 |
   |
It is sometime in 1943, autumn or winter judging by the man’s jacket. His dark coat looks new and, in the black and white photograph, matches the colour of his neatly combed hair. The man in the photo holds a camera. It is tilted sideways and focused on a wall. In the black and white photograph, the camera’s antique flash has already, or is just about to make that Hollywood sound. Pooof! read more…
(9) (0) |
 |
COMMENTS (3) |
Up until now, my experience of the intimate downstairs area of Mercury has been dedicated to getting loose to the thrashes of d’n'b… getting sweaty to beats that assault the crowd with dirty audio pleasure. This all changed the night of the 18th. That cold Wednesday night, I experienced what I can only describe as feelings of nostalgia – nostalgia for a time that I was not even a part of, and for memories that didn’t belong to me. Amongst a small gathering, Amsterdam’s underground folk singer-songwriter Lucky Fonz III would be performing, and despite my ignorance to the melodic realm of folk music, I felt a distinct familiarity to the music and to the crowd. read more…
(10) (6) |
|
COMMENTS (20) |
Smuts Ngonyama once infamously, symptomatically said: “I didn’t join the struggle to be poor”. We know all about that now! Shit Julius wasn’t even a part of the Struggle – and he’s definitely not struggling being poor. As erroneous and conceited as that statement is though – I get it. Smuts and many others like him heroically “faced the evils of an oppressive system” put in place long before their parents even made eye contact. They deserve acknowledgement, fuck they deserve way more than that read more…
(24) (5) |
|
COMMENTS (22) |
At first look, and by most standards, Bad Lieutenant is a batshit crazy film. However in the context of it being a Werner Herzog remake of an Abel Ferrara film starring Nicholas Cage it ends up feeling lazy; a series of easy and crudely handled jokes. This, being a Herzog film, may be the point, a great nihilistic shrug at random cruelties of existence. read more…
(5) (7) |
|
COMMENTS (16) |
Talk about failed expectations and let-down hopes. There is a girl, she has a sailor hat on and a fake moustache and she is, perhaps, the hottest thing I’ve seen at the Assembly, ever. I want to fight her boyfriend and hold her hand and tell her beautiful things and dance with her in a magical world. Then the Great Apes take the stage, she takes off her moustache and all dreams crumble. She’s just another non-descript indie girl in a crowd of others just like her. This, sort of, goes for the band as well. read more…
(19) (3) |
|
COMMENTS (74) |
While the world, (or is it just The Fader?) goes mad for Spoek Mathambo, he’s doing his nut over OK Malumkoolkat, colab-ing with London electronic outfit LV on this joint. With beats and moves like these we know he won’t be working at the Gallery forever.
(8) (4) |
|
COMMENTS (8) |
If ever there was a woman who marched to her own beat, it’s this one. With her regal sense of style, genre-defying music and steady refusal to bow to trends, Simphiwe Dana has balanced sales, SAMAs and street cred to rise above her many contemporaries in a relatively short space of time. read more…
(11) (4) |
|
COMMENTS (16) |
Goth fans of country pop bands fascinate me. Not that there are any country pop bands other than Wrestlerish, that I know of, that have cute goth girls down front chanting the lyrics; verse and chorus. Wrestlerish have been touring hard and at the Saturday Mercury gig with the Jack Mantis Band and Tidal Waves that much is obvious from the tightness of their set. If anything, it’s a little too rehearsed read more…
(12) (3) |
|
COMMENTS (28) |
 |
Shark |
|
Face it Boet |
|
Fiddle East |
|
Videocracy |
|
A Crutch called a Comma |
|
Schuks Tshabalala |
