Bubblegum Club

Tag: Christian Tiger School

  • Stiff Pap at the forefront of Future Kwaito

    Stiff Pap at the forefront of Future Kwaito

    Since dropping their debut EP ‘Based on A Qho Story’, Stiff Pap have consistently been thinking of different ways to push their sound and live performances, competing with previous versions of themselves. Their agility and future-oriented vision has seen their fan base growing exponentially, revealing how they are plugged into the direction fans want SA music to move.

    Being at the forefront of a new genre, Future Kwaito, Stiff Pap appreciate and embrace its current amorphous nature. This open-ended framing of the genre restricts sonic inhibitions, meaning that global sounds and styles can be combined freely. This demonstrates their understanding of the global music context, with a grounding in South African associations of rhythm and lyrical storytelling. In this way their offering is something familiar yet different.

    “I feel like we’ve gone beyond what people would traditionally understand not just as Kwaito, but even Future Kwaito…We took the sound in a different direction, it’s more industrial and dark,” one half of Stiif Pap, Jakinda explains.

    With their sonic roots in Kwaito, they manage to seamlessly combine this with hip hop and electronic sounds. “We [are] trying to take something which is abstract and European and make it ours. We call it Kwaito instead of hip hop because Kwaito is basically the Southern African version of hip hop. It is a perfect description of what we [are] doing right now, but we don’t want to be boxed [in],” Ayema explains.

    Stiff Pap look to past and present musical history to reinvent the familiar. Their injection into the industry opens up a new avenue of progress for hip hop and Kwaito. “Changing the scene and breaking boundaries is really important to us, we see ourselves as a beacon of hope for all the kids who want to do alternative music.”

    Drawing on the varied sounds of Kanye West, Christian Tiger School, Schoolboy Q, Vince Staples, Teargas and the gqom wave, collectively they continuously attempt to disrupt the musical status quo. “Production-wise, I listen to more electronica than hip hop. I don’t actually know how to make hip hop beats, but in a way we are hip hop artists. So I think we’re showing people that hip hop is a much broader genre than they thought, especially when it comes to South African hip hop,” Jakinda explains, “We’re showing that you don’t have to rap in English to be international. You don’t have to sound American.”

    Style and image play a role in how this is translated for audiences. “A lot of people really like us because they feel like we represent them. We’re young black kids doing left field electronic music. We basically represent the black kids that are weird and different and trying to find themselves.”

    As a duo Stiff Pap represent how disruption can arrive through simplicity.

  • Christian Tiger School on wax

    It’s been just over five years since Christian Tiger School burst onto the scene with their memorable first single ‘Carlton Banks‘. Since then the duo have grown as musicians and producers, with their sound changing along with it, and their live show expanding to include Rueben Crowie on drums. Having played at Sónar in Barcelona, SXSW in Austin, Texas, Primavera in Spain, and CMJ in New York City, they’re making an impression both locally and abroad.

    Over the years their sound has evolved from being rooted in beats and jazz to being more influenced by the likes of house and techno. This is especially evident on their latest release, ‘If You Want To‘. “We were definitely interested and intrigued by the length and structure of techno and house and not necessarily as much looking into hip hop or the beat scene,” explains one half of Christian Tiger School, Luc Veermeer,. “There are a lot of layers that go gradually in and out, it’s the same chord the whole time being held throughout the song and the same bassline. This is something we took from house and techno, filtering a pad or filtering the bassline, making it short or long or only the lows being played. To take away the repetitiveness of it and make it seem like a transition. We definitely tried to make it gritty.”

    ‘If You Want To’ is not only a step in a new direction for Christian Tiger School, but also their first physical release, with Berlin-based label Lissoms releasing it on vinyl. Featuring remixes by Lissoms label head Edmondson as well as Georgian producer Gacha Bakradze and artwork by Niall Greaves, putting together the release has been an easier process than expected for the duo. “It’s almost been too simple. Everything’s been presented and it’s worked out really easily. Given the fact that it is our first physical release it’s been great. We’ve had more trouble posting an EP online, never mind getting a 12” pressed,” says the other half of the duo, Sebastiano Zanasi.

    Starting off 2018 with a physical release, Christian Tiger School are looking to follow it up with the release of an EP in the first quarter of the year, while their collaboration with the experimental British jazz drummer Moses Boyd is looking to be released in April. During the South African winter, Christian Tiger School will be in Europe on tour and looking to spend some time in London after their tour is complete to immerse themselves in the scene there. “We’re always really sad when we have to leave and things always seem to kind of happen before we get there or just after we leave so we want to try and take full advantage of being there and stay there for a while,” Luc states. “Yeah for sure, things usually tend to unfold or happen as we’re leaving so we definitely want to spend more time and network and spend some time immersed in the music we’re really into and try and build a bit of a reputation there,” adds Sebastiano.

    Listen to and order ‘If You Want To’ on Bandcamp:

    https://lissomsxyz.bandcamp.com/album/if-you-want-to

  • Music and Technology at Fak’ugesi Festival

    Now in its 4th year, the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival is a celebration of technology, creativity, collaboration and innovation from across the African continent. The festival includes a range of seminars, talks, exhibitions, workshops, hack-a- thons, films, artists, games, innovation riots and music. With highlights including the Fak’ugesi Conference, Making Weekend as well as Fak’ugesi Beat, a new curatorial partnership with WeHeartBeat that focuses on beats, music and technology.

    The Fak’ugesi Beats program is multifaceted and includes the week-long Fak’ugesi Beats Lab workshop, the curation of panels at the Fak’ugesi Conference and the Fak’ugesi Beats Bloc Party which sees the festival outcomes come to life. Red Bull Studios Johannesburg at the Tshimologong Precinct will play host to the workshop which includes Soulection’s Hannah Faith, videographer Foxy Neela, French Soulection beatmaker Evil Needle, Swiss beatmaker Melodinsfonie, alongside the local Mante Ribane and the Dear Ribane collective working on a collaborative piece the result of which will be showcased at the Block Party and also see the work pressed to vinyl.

    Two of the panels at the Fak’ugesi Conference will be examining the influence of technology on music. ‘Future Beats’ features Joe Kay, founder of Soulection and pioneer of the Future Beats sound, Evil Needle and trap jazz pioneer Masego. The conversation will look at how the digital age as influenced new genres in music and what this means for musicians and artists as a whole. The second panel discussion ‘Sonic Visions’ will be an examination examination of collaboration between film, design and music. With a panel that features singer Nonku Phiri & Rendani Nemakhavhani who collaborated together on a music film, Foxy Neela, Hannah Faith, Mahaneela Choudhury-Reid of WeAreInBloom, and Benoit Hicke of the French F.A.M.E Festival the aim is to have a playful conversation that engages with the audience.

    The Free Workshop Program at the Making Weekend allows the public to gain hands on experience in areas from programming and creating gaming controllers, to robotics and music & film. Led by French/American artist Yann Seznec, the workshop ‘Room to Play’ explores the world of DIY musical controllers and instruments. Making use of everyday objects the workshop will challenge attendees to reimagine what a an instrument is and placing limitations on its function thus challenging the design strategy of commercial controllers. “How do you make a digital instrument that’s more difficult to play? And then thus what kind of questions does that open up?” asks Yann Seznec.

    According to Seznec DIY musical controllers and instruments have had a large impact on the performance of electronic music. “It means that you can do electronic music performances that are more meaningful to an audience. One of the big changes in electronic music in the last 10/15 years was that everything could be done on a laptop. With the downside of it being pretty uninteresting. I think what’s nice about DIY instruments is that it brings new methods of performance to the world,” notes Seznec.

    The Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival will culminate with the Fak’ugesi Beats Bloc Party which will feature the outcomes of the festival’s various collaborations as well as a selection of some of the finest local and international artists including Masego, Joe Kay, MNDSGN, Melodiesinfonie, Evil Needle, Hannah Faith, Nonku Phiri, Christian Tiger School and Petite Noir. “We’re trying to setup an international beat festival and present artists that we feel are making headway internationally and deserve platforms and deserve to be heard. So we feel like we’ve put together a really beautiful lineup,” says Dominique Soma of WeHeartBeat. “We’ve worked with artists that apply the traditional analog way of music making in terms of playing traditional instruments but then creating it in a digital space or through a digital process,” she adds.

    Unique on the continent in its offering, the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival highlights the importance of the cross-over between culture, creativity and technology in Africa. With the addition of Fak’ugesi Beats the festival is examining the relationship between music and technology and this program will expand over the coming years. “We’re still looking to explore the relationship between the two spaces in the long term. Over the next few years you will see that crossover coming to life a little bit more,” notes Dominique Soma.