sarah claire picton
Giuseppe russo
Deputy editor
assistant copy editor
advertising & sales
gustav swart
lulu larchĒ
michael littlefield
interns
guest illustrator
Angelique Redmond, Janelle Lubbe, Loyiso Mzamane,
Lynn Vullings, Miquel Steps, Saskia van Diermen
south african distribution
distribution assistant (durban)
ezweni magazine distribution
rachel basckin
mark venter
cover ’Madonna’© silk screen on paper with spray paint. Artist: Mr Brainwash | mrbrainwash.com editorial contributors Angelique Redmond, Bonnie-Clare Simpson, Cameron Duncan, Claudi van Niekerk, David Ward, Gustav Swart, Heidi van Eeden, Jean Rene Onyangunga, Kezia Swanepoel, Lulu Larché, Mark Venter, Paul White, Ryan Eyden, Sarah Claire Picton, Saskia Van Diermen, Sisi Lwandle, Tamara Arden photographers Editors'picture: Loucas Polydouro, Content: Chad Griffith, Gregory Chris, Guenter Schneider Jeffrey Gray Brandsted, Kristopher McKay Manfred Werner, Megan Eloff, Patrick John O'Doherty, PJ Eales, Renee Frouws , 187pictures.com special thanks Andries Loot @ 34FineArt , Craig Bamford, Duncan Shelwell @ Sony Music ZA, Gregory Chris, Hannah Ainsworth and Charlotte Sluter @ Idea Generation Gallery, Jimmy Strats, Laurent Nahoum-Vatinet, Loucas Polydouro, Mark Venter, Miquel Steps and Loyiso Mzamane @ one small seed productions, Jean Pieters, Nick Herbert @ Shelflife Store, Pietro Russo, Rikus Ferreira, Robyn McMillan, Ryan Eyden, Sara Chen, Pierre Rugiano, Monique Pascall, Danielle de Raedt editorial address: 22 lawley street, woodstock, cape town, 7925, south africa tel: +27 (0) 21 4477 096 / fax: +27 (0) 86 545 0371/ web: onesmallseed.com email: contact@onesmallseed.com advertising sales mike@onesmallseed.com subscription / back issue enquiries sarahclaire@onesmallseed.com | onesmallseed.com editor-in-chief giu@onesmallseed.com
The small print: No responsibility can be taken for the quality and accuracy of the reproductions, as this is dependent on the quality of the material supplied. No responsibility can be taken for typographical errors. The publishers reserve the right to refuse and edit material. All prices and specifications are subject to change without notice. The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. No responsibility will be taken for any decision made by the reader as a result of such opinions. Copyright one small seed South Africa. All rights reserved. Both the name ‘one small seed’ and are copyright protected. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written consent from the publisher. one small seed does not accept responsibility for unsolicited material. This is a quarterly publication. ISSN 977 181 6896 033.
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editor's letter
‘SEND LAWYERS, GUNS AND MONEY... THE SHIT HAS HIT THE FAN.’ – WARREN ZEVON
Apparently mothers do not remember the pain of labour as the mind mercifully shields them from the screaming horror that is the miracle of birth. This is good - or no woman would have a second child. This is only my second issue as editor of one small seed and the rush hasn’t worn off. Neither has the screaming horror. Fortunately, issue 23 ‘The Cult of Self’ was well received and the fun and relief of surviving my first ride soon made me forget how frightening and difficult the process was. I assumed everything would get easier and less fraught with terror... and forgot how much blood was splattered on the walls by the time we cut the cord. This is good - or I wouldn’t be writing this editorial. Right now I’m wearing the smug grin of a new parent gazing down at their newborn. I might even be glowing, or maybe that’s the Red Bull. This issue’s theme of ‘Listen to my Colour and Look at my Sound’ led us to some odd doors as we sought artists that bridged the divide between the visual and the aural. This meant interviews with legendary album artists Storm Thorgerson and Dan Kuhlken. My obsession with Hunter S. Thompson was fed by the quirkiness of his illustrator and partner-in-grime Ralph Steadman, and Horace Panter explains how the bassist for The Specials became a painter. We also feature Kunihiko Morinaga’s pixel fashion and Mari Sarai’s unlewd nudes. We have a feast for the ears in the form of interviews with Kenya’s globeconquering Just a Band and the revolutionary American poet Abiodun Oyewole. Of course we’d never neglect our local South African music scene and are proud to present Sannie Fox, Digital Rockit and iScreamStix. Olmeca Tequila Black joins us in showcasing electronic DJs/Producers and we bring Blush n Bass and Felix Laband to the party. We watched architecture dance slowly to visible music, and frikkin’ sharks with frikkin’ laser beams attached to their frikkin’ heads. Things get cerebral fast when we examine Synthesthesia – the condition that lets people see sound as colour – and trace its path through the methods and madness of some of the brightest stars in the human firmament. Our cover is devoted to one of Mr Brainwash’s tongue-in-cheek creations, and we were delighted to chat to him about money, art and Andy Warhol. The Emperor may or not be mooning the world, but you have to admire his chutzpah. And possibly his tookus. This was a challenging but exhilarating issue... the operation seems to have been a success. We can start mopping up the viscera and cooing at our creation. I can barely remember why I found it so harrowing. This is good- it means I’ll be back. And I finally learnt what John Milton meant when he said, ‘Long is the way, and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.’
Giuseppe Russo founder / editor-in-chief
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Sarah-Claire Picton editor
Next time I’m asking for an epidural.
Sarah Claire Picton -editor
+27 11 911 1200
RADO CERAMICA / WWW.RADO.COM
contents
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24 / American Civil Rights Icon
40/ Cross-sensory Exploration
50 / Gonzo illustrator
Abiodun Oyewole: Grand, High Wizard
Neuromagic: The Harmony of Synesthesia
Founder member of The Last Poets talks about verse, Gil Scott-Heron and robbing the KKK
We dive into the magical world inhabited by synesthetes: individuals who see, hear, feel, smell and even taste colour
Ralph Steadman: Another Freak in the Freak Kingdom We can’t stop here. It’s bat country
28 / Aural architecture
44 / Troubadour’s Poster Boy
54 / Defiant Photographer
Echo Chamber: The Sound of Space
Dan Kuhlken: Dreaming of Electric Sheep
Mari Sarai’s Girls on Film
Our investigation of sound and concrete spans the globe and classic art movies. First we took Manhattan, then we took Berlin
The National, The Black Keys, Red Hot Chilli Peppers... just some of the bands that LA-based design team DKNG have worked for
34 / Controversial Pop Artist
48 / Genre-busting rocker
Mr Brainwash: Laughing all the Way to the Banksy
Sannie Fox: Rage with the Machine
We got a call from the man who calls himself ‘Banksy’s biggest piece of art'
This star of stage and screen proves that you don’t have to be a fatbottomed girl to make the rocking world go round
Black-and-white nudes that stare right back and you and challenge the Gaze
62 / Classic Album Art
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Storm Thorgerson: Dark Side of the Tunes We get under the covers with the man who designed for bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Muse and machineri.
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65 / Jozi Beats
Digital Rockit: The Neon Gods they Made Local veterans of the electronic scene look forward and back
74 / Musical contrasts
eleKTRONIK Dialogues A new department brought to you in conjunction with Olmeca Ediciõn Black Tequila dedicated to showcasing the best and brightest
departments 8 / EDITOR’S LETTER 12 / IN STORE 16 / BOOK REVIEWS 18 / SELECTED CREATIVES
82 / ska rocker and painter 68 / Cape Town-based breakout band
iScreamStix: It ain’t Sorbet A big scoop of local talent
Horace Panter: If Music is your Special Thing The bass player of The Specials went from fame to obscurity and back again
34 / SUBSCRIPTION 62 / FILM REVIEWS 80 / MUSIC REVIEWS 88 / NOW SHOWING 94 / DIRECTORY 96/ THE LAST WORD
70 / Kenyan Globetrotters
86 / Avant-garde Fashion
Just an Interview with Just a Band
Kunihiko Morinaga: Pretty in Pixels
Meet the voice of East Africa’s ‘superhero’ Makmande. He may not exist but he sure kicks ass
Chic couture meets the chunky pixels of 8-bit arcade games on the catwalk. Morinaga is so hot right now
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in store WORDS: GUSTAV SWART AND SASKIA VAN DIERMEN
Pixel Sleeping Eye Mask Whether you’re old enough to remember the days of 8-bit graphics or not, you have to admit these sleeping eye masks are damned cute. Expect dreams teaming with the double dragons and bubble bobbles of classic arcade games. available on the Designboom shop | designboom.com
GoPro HD Hero2 If you’re an adrenaline junkie wishing to record every moment of your high-octane adventures, GoPro has just what you need. They’ve updated their line of high-tech helmet cams to make sure you capture every single bone-breaking action – in crystal-clear HD. available at GoPro | gopro.com
WOoDEN SPEAKER These adorable speakers are made out of natural-cut apricot. They may not have caused Original Sin, but could provide the soundtrack for some new ones. available at the Apple store | zastore.co.za
David Green’s Leaf Collection With frames adorned with handcrafted fallen leaves (available in different designs and colours), these high-quality shades are bound to elicit envy. Dried, dyed and fashioned with cotton-based acetate, they seldom lose their polish and are perfect for prescription lenses too. available at Greeneyewear | greeneyewear.com
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LomoKino Consider yourself to be a pro home moviemaker? Then the Lomography LomoKino will be your favourite new thing. In true retro style, this Super 35 moviemaker’s shutter speed of 1/100 per second enables you to film in old-school analogue glory. available at LomoKino & LomoKinoScope Package shop.lomography.com
Silhouette and Eclipse Light-Lights by Angela & Ger Jansen Have you ever seen such a magic lamp? The designer duo has designed two new floating lamps – Silhouette and Eclipse – which levitate and illuminate while consuming little power. It’s bound to light up any room before you even flick its switch. available at Mocoloco | mocoloco.com
Gorillaz X CONVERSE INC. Grammy Award-winning band Gorillaz contributes to Converse’s ‘Three Artists. One Song’ programme with these striking sneakers. The distinctive camouflage design combines guerrilla chic with Converse’s signature Chuck Taylor All Star silhouette. available at the online Gorillaz shop | gorillaz.com
Mi-A300 and Mi-A305 Mi-Fone, one of Africa’s fastest-growing mobile device brands, launches a simple, clean but clever handset – one that has everything you’d want from a smart phone at the price of one that’s not. A Full Touch Android Phone with OFN design, it has GPS, Wifi, Noise Suppression and a Mi-mobi Wallet. available at Mi-fone | mi-fone.mobi
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in store Bonobo Series: Messenger Bag The simple yet slick Bonobo Series of laptop sleeves, messengers, totes and backpacks make for true commuter style – no matter what city you’re in. Tough and trendy, it’s made from 100% recycled PET and is water-resistant; therefore making 100% sure your tech stays safe. available at Bluelounge | bluelougne.com
PUMA X UNDFTD Microdot Collection PUMA rejuvenates their Undefeated range with these retroinspired suede shoes. We’re not sure why High Tops inspired by eighties basketballs shoes are named after a famous type of acid, but what’s life without whimsy? available at the PUMA store | puma.com
Pantone Xmas Balls For those who don’t want their Christmas tree to be all glittery and gold, Pantone Xmas balls may be the solution. These elegantly designed festive balls come in a kaleidoscope of different colours and, whatever the pantone, will be sure to pop on your tree. available at Seletti | seletti.it
The Jawbone UP The Jawbone UP wraps around your wrist and tracks your movements, sleep, even your eating habits – if you want it to. Then, when you want to check what it’s been tracking (and what you’ve been UP to), click it into the headphone jack of your iPhone. Healthy living has never been niftier. available at Jawbone | jawbone.com
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T H E
B A L A N C E
R V C A . C O M
O F
O P P O S I T E S
in association with:
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.net
Welcome to the sixth instalment of our online creative talent search. Pushing the envelope, thinking outside the box, going beyond borders… Hate clichés? So do we, which is why we’re doing our best to keep things fresh by offering exposure to new talent. We wrap 2011 up with the winners of Selected Creatives Competition 06. Brought to you by Rado, Selected Creatives is a one small seed initiative that started in May 2010 and has become a firm readers’ favourite. Selected Creatives offers a chance for our one small seed.net members to have their work showcased inside the pages of the magazine and be embraced by all those who run their fingers over its glossy surface. Your votes have been counted, and here are the three winners: Jessica Lupton with her sharp aesthetic wit; Laura McCullagh who shares a selection of stunning nature macrophotographic shots and Abe Viljoen, whose illustrations demonstrate his visceral flair. one small seed
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in association with:
.net
Laura McCullagh
Female / Cape Town/Photographer/Digital Designer onesmallseed.net/profile/LauraMcCullagh
‘I tend to look on the gloomy side of life, despite the kind of things I photograph. It's easy to forget that we're surrounded by beauty as it often gets overshadowed by the darker stuff. Seeking and capturing that beauty is what I love most about photography. It's about emotion and personal expression. I find macrophotography particularly fascinating. Looking at things a little closer reveals a whole other world. It's like magic. My inspirations include nature, music, mythology and dreams. I'm a (recovering) magazine addict with piles of art/music mags on my shelf so I was naturally drawn to one small seed. I never thought I'd appear in it and am truly humbled to be in such inspirational company.’
in association with:
.net
Abe Viljoen aka ‘The Given’ Male/Cape Town/Illustrator onesmallseed.net/profile/TheGiven
‘I’ve been reading one small seed for the last few years and appreciate the online feedback on my pieces. I knew I was going to enjoy my stay when my first picture went to number one on the 'Featured Photographs' List. I've dabbled in many techniques and styles, though no other series has been quite as successful as Iron Animals. I just had this sudden urge one night to create animals made from urban decay. Some sort of play on evolution, asking what happens when an animal’s natural habitat has all but vanished? Iron Animals is a set of grungy photo manipulations that blend matte painting with graffiti influences to a point that nothing of the original remains.’
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in association with:
Jessica Lupton
Female /Johannesburg /Conceptual stylist onesmallseed.net/profile/JessicaLupton
.net
‘I am inspired by everything around me, including current affairs, music, films and photography. Every shoot is a collaborative effort. Steve Marais and JP Hanekom are incredible photographers and conceptual innovators and we structure shoots around mutual input. I have also worked with amazing makeup artists and hairstylists that transform shoots into something really beautiful. I would define my creative style as classic: I want to create images that are timeless. one small seed is an amazing creative platform. It gives artists exposure and the opportunity to network.’
Abiodun Oyewole:
GRAND, HIGH WIZARD The Last Poets declared the end of a poetic era. They knew that sticks and stones may break bones, but that words can do real damage. Eschewing the militancy of the Black Panthers, this group of Americans used rhyme and meter to pursue social and political activism. Artists like Dr Abiodun Oyewole, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, Umar Bin Hassan, Suliaman El Hadi and Nilaja Obabi paved the way for a new form of resistance: a passive but powerful pressure on the establishment oppressing black America in the late ’60s. The Last Poets were formed on 19 May 1968: Malcolm X’s birthday. Their charged lyrical content captured the nation’s attention as they boldly criticised the government and urged blacks to take a stand. They paved the way for modern hip-hop... and their message remains as potent today as it was the day Dr King’s blood flowed in Memphis. Oyewole lectures at New York’s Columbia University, and discusses the role and power of poetry with Sisi Lwandle. Photography: Gregory Chris
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Would you say that The Last Poets were the ‘Godfathers’ of hip-hop? We didn’t start hip-hop but we did take the clothes off the language and gave the listeners the naked truth about what was going on within our race and culture. The name 'The Last Poets' name is inspired by South Africa's Keorapetse Kgositsile’s assertion that poetry wanes as violence becomes the language of liberation struggles. We were the voice of liberation for many… as I have discovered over the last 20 years. Calling ourselves ‘The Last Poets’ indicated that a change was coming. How did The Last Poets come together? The Black Power movement and the killing of Dr King were the main reasons for the creation of the group. We felt loved and needed from our very first performance. David Nelson, Gylan Kain and I first came together in Mt Morris Park in Harlem in 1968 and it was clear that we had to address the problems in our community if we really wanted to have ‘Black Power’. Unity was at the top of the list. David researched the name and Kain found us a place that we named ‘East Wind’. This gave us a platform for readings and workshops. You were arrested and charged with larceny in North Carolina. I was killing two birds with one stone. I had planned a heist of some guns from gun shops in Raleigh, North Carolina. Two of the brothers in my organisation were arrested. I decided to rob the Klan and get my boys out of jail. I was eventually caught and sent to Central Prison. I never served time; I got time to serve me. I wrote every single day and put the pieces of my life back together. You once told The Chicago Tribune: ‘Rap is a slave to the rhythm; everything is based on the beat. The rap concept became concerned with the way it is said rather than what is being said.’ Hip-hop is still a slave to the rhythm, but we are all creatures of the rhythm and it can easily pull us in any direction. I commend Chuck D and KRS because they made an effort to say something we could use. Still from the same interview: ‘Twenty–five years ago, I wanted to carry a gun, I wanted to kill someone.’ Has that changed? I found that I was already carrying a gun. My mouth was my gun and my words were the bullets. All I had to do was keep my gun loaded. Do you feel that your work could have been adapted to the black community in South Africa? The Last Poets have travelled a lot over the last 25 years and we’ve been an influence for change in the world everywhere. We did a gig a few months ago in Croatia and they had our albums and knew our work. I was surprised but pleased.
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Were you influenced by any genres of music or creative platforms? Jazz has always been an influence, and some R&B. Black people themselves are poetry, so all you have to do is listen and observe. Music flows through us like water, so it’s natural for the poetry and the music to work in harmony. Your poetry contains some profanity. Where do you place the fine line between expression and vulgarity? Curse words are valuable but have been used too loosely by many. When we cursed, we meant it. We were driving home serious points. Being raw is sometimes the only way. It’s vulgar to circumvent the issue with cute words when the situation is fucked up.
HIP-HOP IS STILL A SLAVE TO THE RHYTHM In your recent reflections on the late Gil Scott-Heron, you described him as a ‘popular guy who mastered song and poetry’. Do you believe that today’s artists are able to adequately merge genres? Some artists have done this already. Floetry is one group that comes to mind, as well as the Fugees. Oscar Brown Jr was doing it when we were children. It’s natural. Gil was one of the masters because he was conscious and talented. How did you affect his career? Gil was directly influenced by us after we did a concert at his school in 1968. We did an electric show at Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania. After the concert, Gil came backstage and said he wanted to start a group like ours. I told Gil to go for it as we wanted ‘Last Poets’ all over the world. The rest is history. I performed ‘When the Revolution Comes’ at that show. The opening lines include: ‘Some of us will probably catch it on TV with chicken hanging from our mouths. You’ll know it’s revolution because there won’t be no commercials.’ Gil extended my line in ‘The Revolution will not be Televised’. I’ve always appreciated the connection. Is there still a need or space for black revolutionary art and expression? As long as humanity continues to take a beating by governments and the rich, we will need a revolutionary voice to speak out.
You performed at Lollapalooza Music Festival in 1994. Do you feel that there is place for a poet in the music industry? If the industry wanted to make a place, there would be one... but that might defeat their purpose since they are only trying to make money.
What impact has Gil Scott-Heron’s death has had on the industry? Gil will always be held in high esteem. He was a master of what he did and he gave us something to think about. He will live for as long as we remember him and I wrote the poem ‘Occupy’ in his memory.
Do you think the poetry industry is still influential today? Poetry has become the universal language of our youth. There are readings everywhere. Poetry is a language to think by and helps you to see something you know but didn’t see in that light before. I have an open house for artists, primarily poets. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years. I am proud of many of the young folks who have been a part thereof.
Do you still write poetry? Poetry is like breathing. If I stop writing, I’m getting ready to check out.
A lot of your work has been used by well-known hip-hop artists such as KRS-ONE and Common. Is your message lost in these samples or do you encourage the exposure to a wider, younger market? There have been a number of samplings. I only wished we’d get notified and paid. Biggie Smalls used my ‘Party and Bullshit’ profusely and I never received a dime. What advice would you give an aspiring young poet today? Look and listen to what’s going on around you and the world. Always be a research scientist and study. Who are today’s 'Last Poets'? I’ve had the privilege and pleasure to hear a lot of talented young black poets, from New York to California. I think each section of the country has someone who carries the torch. I’m also working with some young black French poets and they all have ‘Last Poet potential’. Paris might get ready to burn.
I DECIDED TO ROB THE KLAN AND GET MY BOYS OUT OF JAIL
In ‘Niggers are scared of Revolution’, you address black fear of white oppression. What do you think ‘Niggers’ are scared of today? My young son wrote a poem ‘Niggers are Still Scared of Revolution’, and that is the case. Change takes sacrifice and a lot of us aren’t feeling that yet. Is a partnership between poets and visual artists? Poetry should try to reach as many of the five senses as possible. I have a strong visual sense. I think I wanted to be a painter. I have quite a few friends who are visual artists: Ademola, Abdul Rahman, Tom Feelings, Romare Bearden, G. Falcon Beazer, Emory Douglas and Sir Shadow. I’ve learnt a great deal from all of them. Any potential future collaborations with hip-hop groups? We have Chuck D from Public Enemy on a track on a recent Last Poet CD. The CD is The Time Has Come and the track is ‘It’s Down To Now’. We were nominated for a Grammy for Common’s ‘The Corner’. I recently did a track on Nas’s Nigger CD. I have a new track called ‘Hey, Lil’ Brotha’ coming out on J Ivey’s new CD. one small seed
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STILLSPOTTING , 2011 MANHATTAN, NY | SPATIAL INSTALLATION: SNØHETTA AT 7 WORLD TRADE CENTER | COMPOSER: ARVO PÄRT | PHOTOGRAPH: KRISTOPHER MCKAY, COURTESY OF THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION, NY
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echo chamber:
THE SOUND OF SPACE YOU ARE WALKING THROUGH TUNNELS OF GAUZY, BILLOWING FABRIC. TRANSLUCENT WALLS HINT AT RIPPLES OF MOVEMENT - SUBTLE UNDULATIONS THAT SEEM TO RESPOND TO AN INVISIBLE BREEZE OR THE BREATH OF A THOUSAND UNSEEN PEOPLE. IT'S ALMOST LIKE BEING INSIDE A CLOUD OR SOME LIVING ORGANISM. THE WHITE SPACES AROUND YOU SHIFT AND SHIMMER. AND THE WALLS ARE WHISPERING. Words: Heidi van Eeden
This is Sum of Days, Brazilian artist Carlito Carvalhosa's 2010 installation held at the MOMA Gallery in New York. The installation is a complex structure of translucent white fabric forming a network of pathways and pseudo-boundaries. The structure intentionally distorts reality to guide the visitor deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. A system of strategically placed microphones continuously record and overlay the sound created within the exhibition. This layered auditory experience is then played back into the immaculate white spaces and so the loop goes on. The result is an eerie auditory palimpsest, a continuous recorded history of layered spatial experience captured in sound. Sum of Days creates the impression that the space is larger than its physical confines as it blurs the complex layers of time, space and sound of rational dimension and makes you feel architecture instead of simply observing it. This is the experiential quality of aural architecture: the echoes and reverberations created when sound moves through our visual world, regenerating our surroundings as ‘sound imagery’. The result is a world unseen to the human eye - a metaphysical reality intended to be felt rather than seen. Auditory perception enables us to understand space much more deeply than vision does. Sound waves carry information relating to size, texture, and intensity, but also convey abstract concepts like emotion, danger and feeling. Listen closely and you may start to understand the spaces and the world around you on a completely different level. one small seed
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Auditory perception enables us to understand space much more deeply than vision does.
Mankind is forever trying to give form to the ephemeral nature of sound. To us, the relationship between space and sound is as undeniable as it is indefinable. The Greeks and Romans believed that the link between architecture and music lay in a mutual relationship to mathematics. Pythagoras was the first to see a link between the length of a string and the note it produced. By defining this harmonious relationship in terms of a module, and subsequently employing the modular to building principles, he was the first to identify the potential relationship between sound and architecture. Later, during the first century BC, Vitruvius wrote De Architectura. He related spatial proportion and harmony to the human figure with his concept of the 'Vitruvian Man', a concept that Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci explored further. By believing that the same proportions governed the rules of beauty and harmony in art, architecture and music, da Vinci developed a universal modular - a set of rules for artistic expression. Nearly 500 years later, influential twentieth century architect Le Corbusier was still experimenting with similar principles when he developed 'Le Modular’, a proportioning system based on ‘harmonious measurements to suit the human scale’. Using Le Modular, Le Corbusier experimented with the translation of musical principles into architecture. Collaborating with the composer Iannis Xenakis, Le Corbusier designed the Phillips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. The design of the pavilion referred to principles of serial music while the building's interior incorporated music specially composed for the occasion. Le Corbusier's inter-disciplinary approach to architecture and music resulted in an explosion of similar amalgamated designs. Bernhard Leitner, an Austrian architect and aural installation artist, uses sound as a sculptural and architectural material. Leitner's life work has been the exploration of the relationship between spatiality and sound. Working mainly with exhibitions, sculptures and architectural follies, Leitner explores correlations and coincidences between sound and space through a myriad of small, scattered projects. Leitner believes that ‘when you combine the field of sound, which is time, with the field of architecture and sculpture, which is space, you create a new world, a new language’. 'Le Cylindre Sonore', one his earlier works, is a sound-space object commissioned as a piece of public art. Located in the Parc de la Villette in Paris, the cylindrical piece of architecture creates a 'concentrated listening of the place’. Although the Cylindre's architectural form is visually impressive – concentric circles of perforated concrete dramatically sunk into the landscape like the forgotten remains of a crashed UFO - the auditory experience that the space was designed for is even more surreal. Designed to maximize aural resonance in its circular centre with 24 hidden speakers constructed from carefully chosen materials, the Cylindre emphasises whatever sound occurs within its enclosed space. The result is a full-blown eargasm. The lack of sound occasionally creates an effect as dramatic as its presence. The Sound of Silence has spatial echoes.
Jewish Museum, Berlin | Architect: Daniel Libeskind | Photograph: Guenter Schneider
A 2011 Guggenheim Museum collaboration between the Oslo-based architectural firm Snøhetta and composer Arvo Part proved exactly this. Stillspotting NYC, a two-year spatial 'experiment' exploring the relationship between space and sound, argues that the phenomenon of sensory adaptation may be best observed by the lack thereof. The project searches for 'quiet spaces' that 'extend the perception of sound into the realm of space.' In Stillspotting, urban explorers are encouraged to seek out and map these 'quiet spaces' - any part of the city that is sheltered from the generally noisy New York. These spaces (or spaces within spaces) take the form of underground tunnels, ancient museum steps and hidden gardens. They are secret hideaways intended for inner reflection and spatial appreciation. In a world filled with clamour and noise, Stillspotting NYC is as intriguingly beautiful as it is peaceful. Music has often been directly based on the architectural experience of space or event. In Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt), a 1927 German documentary directed by Walt Ruttman, a careful selection of abstract visual content portrays the 'life' of a city. Berlin saw the birth of a new genre of filmmaking: the 'City Symphony' (other examples include the 1921 Manhatta and 1928's Etudes sur Paris). The film hovers on the verge of abstract surrealism as a series of seemingly random, flashing, black-and-white images. Completely silent, the inherent rhythm of the visual editing creates a musical effect. The overall impression is spatial in nature and allows you to experience the nature of the city by 'listening' to it. Watch Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt on one small seed.tv, and turn to our v section on page 88 to find out more)
abstracted sketches and cardboard maquettes. Today, both occur digitally as code. Pythagoras' ancient theory has finally been realised in the most literal of terms: today, both these abstract art forms have been reduced to almost identical numeric parameters and can therefore be directly translated into each other. In the digital era, sound can literally be translated into architecture and vice versa. According to digital architect Jesper Bond: ‘Instead of being a secondary element added after the design of the building, music can be used as a design tool when developing form and function. Music will gain spatial relevance on equal terms with other architectural, artistic effects like light, materiality, and programme.’ Australian architects Peter Christensen and Marc Aurel Schnabel experiment with Spatial Polyphony: the virtual representation of baroque music (polyphony literally means 'many sounds'). Although the results are still somewhat crude, the future is bright... and the digital era has only just begun. Our search for local aural architecture led us to Jetty Square in Cape Town, a design collaboration between Earthworks landscape architects and sculptor Ralph Borland. This interactive sound sculpture/square employs infrared technology and wind energy to produce sound and wind-generated movement. Oh, and giant sharks.
Sound can literally be translated into architecture and vice versa. Architecture finds inspiration in music. The spectacular jagged form of the Jewish Museum in Berlin is music in masonry. When American architect Daniel Libeskind set out to create this remarkable structure, he approached the design of the architecture as the final act of Arnold Shoenberg's unfinished opera Moses und Aron. A musician himself, Libeskind explored ‘the underlying philosophical concerns of the composer’ and expressed musical volume in terms of architectural voids. The result is as dramatic as opera itself: a jagged building, sweeping across the landscape, its multiple layers of space and meaning blended to create a complex architectural experience. Harsh concrete forms etched with evocative voids come together in spatial harmony. Looking at the building, you can almost hear its symphony. Although the link between music and architecture is beautifully evident in Libeskind's design, the digital era has revolutionised that relationship through the jump from analogue to digital form. Music is no longer the pluck of a string or the press of a note; architecture is no longer
Sum of Days , 2010 MOMA Gallery, NY | Artist: Carlito Carvalhosa | Photograph: Jeffrey Gray Brandsted
Jetty Square’s space almost seems alive - with its shark sculptures perched precariously on rods, stirring in reaction to the wind and your movements. Cape Town’s status as Global Design Capital of the World 2014 makes this the perfect opportunity for more sound-generated spatial interventions like Jetty Square. Sound and spatiality will evolve further together. Both are omnipresent and interconnected, and form a spatial dialogue that defines our experience and perception of reality. If you look and listen closely, the hills are alive with the sound of space.
The human story is told in the language of pop culture. Coca Cola designed Santa Claus and Hugo Boss the uniforms for the Order of the Death’s Head. Jimi played The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock and the Devil went down to Georgia. David Byrne wore a big suit and Princess Leia that bikini. We couldn’t handle the truth, needed a bigger boat and loved the smell of napalm in the morning. Assorted male models shot JFK, RFK and JR, then Biggy Smalls, Tupac and the Sheriff. And something made Andy Warhol’s Marilyns smile. Maybe it was the hand up the Mona Lisa’s skirt.
one small seed is dedicated to bringing you the next chapter of the eternal story
MR BRAINWASH:
LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANKSY Whatever your opinion of iconoclastic street artist/vandal Banksy, you can’t deny his cultural footprint. Legendary stunts, like the detention of an inflatable Guantanamo Bay inmate in Disneyland, cement his status as a ‘guerilla artist’. He also replaced hundreds of Paris Hilton’s albus with his own remixes that asked questions like ‘Why am I famous?’ and ‘What have I done?’ Ironically, many critics ask the same of Banksy as they doubt his artistic value, integrity and originality.
'MULTIPLIED TOMATO SPRAY'
Which brings us to Mr Brainwash, the Los Angeles-based pop artist and filmmaker. Born in Paris under the name Thierry Guetta, his gap-filled biography has prompted conspiracy theorists to speculate that he's a Banksy/Shepard Fairey/ Invader project and that the acclaimed Banksy-directed documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop is a grand hoax and offers more grift than gift. Mr Brainwash creates satirical twists on classic pieces, including some of Banksy’s ‘own’ stuff, and his lavish exhibitions routinely draw crowds of aficionados, detractors and the curious. Mr Brainwash is dedicated to spreading a message that is positive, colourful and – like Andy Warhol’s – accessible. Jean-Michel Basquiat said, ‘I start a picture and I finish it. I don't think about art while I work. I try to think about life.' From his California home, Mr Brainwash gives one small seed an exclusive interview, giving insight into undeniable passion for art and for life. Interview: Jean Rene Onyangunga
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I’M GOING TO DO SOMETHING
EVEN IF IT TAKES ME TEN YEARS
PHOTOGRAPH: CHAD GRIFFITH
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I THINK THAT WARHOL WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME IF HE WERE STILL ALIVE
How have things changed since your first show in LA in 2008? Time lets you get better at what you do. The show in 2008 was 18 000 square feet and this show is 80 000 square feet. You created street art and then moved on to massive exhibitions. It’s just getting bigger and bigger. How do you pull it off? I don’t sleep very much. Three or four hours a day is normal. I’m very passionate about my work... though I wouldn’t really call it ‘work’ if it’s something that you’re really passionate about and have fun doing. We cry sometimes but it’s a pleasure when you finish a piece. How does your team handle it? I’ve got a small team and I only use other people when I do bigger shows. It’s a small team but they are a hundred percent with me. They believe in me and where I’m going. Do you see yourself sticking to a career as an artist? Do you think you’ll change direction? I'm an artist. I always have been. An artist is someone who is passionate about what he does and does it from his heart. He can make it happen. An artist doesn’t have to be the best in the world and doesn’t have to listen to anybody. You just go forward with what you want, because everyone has their own life. When I made clothing, I thought like an artist and came up with something new that was only for designers. And it was the same when I started filming. I took that challenge up for ten years. I’d go out in the morning and have two or three cameras with me and I didn’t stop making it happen. Your ‘Madonna’ has a distinct Andy Warhol style. What are you saying about pop culture? I like what Madonna does, and she’s still number one. Warhol took Marilyn Monroe and made her a pop icon. I got influenced in a way but I did it her way. I think that Warhol would have done the same if he were still alive. It’s like I had to do it. It fits her face. It’s kind of mean and sweet at the same time. And strong. It’s a representation of who she is and the passion of somebody who wants to do something in life. And that’s my message in everything that I do: it’s possible if your heart is in it. That’s why I love pop art and artists like Jimi Hendrix who were just simple people. But they did something with passion in their heart and didn’t think about money.
' MUHAMMED ALI' - LEGEND EDITION
'NOT GUILTY' one small seed
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'CHARLIE CHAPLIN'
FUCK IT, I’M JUST GOING TO DO IT MYSELF
Folks seem more mercenary today? People sometimes say, ‘Oh you can’t do it. You can’t do something this big... it must cost you a lot of money.’ Whatever I make, I make for me. This is my way of life and I’m not going to stop that. Even if I do a show once, it’ll be a ten million dollar show. It’s just the fun of it. How does it feel to become such a big name so quickly? It’s not such a short period. When you’re passionate about anything you do, you build yourself. I’m 45-years-old and always working. I’m very patient. I’m going to do something even if it takes me ten years. You portray a very positive message through your art, yet there has been negative media attention around the authenticity of your work and identity. They think I’m not 45. I leave them to it. When I touch a camera, I’m passionate about it and I’m going to get in. Because I work. It doesn’t pay off without work. But I’m not here to just sell some art. I’m here to do something that helps people open their heart and make them say to themselves, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to become an artist. I want to become a writer. I want to become…’ I want to make people realise that everything is possible. How did you develop such a positive outlook? We have some negativity and we have some positivity... and I choose to believe that life is beautiful. Everything that happens to me provides opportunities. Even if I break my legs, I’m going to see the positive in that. I'm gonna say, ‘Now I can sit down and read.’ And do things that I can’t do now. So I focus on the positive. You have to go through the bad to enjoy the good? Definitely. Because there is bad. But I try to take the bad and turn it to the good. It is the way that I live. When things happen, they happen for a reason. Tragedy helped me to be more sensitive with people. To be more of a lover. I grew up faster. There is always something positive and negative. You cannot always change things that happen in life. But what you can change is your perspective. Like when I did the Einstein picture. I really enjoyed it. He’s holding the sign that says ‘Love is the answer’. He’s the genius that helped to invent the atom bomb. But if he were alive today, he would say, ‘Love is the answer.’ Nothing else. It’s just love. How have people responded to that love? I was in a London gallery and a banker came up to me and said, ‘I’ve been working on Wall Street and your movie helped me decide to do what I wanted to do. So I dropped everything.’ I get emails every day from people who have chosen to follow their dreams. Some emails would make you want to cry. One was from a working person and he said, ‘I prefer to not have any food but I wake up in the morning and I’m happy. I’m happy because I do what I want. I’m not going to stop. I’m going to do a show in England in June, July and August during the Olympic games. I’ve rented 120 000 square feet. People think I’m crazy. But I’m not afraid. You know why? I
dream and I move forward with my heart.’ You started off with a vintage store? Vintage is like art. Your eyes tell you what is good and what is bad. Everybody was doing vintage shops and I created a new concept that was called ‘designer’. I would look at the stitching and say this is worth $800. And I believed it. Designers would come from all over the world and buy pieces to make up their collections. What do they care about $10 000 when they’re going to make millions? Selling things for $20 would have been too slow. But making more money lets me be free. I cannot be locked somewhere. I can’t. I have ADD. How did you get into street art and paste-ups? The whole thing started with a big wall that I was keeping for different artists. You see it in the movie. ‘OBEY’ is scrawled across the wall 16 feet high, but you couldn’t see it well from far away. So I hired some people to enlarge it. I was worried because I didn’t have a permit, so I asked the artists to cover it up but they were busy. I waited a week or two and it was still there. So one day I decided, ‘Fuck it, I’m just going to do it myself.’ And that’s where it all started. That’s how I started putting the face with the camera. I just thought it was a cool image. Are you still painting the streets or are you concentrating more on exhibitions? Right now I’m very busy doing shows but I do walls whenever I have time. The next show is a big solo project in Miami. I’ve rented a whole parking lot. What are your plans? Staying positive. When I take on a project, I can’t not do it from my heart. Every day I say I’m gonna slow down and relax a bit, but I’m never gonna stop or slow down. Because that’s the way I live life. In an effort to make his art affordable, Mr Brainwash sells limited edition prints on his website for less than $1000 when his original work on canvas goes for up to six figures. New work by Mr Brainwash will be available at Cape Town's 34FineArt Gallery in December 2011.
MR BRAINWASH WITH PAINT BUCKETS
Illustrator: Mark Venter
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neuromagic:
THE HARMONY OF
SYNESTHESIA
Syd Barrett, Wassily Kandinsky, Duke Ellington, Vladimir Nabokov, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jimi Hendrix, Richard Feynman, Lady Gaga, Pharell Williams... all geniuses who helped shape their world. And all synesthetes. Synesthetes ‘suffer’ from the extraordinary neurological condition Synesthesia and experience automatic involuntary cross-sensory stimulation. They read numbers and letters in colour, hear sounds in colour, taste in colour and even touch in colour. The crossed wires in their heads leave them just sane enough to survive outside asylums and just mad enough to lead lives of invention, art and profanity. Words: Sarah Claire Picton
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The ’60s saw an explosion of pop culture as advances in communication technology brought art to larger and larger audiences. This also made the interconnections between media more important as people’s cultural vocabularies grew richer and more demanding. Painters traced the lines of mass-produced palimpsests and literary references littered music and cinema... two media that were now inextricably interlinked. Jefferson Airplane advised, ‘Feed your head’ and Norman Bates assured us that, ‘We all go a little mad sometimes.’ The term 'color organ' was coined in the eighteenth century and referred to a tradition of mechanical (and then) electro-mechanical devices built to represent sound or accompany music in a visual medium. One hundred years later, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe proposed in his 1810 book Theory of Colours that musical and colour tones shared common frequencies, echoing Sir Isaac Newton’s observations. In the 1980s, Steve Mann regarded the Internet as a ‘Sixth Sense’, which could be mapped to the other five senses by way of such synthetic Synesthesia. Lady Gaga said in a 2011 interview that, ‘When I write songs, I hear melodies and I hear lyrics... but I also see colour.’
CAN YOU HEAR THIS?
The word 'Synesthesia' has been used for 300 years to describe very different things, from poetry and metaphor to deliberately contrived mixed-media applications such as Son et Lumière shows ('Lightshow'), which is also a song title by American progressive rock band The Mars Volta from their 2003 album De-Loused in the Comatorium. There are over 60 reported types of Synesthesia, but these are the five most frequently encountered: Grapheme to Colour Synesthesia is the most common. Author of Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens Pat Duffy might see blue cats as an adult, but is it so surprising that as a child she ‘realised that to make an ‘R’ all [she] had to do was first write a ‘P’ and draw a line down from its loop'?
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Pat Duffy's Synesthsia makes graphemes (individual letters of the alphabet and numbers) appear ‘shaded’ or ‘tinged’ with colour. Recent research has unearthed commonalities across letters, for example ‘A’ corresponds with red and ‘S’ is distinctly pink. Cassidy Curtis talks about her experience of Synesthesia in a 1988 interview. When she was learning Hebrew, she found that ‘each letter acquires the letter of its English transliteration’, for example mem becomes a dark blue like ‘M’, and chet becomes green-and-pink like ‘CH’. Cassidy also describes accents and punctuation as adding little flecks of spice to a word and, although the colour does not change ‘grave, acute and circumflex accents are all flecks of dirty brown-black, and the little circle over the letter ‘A’ is milky-white... like the letter O.' According to Danko Nikolic of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, concepts can trigger synesthetic experiences, and the colour associated with the number seven, when presented with the sum 5 + 2, is yellow. In literature, Synesthesia is seen as a Romantic ideal in which one transcends one’s experience of the world. Synesthete Nabokov repeatedly brings up the condition in many of his novels, starting with Speak, Memory. ‘I am puzzled by my French on which I see as the brimming tension-surface of alcohol in a small glass. The word for rainbow, a primary, but decidedly muddy, rainbow, is in my private language the hardly pronounceable: kzspygv.’ Sound to Colour Synesthesia causes one to experience voice, music and various environmental sounds in colour – ‘something like fireworks’ according to Richard Cytowic, or shapes that shift, distort and fade when the sound ends. Some of history’s most iconic musicians are considered to have experienced this type of Synesthesia – although their oft-tragic deaths sometimes prevent diagnosis. In one study, an individual experiences Sound-Colour Synesthesia when he listens to Pink Floyd’s ‘Goodbye Blue Sky’ – a tribute song to Barrett, while another trigger is Radiohead’s OK Computer, which is discussed in the 1998 rockumentary Meeting People is Easy.
Sound often causes a difference in hue, brightness, scintillation and direction, and although synesthetes rarely agree on the colour the sound gives, there are certain trends: loud tones appear brighter than soft tones and lower tones appear darker than higher tones.
genres of visual music, music visualisation, audiovisual art and abstract film, which contrasts with neuroscience’s concept of Synesthesia in the arts as the simultaneous perception of multiple stimuli in one experience.
Number Form Synesthesia draws a mental map of numbers when synesthetes think of numbers or the calendar. This numerical-spatial association could make 1990 appear further away than 1980, or might create a (three-dimensional) view of a year as a map.
Tom Wolfe wrote that ‘the notion that A in the past caused B in the present, which will cause C in the future, when actually A, B, and C are all part of a pattern that can be truly understood only by opening the doors of perception and experiencing it.’ Like Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe was a pioneer in New Journalism, though Gonzo was more than just writing as it offered a new way of perceiving the world. Gonzo painted life in colours that clashed and tickled our senses.
Personification is a device that high school English class would not be complete without. But ‘Ordinal-linguistic personification’? Sounds daunting, or like something you need a special ointment for. This may be a ‘neurological condition’, but I would have appreciated a classmate who thought, as psychologist M.W. Calkins did, that: ‘Ts are generally crabbed, ungenerous creatures. U is a soulless sort of thing. 4 is honest, but… 3 I cannot trust… 9 is dark, a gentleman, tall and graceful, but politic under his suavity.’
BLUE TASTES INKY AND 'F' TASTES LIKE SHERBET Imagine the word ‘blue’ tasting inky or the letter ‘f’ like sherbet. It does for James Wannerton, who has Lexical to Gustatory Synesthesia, which lends taste to words and phonemes. Wannerton reports, ‘Whenever I hear, read or articulate words or word sounds, I experience an immediate and involuntary taste sensation on my tongue.’ This is constrained by early food experiences: if the synesthete has not tasted a certain food - say coffee as a child - then they would not have synesthetic experience of coffee as an adult but would continue to have synesthetic experience of a food that is no longer produced. This is just one of the condition’s bizarre mysteries. Artists, composers, poets, novelists and digital artists have used Synesthesia as a source of inspiration. Synesthetic art historically refers to multi-sensory experiments in the
As Hunter S Thompson said, ‘When the going gets weird, the weird turn Pro.’ One is often wary of the unknown, especially when it’s defined as a ‘neurological condition’. Synesthesia is a visual topic, in some ways impossible to explore on paper, but maybe you’ve experienced it in a song, a flash of lightening, a kiss. Maybe you experience it every day and never knew it had a name. ‘I make out a schoolbus... glowing orange, green, magenta, lavender, chlorine blue, every fluorescent pastel imaginable in thousands of designs, both large and small, like a cross between Fernand Leger and Dr Strange, roaring together and vibrating off each other as if somebody had given Hieronymous Bosch fifty buckets of day-glo paint and a 1939 International Harvester schoolbus and told him to go to it.’ - Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
POSTER FOR EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY (2011) POSTER FOR THE NATONAL (2010)
Dan Kuhlken:
DREAMING OF ELECTRIC SHEEP
POSTER FOR THE BLACK KEYS (2011)
Dan Kuhlken and Nathan Goldman met on their high school's track team. Their creative partnership started with a garage band, and in 2005 they founded DKNG – a design studio in Los Angeles that serves international musicians, television networks and recording studios. They are also resident poster artists for Troubadour Records in Hollywood, and are responsible for some of the music world’s most memorable images. Their journey is nowhere near complete and Claudi van Niekerk hitches a ride. Images Courtesy of DKNG Studios
POSTER FOR CAKE (2011)
How’s life? Life's good. My typical answer for a while has been ‘busy’, but most people's reaction is: ‘Busy is good.’ And I agree. What’s the key element to building a good team? Acceptance of differences. Nathan and I are very different people and may sometimes not be on the same page. However, much of our work's success has stemmed from our combination of unique and contrasting ideas. Would you still design without Photoshop? Computers are definitely a useful tool in the poster design process. However, there are still a lot of artists out there that don't use any electronics to create their work. Having drawing skills will always be a key factor to the success of any illustrator's career. However, the difference between art and design is that design requires compromise. Having clients sometimes requires several changes to the artwork and being able to make those changes easily on a computer is a huge advantage and timesaver. I would still be an ‘artist’ if I couldn't use computers, but I think I would have to retire from being a professional designer. Any symbolism in your posters? We do our best to apply thought-provoking concepts in all our work. Some are more noticeable, others more subtle. For instance, in Flight of the Conchords' Glasgow poster, we turned Brett and Jemaine into LEGO characters. We felt that FOTC's humour and music was a mixture of nostalgia, childlike playfulness and wit that LEGO seemed to encompass perfectly. Another example of symbolism would be in our posters for The National, which both include typical ‘national’ pastimes like playing mini golf or swimming. Since we think The National's music is a mixture of sadness, loneliness, hope and beauty, we felt that showing only one person in the environment made the design dreary but more captivating and mysterious. one small seed
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How do personal preferences influence the final outcome? I'd say my personal preferences influence the project sometimes to a fault. I'm very particular and it's been a constant challenge for me to swallow my pride and simply do what the client asks. There are also many times where Nathan's influence will clash with mine. But in most cases, our collaboration makes for a better final outcome. It's easy to forget that we are running a design firm with clients and not some art studio where we make all the rules. On that note, is forming some type of personal relationship with the band useful to the design? Most of our influence from the band comes from listening to their music and doing research. It's rare that we will meet with the band beforehand or get to know them personally. But sometimes we will find something in an online interview about one of the band member’s personal lives and use that information when creating a concept. What sets graphic design apart from illustration? As I mentioned before, graphic design requires more compromise. I may be a bit jaded however because my illustration is often included in the overall design of the project. Illustration usually involves the creation of an image or scene and design involves the interaction of typography, colour choice and composition. I see myself ‘designing’ my illustrations and ‘illustrating’ my typography, so it's a symbiotic relationship. You have quite a few television studios as clients, including Disney Channel, HBO and Warner Bros. Does your creative process differ when designing for a corporate identity? Definitely. I would say the more corporate the client, the more back and forth we have with revisions. Corporations usually pass around drafts of the design to several different people in the company, which often creates more opinions and comments. It's more challenging for us but, since corporations often have a higher budget, it's still worth our time. An incredible video was posted that shows how you designed the poster for Jerzz’ Explosions in the Sky . Why the elephant? We are huge fans. One of their guitarists described their music as having a ‘Mammoth Sound’ in an interview. We wanted to create an image that represented how awe-inspiring and theatrical their music is. We decided to create a mammoth that is as gigantic as a mountain to emphasise how large their sound is. The mammoth’s swimming and the mountain gave the design the edge and awe we were looking for. How has album and movie art changed since 2000? I think movie art has become grander in the sense that its exposure and branding is more involved in our daily lives. We see ads for movies everywhere and not just on billboards and magazines. I still think the actual art created for movies is mostly photos of floating heads and more of an advertisement for the actors in the film. I'd like to see more
artwork created for the story behind the movie, but I think most viewers are uninterested in story. I’m afraid that album art is becoming less important with the digital age. Most music sales today are digital and not as many people are interested in buying a well-designed four panel package as they would have back in the day with vinyl. All that really matters now is having a good album cover. So what’s really dying is the package design aspect, I suppose. It’s unfortunate. Tumblr, Reddit and other similar sites expose more and more new work every day. What do you think of the massive design outpourings and how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? I think it's great. It's addictive, fun and sometimes useful (like a drug). Browsing the internet provides inspiration and information. However, it's easy to subconsciously come up with an idea that’s directly influenced by an existing idea that you saw online. So we can go online to make sure that our creations are as original as possible. So the internet is a very useful but dangerous tool. We just have to respect it. When passion isn’t enough to fill the tank, where does the ‘designer’ stop and the ‘businessman’ begin? Our partnership is very advantageous for us. Nathan covers a lot of the business responsibilities whereas I am more focused on the creative output. It's always going to be a push and pull and it's important that Nathan and I are always involved in both the passion and the business side of things. It's not uncommon that the projects we are the most passionate about are also the least lucrative. And vice versa. Some highpaying clients may be too involved with the creative process to the point where the project is no longer enjoyable. Passion fuels business, but good business also fuels passion. What aspect of the filmmaking most inspires you to attempt it? I’m a sucker for visually stunning movies. Sometimes I’ll watch a movie just because it's colourful and in HD. Luckily, there are many films like The Fall that have both a beautiful soul and body, and more are on the way. Just like our work. If I were to pursue filmmaking, I would prioritise concept and then polish it to match visually. Tone, mood and narrative should fuel beautiful imagery. Any dream clients? We would love to design for Radiohead... mainly because we would find it so challenging. They’ve been a big influence on us, but I'm sure the inspiration would be there right on time. What’s next for DKNG Studios? We're probably going to roll out with more products like art prints and shirts in 2012. As far as client work goes, we're looking forward to getting more involved in film and video, including movie posters, title sequences, commercials and music videos. Who likes to rock the party? New Zealand likes to rock the party.
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POSTER FOR FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS (2010)
POSTER FOR RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS (2011)
POSTER FOR FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS (2010)
POSTER FOR PHISH (2011)
SANNIE FOX R a g e
w i t h
t h e
Despite her band's name 'machineri', there‘s nothing mechanical about the organic talent and feminine force that is Sannie Fox - other than the argument that her rise to local rock stardom should be automatic. As lyricist, guitarist and lead vocalist, Fox is a fundamental cog in the three-piece power unit chiselling its way into the local music scene. Bolstered by Daniel Huxham’s drums and the rapid-fire guitar skills of Andre Geldenhuys on his American Fender Stratocaster, Fox guns it in the driver’s seat... blonde-streaked hair blowing in the wind. Just Music describes her smoky vocals as ‘part-Marianne Faithfull, part-Patti Smith... with shades of The Cocteau Twin’s Liz Frazer and a bit of Kate Bush’, and we’d add ‘a little PJ Harvey’. Fox is a collection of paradoxes: she’s tough and tender, primal and polished, sweet and fierce. Incongruities that are echoed in the ‘mechanical blues-infused rock’ that machineri produces. It’s refreshingly original, enchanting and unpredictable. And like Fox’s rockstar chic, it’s effortlessly cool. Born into a family of creative people, Fox’s love of music was born soon after she was. As a little girl, she could be found ‘singing along to the tape machine’ to her parents’ beloved blues artists: Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Screaming Jay Hawkins. Modelling and acting stints on the side didn’t distract her from music. And while she played piano on and off from a young age, it was when she picked up a guitar at 19 that she found the missing piece of the puzzle for her blues-style singing and songs. So she started a band. Black Betty was an all-female trio comprised of Fox, Hagar Graiser on lead guitar and Galina Juritz on violin and backing vocals. With the addition of Adir Levi on bass and Kurt Diedericks on drums, it evolved into Mama Know Nothing, a five-piece group that fused reggae, rock, dancehall, folk and blues. In 2008, as she was finishing university, Fox couldn’t fit all her material into one project and wanted to start another. With songs that were tougher, more stripped-down and bluesy, ‘The Jukebox’ (as friends called her) starting hunting for a lead guitarist. She’d heard of Andre Geldenhuys through mutual friends and met him one day outside her house when he stopped to play with her cat. Knowing she could sing and play guitar, he asked her, ‘Wanna come see my new Strat?’
M a c h i n e
Fox explains: ‘The style of the material I had written was kind of a mix of blues and Celtic music and Andre brought a kind of Celtic-blues guitar sound to it that was extremely stylish and very sexy as well as psychedelic. The guitar fitted together perfectly. A sound was born out of this and this is the sound of machineri.’ With their mechanical repetitiveness and the cyclical riffs of duelling electric guitars evoking a machine, the duo dubbed their project ‘machineri’. But its Celtic soul, Arabian rhythms, layered riffs and lyrics seductively delivered in Fox’s husky timbre give the band a lyrical, primal sound. Pooling their kaleidoscope of influences – from John Lee Hooker to Led Zeppelin, Malian blues and Portuguese folk – Fox and Geldenhuys have created something unique. As she puts it: ‘We feel like a band on the fringe of several scenes rather than one at the centre of any.’ Lacking a permanent drummer, the duo took an innovative route in getting their music out to the masses. Without playing any live shows for two years, their blues-infused rock found an online following via videos for ‘The Searcher’ and ‘Machine I Am’. When they finally found Daniel Huxham – six drummers later – they were ready to gig and since March 2011 have performed over 100 shows to heaving crowds. 2011 also saw the trio land a record deal with independent label Just Music. Their eponymous debut album was mastered by Brian Lucey from Magic Garden (who also mastered The Black Keys’ Brothers) and the album artwork was conceived by Storm Thorgerson, who did Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy (See page 64 for an interview with Thorgerson). Proving that she’s not just a pretty face, Fox originally engineered all of machineri’s sound and produced their first video as homework for a sound engineering course. With an Honours degree in Theatre from UCT, she’s as adept onscreen as she is onstage. She played the lead role in her father’s 2009 Long Street, and was nominated for a SAFTA for Best Actress for her bold portrayal of her own former addiction. Fox starred opposite her own mother, Roberta Fox, and Busi Mhlongo. She also appeared in 2010’s String Caesar and describes the film, which was shot inside Pollsmoor Prison with real inmates, as ‘a mind trip’. For now, the only thing tripping is us: on Sannie Fox and her banging mechanical beats. Long live the machine.
They clicked instantly.
Words: Lulu Larché
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Photography: Renee Frouws - thefamousfrouws.com
When we took the savage journey We were locked into a scheme A serious one way mission To find the AMERICAN DREAM To find the AMERICAN DREAM To find the AMERICAN DREAM THE AMERICAN DREAM!!!!!!!
Twenty years to nowhere Twenty years to go Twenty years to start again In the fast lane. Yo! Ho!! Ho!!!
Twenty years have lived and died It seems like yesterday The big red shark goes rolling on It always was that way
When we took the savage journey We were locked into a scheme A serious one way vision To find the AMERICAN DREAM...
It's been twenty years of Loathing And twenty years of Fear Twenty years of Twisted Nights Of Whiskey, Drugs and Beer
When we took the savage journey We were locked into a scheme A serious one way ticket To find the AMERICAN DREAM
If you never knew BAD CRAZINESS If you never rolled in grass Man, you just ain't bin thinkin' You bin festerin' on yer ass
It's been twenty years since BARSTOW When the bats first filled the air If you never heard of BARSTOW Man, you were never there! You were never there!!
It's been twenty years since GONZO First hit the public scene If you never heard of GONZO Then where the hell you been?
When we took the savage journey We were locked into a scheme A serious one way ticket To find the AMERICAN DREAM...
RALPH STEADMAN:
ANOTHER FREAK IN THE FREAK KINGDOM Mickey and Mallory, Bonnie and Clyde, Butch and Sundance... It seems that great murderers hunt in pairs. And so do Gonzo artists. Ralph Steadman was Hunter S. Thompson’s illustrator, collaborator and friend. He captures the essence of Thompson’s words with his iconic cartoons and paintings, adding a visual counterpoint to the dark and sardonic music of the duo’s journey. Steadman’s award-winning work includes political cartoons, book illustrations and countless examples of his life-long scribbled homage to whimsy. He failed Art at the same school that now has a Ralph Steadman Creative Suite - and unveiled the plaque himself. His life breaks the rules with the same joyful defiance that his art does. He explains, ‘Gonzo is the essence of irony. You dare not take it seriously. You have to laugh.’ Sarah Claire Picton sits down to share a Breakfast of Champions with the great man.
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What have you been working on ink-wise? A book of extinct boids of planet Oith. Could you explain the symbolism of reptiles in your work? Reptiles always seem cunning and unpredictable. I just don’t trust them... but I quite like Kermit the Frog and his lovely song ‘Why are there so many songs about Rainbows and what’s on the Other Side?' They sell your art and literature but ban your designs for beer. Would that be a Banzo act? I wrote a poem about Raging Bitch India Pale Ale in Michigan: ‘Summink the matter with Michigan Being a bit of a bitch again When all I want is to be Rich again While the people drink the good beer’ Will America survive this Depression? Of course it will! We’ve been on this planet for over 10 000 years already... in one form or another. We are Homo Erectus. We stood up and walked straight. Isn’t that enough evidence? What’s your take on the Occupy Wall Street movement? They are the new population of Great Britain. Folks have had enough of being pushed around.
I LOVE DRINKING WHITE WINE BUT I LOVE DRAWING MORE You’ve worked with Oddbins and Flying Dog Breweries for many years. Do you have a personal interest in the brewing and distilling process? I used to tend a hundred vines of Pinot Grigio, but it became a career and thus too much. I love drinking white wine but I love drawing more. Have you had any feedback from children regarding the classics that you have illustrated, like Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island and Animal Farm? How do you find your voice when illustrating an iconic children’s story? Funny thing: I’ve never received any child’s correspondence with regards to Alice. I probably treated it as an adult book, which in many ways it is. The parodies and metaphors are sometimes quite alarming, and the Jabberwock is too threatening for a twenty-first century child. Then again, ‘kids’ stuff’ on SKY can be pretty scary. Even Ben 10. Did you ever imagine that the time you spent and the work you did with Hunter S. Thompson would be so widely followed... even working its way into history books and inspiring as-yet unjaded dreamers? When I met Hunter back in 1970, I knew I had met a weird one... but I reckoned he was the reason I went to America: to find some reason and rhyme for my work. I wanted to change the world... for better or worse... and I am glad there is Gonzo. What is Gonzo all about to you? Bill Cordosa came up with the word after our first collaboration in Kentucky. He lived in Sausalito across the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course he didn’t know where it came from... but it needs new troops to re-interpret and push it. What's your stance on hallucinogens? I never used them except for that one time in the Kentucky Derby and in Nigel Finch’s Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood. I was curious about the pills Hunter kept popping. It was Psylocybin. It freaked me out and I never touched drugs again. Had any Coca leaves recently? No, but I have some Coca Tea from Peru. How do today's drugs compare to that of the seventies? Leave the shit alone! Alcohol (or Alcohoho) is good and sociable. You can survive on that... but you can’t survive on nuthin’. Do you vote? Yes. For a local candidate when I can see the whites of his eyes.
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Does the head pendant that Hunter S. Thompson gave you still hang around your neck and does it ward off evil spirits? All evil spirits are held at bay and had better not fuck with my piece of mind. I still wear a necklace I bought from a Navajo in Santa Fe next to Hunter’s gift. And a welsh trinket from my daughter Sadie. Words like ‘creativity’ and ‘originality’ are loosely tossed about. What do they mean to you? A whole new generation are just recreating what we did. Fuck those people. It’s time they found something of their own. Have you been in love and is there such a thing? Not quite sure... but it fucked up my first marriage. What’s with the flower in the logo for Hunter’s ‘Sheriff of Aspen’ campaign? His deep compassion for the human race.
WHEN I MET HUNTER BACK IN 1970, I KNEW I HAD MET A WEIRD ONE
Do you ever feel afraid? From the moment I wake up. Do you remember what you were doing when you heard that Hunter S. Thompson had committed suicide? I was waking up and the phone rang. It was a friend in Kentucky, Joe Petro the Third. They always have to have descendants. He said, ‘Take your phone off the hook. Hunter just put a bullet from a Magnum .44 through his brain. It’s the death of fun, Ralph.’ Hunter always said to me that he would feel trapped in this life if he didn’t know that he could commit suicide at any moment. He was the greatest person I ever met. You wrote the song 'Weird and Twisted Nights' with him? Hunter gave me his lines over the phone from Owl Farm in Colorado. ‘Ah... but never mind the nights, my love. It never happened anyway.’ That became the chorus. Who represented the Savage Beast back then? And who represents it now? Hunter always thought that I was the ‘crazy’ one. Rolling Stone cofounder Jann Wenner agreed that I was crazier than Hunter. Oh dear. Do you still write songs? I have a bunch of songs and occasionally I play this and that on the ukulele, but I rarely touch the guitar now... though I keep looking at it. What did you and Hunter listen to in the car? Hunter always drove and chose the music. We both liked Jim Morrison. Any last thoughts? The only thing of value is the thing I cannot say. Wittgenstein.
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NAOKO WATANABE
Japanese-born photographer Mari Sarai left the Land of the Rising Sun in 1992 and fled to the City of Angels to study English at UCLA. She went on to form a romance with a film director who persuaded her to peer through a camera… and she hasn’t looked up yet. Words: Gustav Swart
GIRLS ON FILM
MARI SARAI’S
Sarai’s first photographs were taken when she worked as a paparazzo, selling stolen glimpses of ugly moments of vulnerability... a brand of photography that takes all power away from its subject and renders it object. As the century turned, Sarai returned to Tokyo and started snapping portrait shots of rock stars... who volunteered to be caught by her lens. But Sarai’s inversion of the power dynamic between photographer, subject and viewer was not complete. In 2005, she moved to London and began taking groundbreaking pictures of models and celebrities, including Daisy Lowe, Alice Delall, Janice Dickinson and Naoko Watanabe. Her debut photographic book Naked features powerful women who appear utterly comfortable in full frontal nudity. Many of the models are personal friends of Sarai, and spent hours between shots simply hanging out with the photographer in their own homes. Their nudity is a challenge. To the camera, to the viewer, to the idea that a woman only takes off her clothes to please a man. These women ooze sexual power that is entirely their own and does not require the male gaze to be realised. Sarai deconstructs scopophilia, pornography and feminine shame sold for profit... and forces the viewer to interrogate their own reactions to such defiance of modesty. These women are solitary not alone, revealed not exposed, sexual not sexualised. Subject not object.
JANICE DICKINSON
SAKIKO FUKUHARA
film reviews Reviewers: Bonnie-Clare Simpson (B-CS), David Ward (DW), Gustav Swart (GS)
J. Edgar Director: Clint Eastwood Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts Category: biopic
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J. Edgar Hoover is probably the public figure most loathed by the American Left until Rush Limbaugh heaved himself off his pleasure barge into the public eye. And while the American Right may appreciate Hoover’s role in establishing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it never really... liked him. Maybe he was too scary, maybe he overstayed his welcome. Maybe it was his alleged penchant for cross-dressing and having sex with men. This biopic takes us close to the figure whose shadow loomed over the 48 years he was director of the FBI, but never as close as some might like. DiCaprio’s powerful depiction of ageing serves as a metaphor for the painful clash of Hoover’s world view with modernity and might earn him the Oscar he so richly deserved for The Aviator. Alas, the rest of J. Edgar does not match up to his performance. (GS)
Another Earth J. Edgar
Director: Mike Cahill Starring: Brit Marling and William Mapother Jr Category: brama/sci-fi
Hugo
Another Earth
The question of duality, duplicity, fate and consequence forms the core of Another Earth, the feature debut for indie darling and talented cinematographer Mike Cahill. It rocked this year’s Sundance Film Festival as a big film with a tiny budget and scooped the 2011 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. Another Earth tells the story of Rhoda (played by the stunning Marling, who cowrote the script). She finds herself responsible for a tragic accident on the same night that it is discovered that Earth suddenly has a twin in orbit. The concept is compelling: if there is another version of ourselves out there, would they make the same mistakes we have? The sci-fi film’s exceptional execution elegantly tugs on heartstrings in all the right ways and tissues are recommended. Yes, you too, tough guy. (DW)
Hugo Director: Martin Scorsese Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz and Christopher Lee Category: family/adventure
When a man becomes pre-eminent, he’s expected to have enthusiasms.* You see? I’m opening with a mob movie reference because... well, it’s Scorsese, innit? But Hugo features no baseball-wielding psychopaths, no coked-up call girls, no Leonardo DiCaprio for chrissakes. It's a... a... 3D Family movie? A really, really good family movie. Based on the New York Times bestseller The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the film tells the story of a likable urchin (Butterfield) who was raised on Méliès movies by his late father. He lives in the walls of a train station and steals parts in order to repair and complete his late father’s masterpiece: a robot. He enlists the help of Isabelle (Kickass’ Hit-Girl played by a remarkably clean-mouthed Moretz), and enchanting adventures ensue. (GS) *Yes, I know it’s an Untouchables reference and not Scorsese's.
Melancholia Immortals
Melancholia
Black Butterflies
Director: Lars von Trier Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland. Category: sci-fi/psychological
Immortals Director: Tarsem Singh Starring: Starring: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke and Stephen Dorff. Category: fantasy/action
While Immortals may come from the same stable as 300 and follows a similar formula, it's Singh’s (The Fall , The Cell ) visionary eye that sets the film apart and brings any further comparisons to a halt. The film captures the brutality of war with the magnificent delicacy of a Renaissance painting, making up for what the narrative lacks in plot and the players in performance with sheer aesthetic brilliance. While some may argue that Singh has not yet matured as an all-rounded filmmaker, he continues to push the boundaries of what is visually possible in a full-length feature and that makes Immortals well worth the price of admission. (DW)
Black Butterflies Directed by: Paula Van der Oest Starring: Carice van Houten, Rutger Hauer, Liam Cunningham Category: biopic
Cigarette boxes come with warnings. The first seven minutes of Melancholia amount to a cautionary tale – and the pace, tone and subject matter sum up the ensuing two hours perfectly. Laced in metaphor, Lars von Trier’s work haunts us with the hopeless beauty of destruction in a film with gorgeous cinematography that simultaneously entrances while shattering our comfort zone. The relationship between manicdepressive Justine (played by Dunst, destined for an Oscar nod) and her sister Claire (the multitalented Gainsbourg) is contrasted with an approaching rogue planet, Melancholia. The two contrasting threads (the joy of a wedding and the destruction of Earth) and the sisters' polarising reactions demonstrate how misery only thrives in the miserable. A demanding film best followed up with something light. (DW)
Filmed against the backdrop of Cape Town, this moving biopic pays tribute to the illustrious yet tormented South African poet Ingrid Jonker. Dutch actress van Houten’s arresting authenticity captures this radical woman who lacerated both her name and her poetry. Academy awardwinner Van der Oest (Zus & Zo) is not the first to be lured by Jonker’s exaggerated existence, although Black Butterflies toes the line with tired political undertones. It is van Houten’s presence that eclipses the screen, supplying the thunder and repose of the volatile tide of Jonker’s tale and earning her the title of Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film at the Tribeca Film Festival in the process. Van Houten embodies a woman who rages simultaneously against Apartheid, her father’s dismissive attitude and her selfdestructive streak. (B-CS)
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Storm Thorgerson:
DARK SIDEOF THE TUNES British graphic designer Storm Thorgerson represents the high canon of his craft. Working alone or as part of the seminal art group Hipgnosis, Thorgerson designed memorable and challenging album covers for some of the last half-century’s most iconic bands, from progressive rock giants like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd to contemporary supergroups like The Cranberries and Muse. Operating before Photoshop, Thorgerson pushed boundaries with his surreal use of disjunctive dimensions and incongruous material. He explains: ‘I like photography because it is a reality medium, unlike drawing which is unreal. I like to mess with reality... to bend reality. Some of my works beg the question of is it real or not.’ Claudi van Niekerk shines light on the enigma that is Storm Thorgerson.
PINK FLOYD THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (1973)
THE CRANBERRIES WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE (2001)
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BLACK SABBATH TECHNICAL ECSTASY (1976)
PENDULUM THE ISLAND (2010)
Your work often places subjects out of context and could be described as ‘surrealistic’. Do your dreams ever inspire you? Very rarely. Inspiration comes from a mixture of endeavour and luck. Why do you think the design for Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon has become so iconic? Partly because it's simple, partly because it refers to a feature of nature (raindrop/rainbow). And because the album was rather good, to put it mildly, and sold a lot. Has your relationship with record labels changed? No, we still argue and I hate them. And they hate me. On this note: the surge of online platforms like SoundCloud, Spotify, MySpace and YouTube has changed the consumption and distribution of music. How do you feel about this? I feel nothing apart from a bit sad that the album cover may disappear. Well, I would feel that... wouldn't I? When did you meet Aubrey Powell and start Hipgnosis? I met Po in 1965 in Cambridge. Hipgnosis started in 1967, I think. What led to the breakup? A desire for change. And videos that went wrong and caused severe financial friction. Did you really carry 678 real beds onto a beach for the cover of Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason? Yes, not once but twice. Ambiguity, irony, humour… what role does symbolism play in your artwork? A big one. I’m keen on symbolism as it helps to inform the picture with more detail and meaning. I'm interested in the depth of feeling in the music. Does a relationship with the bands you create covers for help? Yes. The more I can 'know' them, the more I can understand and communicate in terms of undercurrents, preoccupations, emotional, mental and practical issues. The better the lines of communication, the more faithful the visual representation of the music. You’ve written ten books. What was that like? Book design and writing is a long process but eminently satisfying. Seems the best way for me to archive. Is the title Walk Away Renee a reference to someone you knew? No, Rene Magritte who was an inspiration but gradually became less so. Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin... such iconic artists that you’ve created album art for. Any artists you still wish to collaborate with? Yes... all the others. Why did you think the arrival of punk meant that you were out of a job? We thought we might be out of a job because the punk philosophy was against ideas and meaning... of which we at Hipgnosis were quite fond. How did the arrival of the music video affect the role of cover art? It's a difficult question. On the one hand, it made no difference whatsoever to ourselves. But on the other hand, we at Hipgnosis decided to close and try our hand at videos. How do they compare to your cover art? Which is more fun to make? I think I'm better at covers than videos, so covers are more fun. They’re less fraught with personnel issues and money and are thus more containable. Given that many people’s music collection is now stored on hard drives, what is the future of your medium? Death. Do you regret not working onThe Wall? At the time, yes. Afterwards, no.
PETER GABRIEL SCRATCH (1978)
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Images courtesy of Idea Generation Gallery
Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here (1975) I racked my brains for good ideas as to how to represent ‘absence’ whilst being present. Perchance we stumbled upon the notion of shadows, things that indicate presence but are in themselves insubstantial or not present. These ideas became intermingled with empty gestures, maybe a handshake where people, especially in America, grip your hand warmly but don’t mean too much. From there to absent emotions and thence to people who were absent for fear of being hurt, or burnt, and from that to a person on fire. I remember the conversation with George Hardie, then the fourth unofficial member of Hipgnosis, in which I said hurt people were afraid of being hurt or burnt again and so became kind of absent and George said, ‘Being burnt! A man on fire!’ and I said, ‘Yes, a real man on real fire.’ And there you have it: men enacting an empty gesture whilst on fire, paying no particular attention to the flames.’
Three glowing stick figures loom through the smoke and strobe. An LED display flickers: ‘Digital Rockit’. The tent is packed with sweaty bodies and broken minds as the first beat kicks in. At first, everyone seems awed by what they see: not some guys trying to be cool but gentlemen pushing the limits of musical feasibility. Halfway through the set, some random bloke flips me a thumbs-up. I’d return the courtesy but I have to keep dancing. Words:Ryan Eyden-Photography: PJ Eales, Megan Eloff, Patrick John
THE NEon GOds THEy MaDE
DogSTArr hAd empty beer bottles throWn At him While he WAs peeing Tell us about Digital Rockit. We’re a DJ collective founded on music that might be a little too obscure for the average dancefloor. We met at House Afrika Records, where G-Force sold Fabio his first set of cheap-ass belt-driven turntables and both Fabio and Dogstarr their first records. House Afrika became a place where every Friday we would buy records for the next weekend and share stories about the last. Dogstarr would laugh loudly at G-Force’s story of the 12” we were listening to clearing a floor in Edenvale, and then would without hesitation say, ‘I’ll take it!’
Durban vs Ventersdorp? I think Digital Rockit is just a little too ‘out there’ for Ventersdorp, so we’re going to go with Durban on this one. And also because we had the most bizarre and totally epic afterparty in Durban. We were offered a potjie of chicken hearts for lunch, Dogstarr had empty beer bottles thrown at him while he was peeing and we all had to take turns in the Verimark jacuzzi.
You have three wishes. One each. Fabio: Win the Euro Millions lottery. G-Force: Win the Euro Millions lottery a week before Fabio. Dogstarr: Burning Man.
French Touch vs Detroit Techno? Detroit Techno has been a huge influence on both Fabio and G-Force. Detroit Techno was more than just music: it was about innovation, politics and struggle. It was fresh and inspiring, from mixtapes by The Wizard (Jeff Mills’ iconic radio persona) to recordings of Derrick May DJing at warehouse parties. The French definitely pushed musical boundaries and made some really crazy forward-thinking music alongside the more paint-by-numbers commercial disco stuff they were churning out. The musical creative pool is now global, with kids from the far corners of the earth producing progressive music from their bedrooms. The onset of the digital age has blurred all musical borders and boundaries. Music now transcends time and space. Good music is good music.
THe Scene hAs in soMe inSTAnces DEVolVed
Fondest memory, maddest trip or personal secret? Our trip to the Sonar Festival in Barcelona in 2007 was mad! Let’s just say that ‘pace yourself’ was not a phrase in our playbook until it was too late and we were left licking our wounds in a sorry mess. What's missing from the South African music industry? The ‘industry’ part. There are many passionate artists out there but little support. The radio stations are not industrious enough to break with new, good music; the record companies are not industrious enough to come up with new revenue streams and the public is not industrious enough to seek out new music that they haven't heard on the radio. Label or no label? Label, of course. A label that works hard at maintaining a consistent level of quality and has a strong Artist and Repertoire Policy still has a lot to offer the music industry. The label may not see massive profits from music sales, but they remain a sustainable and creative outlet that should not fall away. What's the dumbest thing you’ve ever done? Dogstarr once took a couple of sleeping tablets, got on a scooter and drove on the freeway with a Garmin GPS in one hand for directions. Don’t try that. Ever!
I was at Rocking the Daisies 2011 and you guys stole the show. Your stagecraft resembles that of an international supergroup’s. You focus on the visual aspect of the performance combined with adroit track selection and shit-hot mixing. Is this something you do for every set? The performance we did at Rocking the Daisies this year was specifically designed as a peak-time festival performance and we would only consider doing it again if the production and time slot was comparable to that of the Daises. But that does not change the fact that we put in considerable time and effort for all our gigs. We never compromise our standards. G-Force, you were at the forefront of the house scene some 20 years ago, winning the Technics Battle of the DJs in 1992. How has the industry evolved since then and what advice do you have for youngsters? It’s been an interesting ride. I think I’ve seen it all: running our own clubs, being a partner in the seminal House Afrika Records, pioneering warehouse parties with a bunch of brilliant forward-thinking people, doing the corporate thing like helping to stage the first MTV & Smirnoff Experience parties. All I can say is: times change and you need to embrace and adapt to what’s current. To me, things have evolved incredibly but the Scene has in some instances devolved. There is just so much on offer and so many fragments of music that, instead of having this huge unity and movement, you have these little pockets of nightlife diversity sprouting all over. When you’re not in front of crowds making people sweat, how do you guys spend your time? Thinking about how we’re going to make people sweat again... When we're not doing that, we have our creative businesses to run and manage. Either we’re all over the country and Africa as project managers or we’re spending time producing Toy-Toy and other similar projects. And we seek as much studio time as possible.
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ISCREAMSTIX: IT AIN’T SORBET
Sprawled across the chairs of their manager's office in Cape Town's CBD are Luke Viviers (vocals), Bheki Dladla (vocals), Just Nathan (guitar) and Tony Shine (bass/resident Brit). The four-piece band iScreamStix is riding national radio charts with the cross-over monster hit 'Skitzo' - a song that defies categorisation as much as the band itself does. The track demands your attention with its mix of glitch-hop, rock ‘n roll riffs and electro breaks. This creative genrebusting prompted Cameron Duncan to sit down with the band.
Tell us about the web series Making It. Nathan: It’s something we’ve been working on for a couple of years but never got anyone to film. Mannequin has since come onboard and so now it’s become a reality (show). Making It is essentially the story of a band’s struggle. We wanted to show what goes on behind the scenes and how fucking hard you have to work before you start seeing any real rewards. Bheki: We’re actually heading to Durbs soon and the crew is going to film us playing golf. Nathan: Yeah, we’re going to dress up in those plaid pants and funny little hats! It’s gonna be rad…
And where will The Paradox slot in at a Musica store? Bheki: Shit, that’s a tricky question. Luke: We actually had a bigwig at one of the stores ask us the same thing. We told him that we don’t really know and he replied, ‘You guys need to be like a laser – focused on the target.’ I asked him, ‘What if we want to be the shotgun and just blow all the fucking targets away?’ Bheki: Yeah, man – we’re just iScreamStix. We’re not a rock band, a hip-hop crew or an electro outfit. But if we had to answer, I’d say ‘pop’ – because who can really define what ‘pop’ is? It’s just popular music.
Let’s talk ‘Skitso’… Nathan: The track was actually one of Catherine Greenfell’s ‘treffers’. We’d been trying to get 5fm to play stuff for a while and had been banging on their door when it just sort of happened. She came across the track on SoundCloud and decided to play it and things blew up from there. Luke: It’s quite surreal. First it came on now and then, then daily and now it’s playing three or four times a day. ‘My Cape Town’ came out about a year and a half ago and that was nowhere near as big. Tell us about your upcoming album. Nathan: It’s something we’ve been working on for a while now and is pretty much in its final stages. Luke: It’s called The Paradox and it’s going to blow minds. ‘Skitso’ is just the tip of the iceberg. People have never heard the kind of stuff we have in store for them. Tony: We’re aiming to have it out by mid-November.
You guys have almost done things the ‘wrong way round’. You have two songs in three years with no album. Luke: Ja, we often joke that we’ve done things a bit arse-about-face. We’ve been touring and gigging with only two songs out, which is definitely not the norm. I mean our biggest and best gig so far was only our second live performance as a band. Luke: It was last year during the FIFA World Cup. We played a show at the Fan Park in Cape Town during the Argentina Germany game. We played to about 47 000 people and the vibe was amazing! You could not have asked for anything better for a second gig. The people loved it and there was such a good energy. Nathan: And then a year later, we play to ten people at The Purple Turtle. Tony: Including bar staff and the cranky-looking manager. Luke: So ja, our career as a band has been a bit back to front.
everything: great music, stage presence, visuals, music videos etc... That touches on this issue of one small seed’s theme of ‘Listen to my colour and look at my sound’ – an exploration of the relationship between sight and hearing. Are the two mutually exclusive? Luke: Definitely not. I would say that the relationship between the two needs to be 50/50. Tony: We don’t just get onstage and act mellow and bang the tracks out. We’re all over the show and the movement and dance and visuals are just as important as the music. Luke: Exactly – and that’s what people are starting to understand now. Take Die Antwoord, for example. Sean Meterlekamp took them forward by understanding the importance of imaging, music videos, performance etc. Ryan Seacrest was actually on the lookout for all things Meterlekamp and that’s how he came across Die Antwoord. I think that gig encapsulates the band really: the World Cup was a special time that brought together so many diverse people.
Leave us with some parting words.
Bheki: Exactly! That’s who we are – that’s what we’re about: people from all over just making good music and having a good time. I mean we have a classically trained musician, a metalhead and a British dude….oh and I’m black.
Luke: This is sort of the band motto and sums up what we’re about: ‘If you’re going to sell ice to an Eskimo…’
Tony: iScreamStix is BEE compliant.
Tony: And don’t eat the yellow ice.
South African music is garnering more respect and recognition than ever before. We’ve always had the talent, so what’s changed?
Nathan: It’s not lemon.
Luke: I think our artists are starting to realise the importance of good production – whether it be of an album or a music video. It counts for so much these days and you need to meet international standards. You have to come into this industry with the mindset of making it big. A lot of it has to do with better marketing and the overall package. Tony: I think South Africa’s talent has been under-utilised. You need
Bheki: ‘…make sure it’s flavoured!’
Photograph: Manfred Werner manniphotography.co.za
Just an Interview with Just a Band 72
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Photography: Gregory Chris
A few years ago, three friends from Kenyatta University in Nairobi decided to make music together. Bill Sellanga, Dan Muli and Jim Chuchu adopted the unassuming name ‘Just a Band’ and released their first album Scratch to Reveal in 2008. The Huffington Post called their 2009 album, 82, ’the sign of a generational shift’ but it was their 2010 single 'Ha-He' that brought CNN to their door and established the status of ‘Kenya’s First Viral Internet Meme’. The track’s video features Makmende, a faux Kenyan ‘superhero’ who takes his name from a mispronunciation of Dirty Harry’s famous invitation to ‘Make my Day’. More anti-hero than caped crusader, Makmende slunk the streets of ‘90s Nairobi as a Shaft-esque avatar of funky defiance and criminal independence... snarling the Swahili equivalent of ‘I’m Batman’. The legend faded into obscurity in the new century until Just a Band’s video declared: ‘Makmende is Back.’ Tamara Arden braced herself for some Kung Fu and asked the questions.
HOW HAS 2011 BEEN? READY FOR THE END OF THE WORLD? 2011’s been good to us! We’ve been busy and we’re really looking forward to next year… unless a zombie apocalypse puts a bit of a dampener on things.
WHAT SENSES DRIVE YOUR MUSIC? We don’t have too much of a synesthetic relationship to our music, but pictures and stories accompany the sound. ‘Save My Soul’, for example, evokes a dystopian kind of story.
WHAT SOUND WERE YOU WORKING TOWARDS WHEN THE BAND FIRST CAME TOGETHER? We were just experimenting and it was as much a discovery for us as it was for the audience. Come to think of it, that hasn’t changed much... We try to keep things interesting by trying out new things and seeing where they lead.
THE CONSUMPTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF MUSIC HAS CHANGED RADICALLY SINCE THE MASSIVE GROWTH OF ONLINE MUSIC SHARING PLATFORMS LIKE SOUNDCLOUD AND SPOTIFY. YOUR WEBSITE IS UPDATED REGULARLY. HAVE YOU FOUND THE INTERNET USEFUL? This band owes its very existence to the internet. It allowed us to put our music and visuals out there when we didn’t have any local support, and that allowed us to build up enough interest that we actually started to become relevant to a local audience. But by then we’d found people around the world who were interested in what we were doing so our thinking had broadened a lot. Physical CD distribution is such a headache but it’s so easy online. What great times we live in!
WHERE DO THE THEMES OF YOUR VIDEOS COME FROM? Sometimes it’s based on the words of the song, sometimes it’s a feeling the music evokes or just a technique that we wanted to try out. We throw suggestions around until we get an idea that works and then we get down to business.
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ON THAT NOTE, WHAT’S THE MUSIC INDUSTRY LIKE THESE DAYS? The industry is crazy right now! All genres seem to exist in one nebulous space. It’s not weird anymore for rock music to show a hip-hop influence or vice versa. Not to mention what David Guetta is doing to everyone. As goofy as the results of that cross-pollination can sometimes be, it’s creatively liberating. New distribution channels and upheavals on the business side of things make this a unique moment for the industry. We’re overwhelmed... but in a good way.
WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND IN YOUR TRAVELS? Perspective. We’ve been able to get a different point of view not only on our own work, but also on how the art and music industry, and creative people’s methods and lifestyles, work in different places. It’s a bit depressing when we come back home and our own industries are so underdeveloped.
YOU RECENTLY WENT TO NEW YORK TO DO AN EXHIBITION AND PERFORM. HOW WAS IT? We were really happy with how it went. The audience was very receptive to what we had put together, which was especially gratifying as we were bringing a bucketload of references from an ocean away and were worried about how the narratives in our exhibition would translate. But it worked out pretty well. And we had lovely crowds: they were open to what we were doing and had such a good vibe!
IN THE MYTH OF HOW THE BAND MET, NOMADS LOOK FOR THEIR OWN TRUTH AND BRING IT FORWARD THROUGH MUSIC. WHAT IS YOUR TRUTH? The group is all about good vibes. As cheesy as that sounds, that seems to be the thread running through most of our work: making something that makes someone else’s day a bit more cheery or funky or transcendent.
WHERE WERE ALL YOUR MUSIC VIDEOS FILMED AND WERE YOU INVOLVED?
WHAT ELEMENTS MAKE UP A GOOD TRACK?
Yup, we’re DIY about everything. We’ve grown to enjoy the sense of control. We just happened to be interested in all this stuff beyond making music and we thought it would make for a more interesting experience for everyone if we could fold all our varied interests into this project. That’s what led to our working on video art installations and such. We think it makes the band a more layered kind of project, both for us and the audience.
The actual tunes! A friend of ours was ranting about how this isn’t about sound design. If someone’s listening on cheap speakers and can’t appreciate some delicate frequency tweaks and that’s all the track has, then it’s a bit of a fail. You want everything to be as good as it can be and all the pieces of the song to harmonize and flow together. But the tunes have to grab you.
HOW DO VISUALS PLAY IN YOUR MUSIC? We don’t necessarily think about the visuals while composing, although sometimes they do evolve together. But it all felt a bit more like the product of one mind once we started making the visuals.
THAT'S QUITE AN ECLECTIC MIX OF ALBUM COVERS. WHO DESIGNED THEM? Jim was our main design guy up until Mbithi Masya joined in. They’re both pretty good at it.
WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS GOT LINED UP FOR 2012? We would love to come to South Africa. We’ve grown up digging and being influenced by South African music, from older acts like TKZee to newer dudes like Goldfish and DJ Cleo. We’re playing at South by Southwest in Texas in March, and keep your eyes peeled for our Fela Kuti covers on the Red Hot + Riot 2 compilation.
IF YOU COULD COLOUR YOUR FAVOURITE SOUND, WHAT WOULD IT BE? The burbling of porridge on the boil would be a light purple.
eleKTRONiK dialogue onesmallseed.com, in conjunction with OLMECA EDICIÕN BLACK TEQUILA, introduces Elektronic Dialogues, an exclusive look into our ever-changing electronic music scene. From the genre’s pioneers to emerging DJs and producers, one small seed goes local and global in a search to find out more about the men and woman behind the glitch. In this edition of one small seed – The ‘Listen to my Colour and look at my Sound’ Issue – we catch up with the electro-indie female duo Blush n Bass and producer/artist Felix Laband aka DJ Snakehips. Check out the videos on onesmallseed.com.
Blush n Bass Candice Heyns and Taryn Pickett sit outside the Waiting Room on Cape Town's Long Street, armed with glasses of wine and trading stories of the night before. They make up the duo Blush n Bass, well known for its hard-hitting and somewhat rare mix of indie and electro that features some of the latest sounds from the UK electro scene. Words: Angelique Redmond
Photography: 187pictures.com
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The duo first teamed up after Candice skipped off on a romantic weekend away instead of planning a set for her gig at Sapphire - so she nervously asked Taryn to play a few tracks with her. ‘The rest is history,’ she explains. ‘People just seemed to like it and from that day we started getting booked.’ Two girls playing hard electro music stand out in a music scene where most female DJs favour more progressive house and techno. Opening for the Capetonian electronic Producer/DJ HAEZER in 2010 saw their sound evolve and move away from pretty vocals and softer electro tracks to a harder in-your-face style. Their addiction to downloaded music and Taryn’s yearly sojourns in London lets them ‘stay ahead of the scene - setting the pace instead of following it.’ And the best part of playing in a pair? ‘Drinking tequilas together instead of standing there by ourselves.’ Candice laughs. Not what you'd expect from two women that look like they’ve just walked off a photo shoot. They are quick to dispel any perception that sexuality adds to their appeal. Candice explains: ‘We definitely try and downplay the whole sexy thing. We see ourselves as the same as any guy DJ. If they see a difference, we just don’t really respond or react to it. For example, we dressed up as nuns for Halloween instead of people who were probably dressed up as nurses.’ 'And not sexy nuns,’ Taryn adds. The two feed off each other’s and the crowd’s energy, preferring spontaneous sets over planned ones. ‘It’s so much more fun,’ Taryn explains. Their repertoire also includes individual tracks mixed under their separate names, Candice Heyns and Miss Pickett, with Taryn favouring tech house, deep house and industrial sound and Candice, who grew up on electro, mixing with a constant four-by-four beat and beautiful vocals. As if headlining festivals in South Africa and north of the Limpopo weren’t enough, they host a monthly Blush n Bass show on 2oceansVibe radio, with Candice, who first caught the radio bug after a 5fm Radio interview, playing a weekly show solo for the rest of the month. The music is an eclectic mix, from lounge music to trip–hop, indie and electro. While they plan on keeping Blush n Bass going, they’re also looking to expand internationally and do more mash–ups and remixes of tracks. They’d also like to start producing their own music. Candice confirms the plan: ‘To get our music out there. We don’t just want to play other people's music all the time.’
eleKTRONiK dialogue
FeliX LABa nd
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music reviews Words by: David Ward (DW), Lulu Larche (LL), Mark Venter (MV)
Warm Ghost Narrows Avant-garde music critics have been excited since whispers of Warm Ghost’s Uncut Diamonds EP were first heard on prominent music blogs like Bandcamp. Narrows, their debut album, makes it clear that their sound remains eerily nostalgic and
A$AP ROCKY LIVELOVEA$AP To the uninitiated, A$AP Rocky may seem a Harlem diamond in the rough, brandishing a Colt .45 in his right hand and a swooning blonde in his left. With his reputed three-million-dollar price tag, the 23-year-old A$AP Rocky faced heavy expectations
Cards on Spokes In You Go What may handicap Card on Spokes’ EP before anyone even hits ‘play’ is the expectation created by his live shows. In You Go is a slickly produced mishmash of dirty bass beats, synths, samples, strings and hot pops of vocals – all of which combine
Real Estate Days
Following their 2009 eponymous debut album, Real Estate has stuck with what worked so well for them the first time round. And why not? Days is a sea of heavyeyed guitar lines and detached no-frills vocals that effortlessly embody Californian surf culture 80
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yet technically contemporary. Comparisons to Depeche Mode are obvious but unjust as the production signature behind the dreamy pop is wholly its own beast. While falling comfortably under the alternative genre chillwave, it’s by no means easy listening with layer upon layer of sound colliding into a collage of synths and haunting reverb. This
rose certainly has its thorns but, while some listeners might feel alienated, Narrows will challenge and reward most. (DW)
to deliver the musical Second Coming. Although the odds are stacked against him, A$AP doesn’t do too badly. Avoiding the usual pitfalls facing newscene kid debut albums, A$AP Rocky disrespectfully denies cheesy cameos from swag-cred seekers and proves to have an ear for interesting producers (including Clams Casino).
What sets LOVELIFEA$AP apart isn’t immediately apparent as it has A$AP’s familiar insistence on including low-pitch backup and the ‘fuck bitches’ attitude that comes with callow self-assurance), but taste, instinct and timing make this young gun well worth keeping an ear on. (DW)
to create a ‘solo electronica/hip hop/afrikaanstrumental’ project. Cape Town producer and composer Shane Cooper AKA ‘Card on Spokes’ played bass in groups like Babu, the Restless Natives and Closet Snare, and his EP – masterfully mixed by Sibot and Dank – is an energetic seven-track soundtrack to any good time out. Yielding to its
in all its retro, super-casual coolness. The first track, ‘Easy’, is about as upbeat as the band gets, and they gradually settle into more melancholic numbers like ‘Municipality’ and ‘Younger than Yesterday’, ending with ‘All the Same’, a seven-minute track in which the last four minutes are dedicated to the steady buildup and release of a single melody.
title, this album guarantees that the deeper in you go, the better it gets. (LL)
This is the stuff of forgotten summers and golden youths. Real Estate are the nonchalant kings of carefree. (MV)
music reviews Words by: David Ward (DW), Kezia Swanepoel (KS), Mark Venter (MV), Claudi van Niekerk (CVN)
Future Islands In Evening Air If you have any inkling of love in your heart for robust and unabashed ‘80s music, then Future Islands could be your new addiction. Formed in Baltimore in 2006, the band toured before signing to independent record company Thrill Jockey in 2009. In Evening Air has a sound unlike
John Maus We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves The third album from Maus teleports you back to the ‘80s with analogue synth-pop dripping in reverb and delay. It’s the perfect soundtrack for any film set in a games arcade, with vintage electronic sounds
Liz Green O, Devotion! Liz Green is a well-kept secret on the English folk scene. After her discreetly celebrated single ‘Displacement Song’ back in 2007, her long-awaited debut album O, Devotion! has arrived with old-fashioned charm and style. Featuring double bass,
Lykke Li
Wounded Rhymes The Swedish singer is back and perhaps slightly more tainted and heartbroken than in her 2008 debut album Youth Novels. Wounded Rhymes takes a dark turn with complex and contradictory lyrics, scratchy guitars and some powerful 82
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anything happening on the post‘80s synth pop/new wave scene. Firstly, composer and vocalist Samuel T. Herring’s strong voice is incredibly disarming. You may not always know what he’s singing, but it definitely makes you feel like you are in a John Hughes movie. Googling the lyrics is a treat because each song is basically an ode or poem with absolutely beautiful lyrics.
‘Visero’s Eye’ begins with a sneaky bassline that bleeds into a soaring melodic romantic rock song with, as Thrill Jockey states, ‘undeniable hooks’. Herring, bassist William Cashion and keyboardist Gerrit Welmers lived together in a small flat that was also their recording studio. Under these conditions, Future Islands have produced some honest rock pop without a trace of self-pity. (KZ)
mimicking lightsabers layered over Maus’ ghostly voice. A philosophy professor by day and crazy performance artist by night, Maus clearly understands the inspiration for experimental tracks like ‘Quantum Leap’ and ‘Head for the Country’. ‘Hey Moon’, a ballad featuring Maus and Molly Nilsson, offers a refreshing interlude amid the
heavy synth basslines of the album. We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves is an intriguing listen and lyrics like ‘Let’s kill the cops tonight’ and ‘Pussy is not a matter of fact’ make this the perfect soundtrack for a family reunion. (CVN)
tubas and a quaint but powerful voice, the album plays out like poetic, understated nineteenth century pub and pirate music. The opening track ‘Hey, Joe’ is not a cover of the American rock standard but rather a slow, gloomy number of Green’s own design (though it does read like a re-imagining of the same story). The album unfolds with
ballads. The upbeat lead single ‘Get Some’ is an expression of female authority with lyrics like ’I’m your prostitute, you’re gonna get some’. A voodoo quality is added to the album with the usage of strong percussion accompanied with noisy factory ambience and chanting. Li manages to carve a bold sound for herself with her high, raspy
a mix of major and minor, sweet (‘French Singer’) and sour (‘Rag & Bone’) songs that portray the roughness, treachery and poetry of life as it might have been a century or two ago. This is good folk music. (MV)
voice that is uniquely her own. Produced by Bjorn Yttling from Peter, Bjorn and John, her music keeps her previous pop aesthetic firmly intact but gives it a demented twist. (CVN)
DJ Shadow The Less You Know, The Better The Less You Know, The Better kicks off with the soul we’ve come to respect of beat-maker extraordinaire DJ Shadow. From the no-nonsense first act onwards, we’re bombarded with his trademark breaks and ‘70s Motown funk. It does feel very
David Lynch Crazy Clown Time
Crazy Clown Time is an anomaly of necessity. David Lynch has always had good instincts in his tasteful addition of classics in his bizarre brand of Lynchian films (now a recognised term). So you’d expect either an album that makes no sense and strives to alienate
Lou Reed and Metallica Lulu Both have been controversial. Both have been ‘cult’. Both have been great… in their day. Lulu is a collaborative concept album by Lou Reed and Metallica based on a pair of plays by nineteenth century German playwright
Oneohtrix Point Never
Replica
Here’s an obscure one. Oneohtrix Point Never is Brooklyn-based Daniel Lopatin’s digital music project and Replica his sixth album. It’s not easy listening and doesn’t see much play in clubs, pubs or Starbucks. It is music for the
Frank Wedekind. It opens with ‘Brandenburg Gate’, a track that sums up the rest of the album with its monotonous instrumentals, aggressive tone and awkwardly delivered spoken vocals. The lyrics reveal fleeting moments of the old Reed, though for the most part he comes across as some drunken Johnny Cash impersonator, rambling and
similar to Endtroducing, almost as if Private Press did not exist. That said, this album doesn’t tread new ground until its middle when ‘Give Me Back the Nights’ steals us. Standout tracks to look out for include the violent ‘I Gotta Rokk’, nostalgic ‘Circular Logic’ and the technically amazing ‘Def Surrounds Us’. The album is split down the middle, pleasing
hardcore and new fans alike with its bipolarity. Don’t let that fool you: DJ Shadow hasn’t had such precise focus in a studio album since Endtroducing. Expect greatness. (DW)
the listener or one that emulates staples and harkens back to Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks. What we get is in itself ironic: a Portisheadesque attempt at pop music. It’s easy to fall under the spell of a practical joke when taking the scalpel to a David Lynch album, but I am under the impression that Crazy Clown Time is a sincere musical project. In that
respect, it is unfortunately pretty average. While this is technically a debut album, its author has been involved in music since Eraserhead days and has no excuse for such forgettable work. (DW)
lost in beatnik catchphrases and drugs. Metallica delivers all-too-brief flares of good music in between the cliché, high-school-band metal riffs that repeat and repeat and repeat throughout the album. Lulu makes me scared to ever pick up a guitar again for fear that I might create something like this and not have the sense to keep it to myself. (MV)
individual, something that envelops and drags you down with it… if you pay enough attention. Lopatin uses synthesizers, cut up samples and endless loops to create dark, foreboding soundscapes that walk a very fine line between intelligent, ominous, self-reflective music and inaccessible, messy madness. Replica is not for everyone but might delight some. (MV)
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HORACE PANTER: IF MUSIC IS YOUR SPECIAL THING
Old rockers never die... they just teach art to autistic kids? Horace Panter was the bassist for legendary ska band The Specials, who shot to prominence as the ’70s dribbled into the ’80s. Their Britain was ruled by a Tory, the streets seethed with race rage and the spectacle of a garish royal wedding transfixed an unhappy nation. The Specials dominated the charts for a few heady years before a highly-publicised and acrimonious split. Horace had an interest (and a degree) in the visual arts and spent a decade teaching art to small classes of children with special needs. He approached painting with the same vitality and passion that he brought to the stage and his playful treatment of icons evokes the shades of Warhol and Lichtenstein. Thirty years after their arrival, The Specials re-united (minus controversial vocalist Jerry Dammers). Horace left the quiet life behind him, but not his brushes. He now balances his time between painting and touring a Britain that is ruled by a Tory, the streets seethe with race rage... and the spectacle of a garish royal wedding transfixes an unhappy nation. Sarah Claire Picton caught him between easel and stage.
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…BUT AS ANDY WARHOL SAID: ‘BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART.’
What was it like supporting The Clash? First time we played with The Clash, I was really scared. The energy, both from the band and from their audience, was of an intensity I had never experienced before. It was daunting, to say the least, to go in front of that crowd, who hadn’t come to see us anyway, and play music. The Clash were kind of aloof, but then again I was pretty shy myself. Did the London Riots of 2011 make you nostalgic?
I’m in post-tour limbo, coming down from the highly stressful emotional and physical rollercoaster of a Specials tour. It takes around five days, so I’m not painting anything just yet.
A different reason this time, not overtly political but nonetheless striking chords. In 1981, it was against the police and the ‘Stop and Search’ law that targeted mainly young black people. This time around, the root cause was the alleged killing of a known ‘gangsta’ by armed police but the manifestation was wholly different: basically kids grabbing as much sports attire as their arms could carry.
Your namesake was a poet. If your pictures were verses, how would they read?
Your wife, Claire, was a member of punk band Flack Off. How did the punk movement affect The Specials?
When I worked as an art teacher, one of my party tricks was to recite Benjamin Zephaniah’s ‘Talking Turkeys’ at the school’s annual Christmas concert. In patois. Great fun. I’m good at Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales too. As you can guess, I like poetry with humour.
The attitude of punk, the creation of an alternative music business, inspired The Specials. That and a way of incorporating reggae rhythms into the punk attitude. Although punk was pretty Neanderthal musically, some of the lyrics succinctly encapsulated youthful rage.
What are you busy with at the moment?
What politics motivated The Specials? Most of the lyrics were written by Jerry Dammers but were endorsed by all of us. Some of us were more political than others but I think our songs were about more than politics. The ‘anger’ of punk rock gave the music its power. Unlike most punk bands, we knew how to play and could thus channel that anger. Why did The Specials break up? An old guy I knew used to say that ‘everything eventually turns to scrubbing’. The Specials were seven very different individuals who only really made sense when they were onstage. And we set ourselves a tremendously punishing schedule. We were burned out by late spring 1980. Too much fighting on the dancefloor? That line was about what happened at The Specials’ concerts. Our later tours were bedevilled with crowd trouble, most of which was football-related. Football is a great safety valve for letting go of emotions. If you really want anarchy in the UK, ban professional football. What else were you doing? Leaving the country. I went to America for a couple of months in late 1980. I also realised it was quite easy to pick up girls. I became adept at coping with hangovers.
And Ska? Ska was the predecessor of reggae... late ‘50s to early ‘60s... based on mento/calypso music with the emphasis on the ‘off beat’. Culturally, it was adopted in the ‘60s in the UK by the Mods. Mods who went on to take drugs became Hippies. Mods who didn’t take drugs became Skinheads. The Specials revisited Ska in early 1979 and made it the cornerstone of our sound.
What other jobs did you do along the way? I’ve never been frightened of working. The Specials t-shirts were part of the business I formed with my wife. By the time I was a ‘white van man’, I was a homeowner and a parent. Priorities tend to change when you’re responsible for other people’s meals. I was a good 'white van man'. That was the fittest I’ve ever been in my life.
When I wrote the book, I honestly thought that was the end of that: I would retire as a school teacher and play bass in blues bands until my hands didn’t work. Going back to The Specials and establishing a career as an artist were not on my radar. However, by writing the book I realised that those three or four years (1978-1981) were the defining years of my life. I am always going to be ‘that bloke from The Specials’. I came to terms with that and it sort of crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s. To view the past objectively isn't always easy but I think I can now.
Tell us about your interest in ‘practical art’. What do you miss about the ‘70s? I’ve always liked the idea of Municipal Art Projects (probably because of the scale). Diego Riviera comes to mind. The idea that a picture could have a positive effect on people’s lives appeals to me. I suppose a propaganda poster serves this purpose too. Icons serve a ‘practical’ art purpose, don’t they? The prevailing trend at art school was a very elitist/Marxist/Conceptualist vibe, the outcome of which was work that wasn’t interesting visually but was at least impenetrable unless you were familiar with the works of Wittgenstein. I just thought that work was stuck up its own arse.
The quick recovery time from hangovers. I like alcohol but alcohol doesn’t like me. What is Horace today? Baffled by the fact that he is 58 and still as mentally energetic as he was 30 years ago. The spirit is willing, the flesh sometimes weak. What will Horace be tomorrow?
You taught art to children with special needs? That bloke from The Specials who paints pictures. Being an art teacher was invaluable in focusing on my own work. My past in ‘show business’ also helped me to ‘sell’ the subject to the students. I found that scale was an important factor. If the children could do a piece of work that was as big (or bigger) than they were, it was generally well received. My real aim was to increase the children’s self-esteem. Art is good for that and it’s great to hear a child exclaiming, ‘Wow ... I did that!’ How did Horace Panter Art come about? There was always a sketch pad around. I was the one who’d go to the art gallery while the rest of the band went to the pub. Being an art teacher provided me with the environment and helped with the subject matter. I can think of several exhibitions that have contributed to where my art is now: Joseph Cornell in New York (1985), an exhibition of ‘Outsider Art’ at Compton Verney (2001). Also some works by JeanMichel Basquiat and various graffiti writers like Peter Blake and Henri Rousseau, to name but a few. I started my current body of work in 2003 and gradually amassed the stuff you see now. I could just ‘paint for fun’, I suppose, but as Andy Warhol said: ‘Business is the best art.’ Any key symbolism in your work? Not specifically, although I sometimes use motifs from traditional iconography and Freemasonry. I would like to think that I have ‘elevated the mundane’ (a pop-art expression), putting my subjects into the context of iconography. That single monolithic image is a very strong one, whether it is Jesus Christ, a postcard seller or a robot. What did you learn from writing your book Ska’d for Life?
I AM ALWAYS GOING TO BE ‘THAT BLOKE FROM THE SPECIALS’
Japan’s Kunihiko Morinaga combines nostalgia with futurism in his newest fashion range, LOW . His work evokes the chunky pixels of 8-bit arcade classics like Pac-Man and Space Invaders , of edible ghosts and angry aliens doing the hokeypokey. Morinaga created the brand ANREALAGE (a combination of the words ‘real’, ‘unreal’ and ‘age’) in 2003 and won the AvantGarde Grand Prix at Gen Art in New York in 2005. He completed his first collection for Keisuke Kanda in 2006 at the Tokyo Towers, Japan’s own ‘Eiffel Tower’. His work with blocky pixels started in 2009, and much of it is housed in Tokyo’s National Art Centre and Stockholm’s National Museum of Art. The designer draws inspiration from the Japanese proverb ‘Suzume no Namida’, which uses the tears of a sparrow to describe something very small but very important. He explains that ‘God is in the details’, and that his craft requires a meticulous eye for the little things that count. Morinaga’s models grace a catwalk dappled by an array of blinking lights and a pianist playing glitchy arcade tunes. Lynn Vullings inserts
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How did you get started? I started making clothes by hand at Waseda University under the name ANREALAGE, and launched it after graduation. What drives your brand? I’m inspired by the doubt separating the unreal and the real world. And what’s left over on any given day. For example, when low-resolution images show up on my computer, I see and feel their beauty even though they are usually abandoned. Another example is blister packs used to package toys, batteries and toothbrushes that you usually see in supermarkets. The packs' contents are considered important and the packs are thrown out, but I felt that they are beautiful – and transformed them into clothing for S/S 12. Lady Gaga hyped the brand when she wore your couture suit made out of 15 000 golden buttons (which weighed 20 kilograms) in an interview on Fuji TV. How did that affect the brand? We make clothing but people sometimes see it more as art than as something wearable. Lady Gaga proved that our clothing can be worn and I really appreciated it. The collections you design are always very conceptual. Is that something that just flows naturally? It doesn’t really flow naturally. I ask myself what I might have missed or what hasn’t been done before. That gives me a theme for my collection. Apart from the clothes, what other elements do you incorporate in a show? I seek the best way to display my clothing at the show. Themes change every season and so does the staging and music. LOW included a runway show with a huge low-resolution movie playing behind it, and music from the 8-bit era.
LOW showcases avant-garde pixelated fashion. Can you explain your creative process? LOW took about three months. First we found a concept, then patterns, textiles, techniques and a factory. This season’s biggest challenge was the use of a new technique of cutting material with a laser and pressurising it to make pixelated shapes. That was high-tech. The most interesting aspect of this season was learning that shapes in low resolution depend on distance. Patterns and shapes lose their silhouette and meaning until you see them from far away.
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I believe that our generation should marry the medium’s past with our new explanations
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You’ve carried the concept of low resolution over to the ANREALAGE store. How do you transcend your work? The concept of the season always flows in my mind. I like to link the ideas behind clothing to my displays and spaces.
LOW has received positive reviews from fashion critics and you’re considered a promising designer. How do you compare yourself to big names in the fashion world like Victor & Rolf, Commes Des Garcons and Martin Margiela? I don’t compare myself to them as they are all amazing designers. I was influenced a lot by these designers when I was at school from 1998 to 2002. I believe that our generation should marry the medium’s past with our new explanations. How do you keep your designs both fresh and practical? My primary aim is to make clothing that can be worn casually. Most designers seem to want people to wear avant-garde and formative designs, but I think it’s important to balance artistic designs and daily comfort. I try to make an impact and surprise people, but I also want to provide wearable clothes.
Do you have anyone specific in mind while you design? Fighting women. What's your opinion of the use of underweight models? Not sure, but I doubt the beauty of clothes on thinner models. I’ve had collections of wide and slim items and both were beautiful. What is success? Changing the history of fashion. To make the unfashionable fashionable.
I try to make an impact and surprise people, but I also want to provide wearable clothes
now showing
ONE SMALL SEED.TV AND JAMESON IRISH WHISKEY BRING LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL POP CULTURE TO LIFE WITH ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT THAT HITS YOU LIKE A CHAIR IN THE FACE. IT FEATURES INTERVIEWS, DOCUMENTARIES, PARTY CLIPS, FILM TRAILERS, NEWS, VIEWS AND BEHINDTHE-SCENE LOOKS AT FASHION, DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY AND MUSIC. SO HEAD TO ONESMALLSEED.TV FOR TELEVISION WITH A BIT OF EDGE AND A LOT OF ATTITUDE. HERE ARE SOME OF THE MOST GRIPPING VIDEOS ON ONE SMALL SEED.TV.
Jeff Staple
This interview with founder and creative director of Staple Design, Jeff Staple, takes a look at the origins of the New York design studio in 1997. It’s an insightful look at Staple’s design philosophy and inspiration, from the streets of the Lower East Side to mix tapes and streetwear. The interview also takes a look at the processes behind Reed Space, one of the best boutiques in New York, and how it was founded by Jeff Staple quite by accident. Length: 06:33
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Influencers
Written and directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, this short documentary explores what it means to be influential and traces the path of trends as they trickle down from opinionshapers into pop culture. With Polaroid snapshots of New York and interviews with the top influencers in New York, this film questions the origin and spread of influence. Length: 13:56
EARTH TIME LAPSE VIEW FROM SPACE
These photographs, taken in a time-lapse view from the international Space Station, explore serene and tranquil views of Earth from outer space. City lights shine through the atmosphere and make the blinking map look alive. The photographs were taken between August and October 2011, and use a special low light 4K camera. Length: 17:00
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Press Pause Play
Press Pause Play questions asks whether democratised culture means better art, film and literature or the flooding of mass culture by the digital ocean. Accompanied by an interview with Moby, this is a provocative interrogation of the role of technology in empowering or stifling today’s artists. Length: 10:54
Berlin die Sinfonie der Grosstadt (Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis)
Shot in black and white, this silent film was made in Berlin in 1927 by Walter Ruttmann. The soundless images are reminiscent of the Kino-Eye film style as they cut quickly back and forth, seemingly disjointed until the train pans past the camera. A sleeping Berlin is unmasked and slowly begins its daily routine. Berlin takes the audience back to a time in film history before colour and sound could distract the senses.
Morpho Towers: Two Standing Spirals
Two Standing Spirals is includes twin ferrofluid sculptures moving synthetically to music. As the sound ebbs and flows, the iron spirals grow rows of spikes radiating upwards. The installation is a sensory marriage to technology and beauty is inescapable as the towers’ pulsate and uneven rhythms ripple across their dense surfaces. Length: 02:45
Imaginary Landscapes
This four-part documentary on Brian Eno showcases the patron saint of ambient music with in-depth interviews and a close look at his music and life. Imaginary Landscapes peeks into the inspiration behind his imaginary landscapes of images and music is a 40-minute exploration of a modern artist at the cutting edge of the ambient music scene. It was made in 1989 and directed by Duncan Ward and Gabriella Cardazzo.
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book reviews ‘scuse me while I kiss the sky: 50 moments that changed music by Paolo Hewitt and Bruce Hackney published by Quercus (2011)
This compelling book illuminates iconic tropes in music over the last half-century but is far more than a collection of trivia and anecdotes. It acknowledges that rock ‘n roll really changed the world and locates each of its subjects within a wider sociohistorical context. Solid research takes the reader backstage at legendary performances like The Beatles’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show or Ziggy Stardust’s final gig, and Hewitt explains the events behind darker moments like the Hells Angels’ heavy-handed crowd control at Altamont or the disappearances of Joe Strummer and Richey Edwards. Easy to dip into but hard to put down.
Juxtapoz Tattoos by Henry Lewis and Roger Gastman published by Gingko Press Inc. (2008)
Juxtapoz Magazine emerged in the mid-nineties as the strident voice of ‘lowbrow art’. Today, it has the highest circulation of any art magazine in the U.S. and demonstrates that skill and talent exist beyond the boundaries of traditional art forms. Juxtapoz Tattoo acknowledges the once-rebellious tattoo's assimilation into the mainstream and focuses instead on the sheer beauty and artistry of ink. This collection of 200-plus pages with full-colour illustrations of body art provides an excellent source of inspiration or simple aesthetic pleasure.
Destroy Rankin by Rankin
published by Gestalten (2010)
Youth Music celebrates ten years of using art to help Britain’s disadvantaged youth with the release of this dramatic collaboration. Over 70 global giants were invited to play around with their own portraits, as taken by legendary photographer Rankin. This book probes the role that imagery and branding plays in modern music, giving space to musicians to deconstruct their own identities and the lens through which their fans view them. Each shot is accompanied by an explanation, or at least a pithy quote, and interviews add insight into the motivations behind the project.
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Arabic Graffiti by Pascal Zoghbi and Stone aka Don Karl published by From Here to Fame Publishing (2011)
Urbanites have been scribbling their social, personal and political angst on walls since the classical period and this book explores the role graffiti plays in expressing contemporary Arab ennui. Persuasive yet sensitive essays accompany a selection of arresting images as Arabic Graffiti explores the motivation behind the street art displayed. Academics and artists offer in-depth analyses that locate each work in its socio-historical context without losing the vital pulse that the art embodies. Offering an interesting insight into the heat and beat of Arabic streets and challenging Western tendencies to homogenise the Arab world, Arabic Graffiti is an interesting read whether you’re a disciple of graffiti or not.
Writers United: The Story about a Swedish Graffiti Crew by Bjorn Almquist and Emil Hagelin published by Dokument Press (2009)
Writers United: The Story about a Swedish Graffiti Crew provides an intimate look at the passions and poisons of the United Writers Football Club, a crew of six driven street artists. Probing interviews, evocative prose and trenchant exposition illuminate sumptuous photographs of the UWFC’s lives and artwork – providing an adventure in social anthropology as well as an exploration of an enduring art form. Mutual respect between authors and crew creates an honest space in which the motivations and methods of these unfettered young men are laid bare.
The Art Museum edited by Amanda Renshaw published by Phaidon (2011)
This ambitious book seeks to capture the magnificence of the Phaidon virtual art gallery in physical form. It could probably be considered the most comprehensive collection of art ever assembled. Starting in the Stone Age, encompassing every corner of the globe... this book captures it all. And therein lies its problem: It’s too heavy. This may sound like a petty concern, but reading this book (that weighs in at over seven kilograms) is physically demaning. If this tome lands on your coffee table, it’s staying there. It covers all artistic media and is studded with essays, which do not distract us from the book’s protagonist: fantastic reproductions of... everything. Riveting reading for dabblers and aficionados, and a source of exercise for both.
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www.onesmallseed.mobi
THE SEEING AND THE HEARING When you read this sentence, what do you see? Do you see a sentence that reads: ‘When you read this sentence, what do you see’? If you do, I despair for you. I really do. That is not what I meant to say at all. What I really wanted to convey was, ‘My left ankle is itching and it could itch until tomorrow.’* See? If you cared to really pay attention, you would have noticed the way I was scratching my ankle. But no – you only chose to see the words printed on the page. This brings me to my point: we cannot trust all that we see and hear. There could be liars all around us. We need to learn how to weed out the mendacity. There are many things people lie about and it can be very difficult to tell when they are lying, but these rules should be able to help you tell truth from fiction and smoke from mirrors.
Pay attention to eye contact. They say that if you are talking to someone and they look up and to the left, they are lying to you. Apparently this is linked to some left/right brain thing but it’s all rather boring. This technique could pose some problems if you are a tall pirate and have a parrot on your shoulder. You may find your fellow interlocutor’s gaze flitting to the top left. It must of course be noted that if the person you are speaking to is also a pirate and they are looking in that direction, then they must be lying because one can safely assume they are used to parrots. Watch out for body language. See how the person you are speaking to is rubbing their chin or crossing their arms? This means that they are trying to protect themselves from something. What you should do to get the truth out of them is move closer and closer until your noses are almost touching. If the person you are speaking to backs away or crosses their arms, they are definitely lying. I have personally tried this technique and found people have gone so far as to lie to me about their gender and even their names when I stand very close to them and ask them
questions. My own mother crossed her arms when I stood nose to nose with her and asked her if she was a woman. I can't believe she lied to me for all these years.
Beware the internet Everyone on the internet is lying. All the time. No exceptions. Go and have a look at http://www. onesmallseed.net/ and see how many people claim to be having a good time. Everyone knows that life is nothing but misery from start to finish, interspersed with periods of intense embarrassment and pain. All those online smiles and raised bottles and glasses... nothing but lies! This doesn’t even cover how people misrepresent themselves. I was just days away from marrying Heidi Klum online when I found out she had married a seal. I don’t believe in polygamy and bestiality is just disgusting. And who wants to live in a harbour anyway? Heidi Klum is a heartbreaker. I just can’t believe she led me astray like that. She told me she loved me and my profile pic (I found it on a model website and the guy looks exactly like me. Okay, he’s a bit thinner and he can open tins with his cheekbones, but other than that we could be twins. He’s a black guy and I’m a white dude, but really: the resemblance is uncanny). If any of you see Heidi Klum online, tell her from me that she’s a liar and she broke my heart. Now someone hand me some R200 notes from that pile of money I made as a freelance writer. I need to blow my nose. - Paul White * This is a lie on top of a lie. What I meant to say was: ‘I’m selling sperm from my car every Saturday.’ † † Also a lie.
Illustrator: Mark Venter