Bubblegum Club

Tag: Dirty Paraffin

  • South Africa, What’s Up? Residency at ANTiGEL Festival

    Over the last 8 years ANTiGEL Festival has grown to become one of the largest cultural events in Geneva. By bringing artistic experience to parts of the city that are detached from this kind of engagement, the festival aims to be a reminder of the importance of making spaces for arts and culture. Africa What’s Up is a residency that falls within the festival. Artists from South Africa and Egypt have been invited to put together an evening dedicated to cultural music and cultural production on their countries.

    Photography by Chris Saunders

    Throughout the week-long residency, South African and Egyptian artist have been interacting with cultural producers from Mali, Nigeria and Switzerland. It has also provided a moment of pause and refection. In addition to the time spent networking and teasing out performance plans, artists have been able to engage with one another and the residency organisers in daily roundtable discussions. This expands the purpose of the residency to that of a space for conversations that directly affect artists. These include conversations around womxn’s access to performance time and how this is connected to networks, resources and development. Discussions also included the larger question of access for artists in general with regards to visa applications and funding to sustain their practices.

    Photography by Viviane Sassen

    Even though the residency has a focus on music, it also embraces the importance of cross-disciplinary pollination. This can be seen by the performance element.

    South Africa’s CUSS Group and the Swiss cultural organisation Shap Shap co-curated the South Africa What’s Up lineup, which includes performances by FAKA, DJ Prie Nkosazana, Dirty Paraffin and DJ Lag. Choreographer Manthe Ribane and Swiss electro-soul duo Kami Awori will be presenting their collaborative effort. Having met in Johannesburg, they have combined music, choreography and a visual display to present a full sensory experience.

    Photography by Kent Andreasen

    What is particularly important about the residency is how it encourages cross-disciplinary pollination and has opened up discussion around what it necessary to facilitate easier access to gigs and spaces for African artists. It has also provided a space to draw out how these kinds of conversations need to be translated into pragmatic steps for action.

    Photography by Chris Saunders

  • The Good Dokta Outer Space Type Music

    Earlier this year NASA released declassified files debunking a conspiracy theory which had grown up around the 1969 Apollo 10 mission. According to the legends, astronauts had reported hearing inexplicable sounds as they orbited the dark side of the moon. However, the NASA info revealed a more down to Earth explanation- hearing static from their radio statements, the astronauts joked that it sounded like ‘outer-space-type music’.

    An entire library could be written on how the vastness of space, from our local system to the infinite cosmos beyond has inspired musicians. In the same year as Apollo 10, David Bowie had his breakthrough with Space Oddity, and shortly after Pink Floyd sold millions with Dark Side of The Moon. More recently, space themes have permeated hip hop. Outkast announced they were Atliens and Lil Wayne claims to be a Martian. DJ Esco and Future’s latest Esco Terrestrial seems obsessed with the search for life beyond Earth.  And with his remarkable 2015 mixtape Gemini, The Good Dokta looked from South Africa to the stars above.

    This unfairly slept on project is the work of Durban born Dokta Spizee, who first came to prominence as one half of Dirty Paraffin.  With Gemini he takes a giant leap beyond his earlier work, showing his strength and substance as a solo instrumental composer. The song titles reference emerging stars and black holes, red suns and exploding supernovas. And the music lives up to this grandeur. It is stirring and emotive and leaves you with a sense of glowing positivity. Dust (Nebula Theme Explodes) begins with a driving instrumental, before exploding into an anthemic vocal hook. The eerie Gravity replicates the sense of seeing the Earth from orbit from the first time.  The End is the sound of watching the sunrise on a distant planet.

    Awe, anxiety and majesty all together. This powerfully cinematic music owes as much to the soundtracks of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien and Interstellar as it does to hip hop.

    The Good Dokta will be teaming with Chanje Kunda for this weekend’s TABOO event, an immersive performance experience held at Bubblegumclub’s Newton Junction headquarters. Running from 3 to 7pm on July 2, it is a must if you are looking to expand your mind beyond the bounds of Earth.