“At an early age, I learned that what was said was not always what was meant, and this became my first lesson in the power of words. I also came to understand the influence of unspoken language.” Vocal Alchemy explores how choices are actioned through both expression and spoken language. Reflecting on the power of…
Both hailing from Vosloorus in the East Rand, it was their mutual love of poetry that brought Keabruh and Jay.B together. Now residing in Johannesburg, the two have been making music together since 2016. “The only way we could get to be heard was to put a beat to it. People resonate more with music than…
When I hear the name Deadly Bites, I imagine a lurid, D-grade exploitation movie from the 1970s or 1980s. It could be an Italian Zombie film, where the poorly made-up ghoul’s stumble around biting actors who utter badly written dialogue in roughly dubbed English. Alternately, it could be a revenge of nature tale where a…
The Other Records started as a small section in a clothing store a year ago and has since morphed into a physical space. Featuring a selection of music you’d be hard-pressed to find in other shops, The Other Records specialises in primarily electronic music from all spheres. The small space is colourful and filled with…
Listening to dJinns, an unassumingly dope two-piece musical project from Jozi, I genuinely struggle with the fact that they’re 18. There’s a maturity and nonchalant coolness to their work that even at my big age, I don’t think I could ever achieve. Francesco Mbele (Vocals and songwriting) and Jesse Elk (Producer and composer) seem to…
When I first opened the link to The Temple’s new EP Lusaka, I was blown away by the effervescence of their music. While the release harkened back to the optimistic beat of 1990’s Kwaito, it’s dense, swirling production is utterly contemporary, clearly in conversation with the hardness of Trap and Gqom. But unlike those intense,…
Summer is on its way, which usually means sunshine and good times, but for some of you, it’ll mean heartbreak as your significant other decides they’re FINALLY done with your shit, and discards you for a rotating roster of holiday lovers. Whilst you look back over the last few months/years/decades and think about all the…
“I spent a lot of time by myself so I never really engaged in what was happening” explains RRA of his childhood in Rustenburg. While his older brother lay his rap foundation by introducing him to hip hop in Primary School, his attraction to alternative sounds and artists came from scouring the internet discovering music…
LCD displays building inch by inch of pixelated data. Grotesque, mutant like clay sculptures basking in red tones open up a peculiar night terror filled with white light reminiscent of an operating theatre from space opera cinema. An alien feeling prevails. Detachment. Then we see him in a glass case. Intersections come to mind between…
As noted in a discussion on the cultural value of Hip Hop on Oxford University’s Arts Blog, Hip hop as a musical and global cultural form forces us to think critically about what we define as valuable knowledge, who we recognise as knowledge producers, and how knowledge can be created and shared. The study and…
Just over a year ago, a new home for music and creativity opened it’s massive wooden sliding door in Durban’s Rivertown precinct. While most of the Rivertown “urban renewal” project in Durban has pretty much failed, with spaces that were promised to become cultural hubs, like 8 Morisson and ‘The Shed’, laying dormant, there’s a…
With the release of his first international album, Everyone’s Just Winging It and Other Fly Tales, Kenyan producer and performing artist Blinky Bill brings together his various influences and experiences that have shaped this multifaceted artist. Raised in Nairobi, the soundtrack of his youth featured his mom’s religious songs and dad’s vintage Congolese sounds. Later on,…
