In a cover feature he did with Bubblegum Club earlier this year, Felix Laband told us of his desire to push his music forward by making it more topical and confrontational. But sometimes you have to retrace your past steps to go forward. Dropping on the 30th of September, the Bag of Bones EP seems he taking a Janus-faced look at his past and future.
At first, when I saw that the EP has provocative titles like Righteous Red Berets and Donkey Rattle- Kill The Boer I felt a lot of trepidation. There has been a tendency in South Africa for certain white artists to substitute racist stereotypes about African and post-colonial dysfunction for valid critiques of the present ( serial offenders include the writer Rian Malan and artist Anton Kannemeyer). But while Laband’s accompanying EP notes acknowledge that South Africa is undergoing an unsettling period of change, he is coming from a more interesting space than boilerplate white panic ‘ the record speaks of hope, anger, love and dreams.’ Berets in fact draws its inspiration from beyond South Africa. The epic track is built around an emotive vocal sample of the great America murder ballad Stakerlee, which rests on a soft bed of warm synthesiser swells. It sounds positively elegiac, like a gospel song contoured for 2016. But the vocals become even more unsettling, as samples of contemporary South African racism mix with dialogue about notorious cult leader and mass murderer Jim Jones. As with the horror movie lifts on his last album Deaf Safari, he combs the archive to mix horror and beauty. This extends to his own past , with a remix of his most famous song Donkey Rattle modified to revolve around a sample of political action in 1960 Soweto.
Amidst all the political background , the EP’s most satisfying song is it’s intimate title track. Bag of Bones is a warm collaboration with Shane Cooper of Cards on Spokes fame. Putting aside tension and conflict, it has a lovely pastoral feel. Overall, this is another great release by one of SA’s most consistently introducing producers which leaves you wanting more.
Buy the Bag of Bones EP here