Bubblegum Club

Tag: electronic

  • The performers bringing SA flavour to M.I.A’s shows

    The performers bringing SA flavour to M.I.A’s shows

    M.I.A will be performing for the first time in Africa in Cape Town and Johannesburg on the 7th and 8th of June, and some of South Africa’s best talent will be sharing the stage with her. The selection of DJs and performers bring together sonic and creative experiences that touch on South African genres and their evolution. K-$, Jakinda, and Angel-Ho, will inject SA flavour at the performance in Cape Town, passing the torch to Buli, DJ Doowap, Phatstoki and Dear Ribane the following evening in Johannesburg. I interviewed the supporting artists to find out about their connections to M.I.A’s work and what audiences can expect at the shows.

    This will be the first time Cape Town will get to experience one of Angel-Ho’s live sets. When asked about the connection M.I.A’s fearlessness and determination and their own musical journey, they expressed that, “being fearless is something I grew into, being on stage my whole life, I developed a strong sense of self playing the roles of many characters. The same sensibility and comfort of performing is my greatest strength and I think that speaks to my journey to empower the voiceless.” Buli shared similar sentiments stating that, “I’ve always stayed true to my sound. I’ve never compromised my art for the purpose of trying to appeal to mainstream/commercial crowds. I think that’s the one thing I’ve always taken away from observing M.I.A as an artist. She always stays true to herself and sound; she never tries to compromise her music or herself.”

    K-$ will be kicking off with a 2 hour set, taking the audience on a trip down memory lane, and then increasing momentum for a real jol. Jakinda will draw on his Afro-futurist and industrial sound, while allowing space for experimentation. Phatstoki’s appreciation of feeding off the crowd’s energy will be the guiding premise for the set. As someone who enjoys re-inventing herself through fashion and music, DJ Doowap will be mimicking her brightly coloured hair and striking clothing with bass tunes. Transcendental and futuristic will be the name of the game with Dear Ribane, while Buli brings together a mix of electronic and ambient elements backed up by hip-hop based/inspired drums.

    With fearlessness, determination and an understanding of the connection between music and movement as the thread that is present in the journey’s and work of each performer, these shows are definitely not ones to miss.

  • STASH CREW’s latest EP is the electronic soundtrack for a gender fluid future

    STASH CREW’s latest EP is the electronic soundtrack for a gender fluid future

    The future is gender fluid. Probably. I mean, if there is a future. With the current climate, who knows how much longer we’ll inhabit this planet for? What I do know is that more people these days are starting to open up to the idea that sexuality is a spectrum and so is gender, which bodes well for a less binary future. STASH CREW’s GENDERFLUIDZ, as you can probably tell by the title, is a jacked up electronic soundtrack for that future.

    Right off the bat, we’re greeted with a booty popping opener called Pop (Dat) which I can only describe as Smack My Bitch up in a washing machine of bass. It’s a fun opener that gives you a solid idea of what you’re in for over the next 7 songs. You’re in for is a queer as fuck retro-futuristic rap-rave jol. Think Die Antwoord, but with less cultural appropriation and more lyrics about women eating pussy.

    “The realities of living as a queer person in South Africa are brutal. We are inspired by the transformative and inclusive possibilities of queer culture and how we can counteract the challenges and violence that queer people face on a daily basis,” STASH CREW explain in their press release, “We want more queer positive, sex positive people celebrating themselves and their wants and desires – and dancing every damn day”.

    GENDERFLUIDZ will definitely get you dancing, and it truly is 2 queer kids from Jozi celebrating themselves, with touches from Umlilo, HLASKO and Schall Regall. Whyt Lyon, Phayafly have a close working relationship with Umlilo. In 2017 they toured Brazil and Germany with Umlilo as part of their ‘Queer Intergalatic Alliance’ collaborative project, and Umlilo also features on their bonus song and video for GENDERFLUIDZ, Mad as Hell.

    Photography by Corrina Mehl

  • Fortune Shumba and Dubokaj Collab on an Emotional Dub Release

    I know pretty much fuck all about Reggae and Dub other than the UB40 tapes my mom would play in her Uno Fire, and nights out at Cool Runnings. I also saw Damian Marley live in a haze of smoke at Blue Lagoon for Zakifo. That’s about it. Other than that, they’re not really genres I’ve ever gotten into. Like, I smoke a lot of weed, but not enough to bop to dub at home. And reggae has just kinda always felt like Gospel music for Rastas.  

    So, that I find myself listening to ‘Dubokaj Meets Fortune Shumba’ on repeat is a new experience. I find myself entranced by the experimental reggae and dub beats of Dubokaj and hypnotised by Fortune Shumba’s soulful vocals. On Soundcloud, the release is tagged as reggae but 3 of the 7 songs are dub mixes. I’m not great at telling the difference tbh. Dub is what reggae sounds like when played in the bath, right? Cause this definitely has that dreamy underwater feel with synths echoing through the haze.

    Lyrically, Fortune cynically explores lust, love, and relationships. From the opener of Trinidad Babies, in which he swears it isn’t a love song, to the moody Nobody in which he laments through a vocoder how much nobody knows how much he misses “you”, Fortune takes a more emotional and sentimental approach than I typically wouldn’t expect from music I typically associate with potheads.

    I don’t know too much about the swiss producer Dubokaj, unfortunately, although his work on this project makes me want to explore more of his catalogue. I do know, however, that Fortune has shown he can’t be pigeon-holed and has added his touch to a variety of beats by collaborating with a wide range of artists over the last 2 years. From his ‘Dawn EP’ in 2015, to now, the back-up dancer for Moonchild has steadily been putting together a body of work that’ll see him in the foreground of stages in days to come.

  • From the Bath to Inner and Outer Space

    I’ll tell you one thing, Song’s From The Bath is a fucking trip. I’ll tell you some more things, I just felt like that was a good way to start. What else do you want to know? Is it a homage to Max Normal’s Songs From The Mall? No, no it is not. Did Thor Rixon actually write it from a bath? Nope, I asked him. He said “The bath is a metaphor.” “Like”, “as”, that sort of thing. Oh, you want to know how the album sounds? I just told you, it’s a fucking trip. Have you ever done psychedelics? Yes? Well there you go. No? Then listen to the album. These songs may not actually be from the bath but they’ll take you to inner and outer space my dudes and dudettes. An adventure of magical musical discovery awaits.

    First though, a warning before you go adventuring: If you just fully don’t like experimental music, then maybe this isn’t the journey for you. Don’t listen to the album and then be like, “Why are there birds chirping? That’s so lame.” This is the type of album that has birds chirping follow hectic rave parts. But also, gentle, ethereal chords that linger and stick with you after being washed out by reverb and literal water as the next song kicks in. So yeah, it’s experimental, and emotional, and eclectic. It’s chaos intricately woven with order. There are layers to this shit. Deep, deep layers.

    If those sound like qualities you like in an album, you still might not be emotionally ready for it. I don’t know where you are in your life. I don’t know how this is going to make you feel. That said, you should listen to it anyway because trying new and experimental things is good for your personal development. Personally, I feel weird. I feel overwhelmed. I feel like I’m staring at the space between stars, contemplating my existence whilst my body slowly floats down through my chair. I feel like that’s a cheesy line, and I’m not even sure what the logistics of ethereal form would be, but bare with me. I’m trying to tell you that Songs From The Bath makes me feel, and it’s going to make you feel too. What will you feel? Well, that’s up to you.

    ‘Songs From The Bath’ contains 7 tracks with featured artists such as; Alice Phoebe Lou, Hlasko, Itai Hakim, Olmo, among many more. The album marks Rixon’s 3rd full body of work after 2014’s ‘Tea Time Favorites’ and 2013’s ‘Shared Folder’. ‘Songs From The Bath’ has also been pressed to vinyl and is available in limited edition blue or standard edition black vinyl, available from Roastin’ Records.

    Rixon will be hosting 2 live and improvised performances of the album which will be held in Cape Town at The Centre For The Book in Gardens on Wednesday the 1st of February and in Johannesburg at The Bioscope Theatre in Maboneng on Saturday the 4th of February. Each showcase will feature; Alice Phoebe Lou, Hlasko, Olmo, Pavlov and more. For more details regarding these events please visit;

    CT – https://www.facebook.com/events/1835599113395368/

    JHB – https://www.facebook.com/events/1785322511793234/

    Tickets will be limited and only available online via Quicket.

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  • Jakinda – Storming Heaven

    The first time I opened the Soundcloud link to Jakinda’s  Afrika 3000,  I felt a powerful surge of the uncanny. And by uncanny, I don’t just mean mysterious. Rather it was the sense of what Freud famously called ‘ the unheimliche’. That is the sensation of a strange familiarity, the jolt of déjà vu. Or, as Jack Nicolson put it before the Overlook Hotel drives him insane in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining  ‘When I came up here for my interview it was as though I’d been here before. I mean … It was almost as though I knew what was going to be around every corner’.

    Indeed, the epic Intro reminded me of the cosmic soundtrack of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey– both disconcerting and awe-inspiring. After bursts of ambient noise the track naturally takes a turn into driving gqom and trap inspired beats.  The following three songs deepen this epic vision. As with Dokta Spizee’s Gemeni mixtape, it’s as if the grimy intensity of SA electronic music is being broadcast out to some alien civilization.

    The artwork for the EP highlights the Pyramids against a sea of stars, against people in majestic robes and face paint.  A pure distillation of the aesthetics of Afrofuturism. The vast body of Afrofuturist literature, music and visual art mixes Science Fiction with historical reality to explore the experience of the African diaspora, through metaphors of alien invasion and technological shock. The mixing of the ancient and the futuristic has an important utopian component, a yearning to both redeem and escape from the horrors of history. As jazz great Sun Ra once put it ` I`m playing dark history. It`s beyond black. I`m dealing with the dark things of the cosmos’.

    Afrika 3000 cosmic focus speaks to a broader futurism within contemporary dance music. Artists like Gaika and Fatima Al Qadiri have focused on the dystopian sounds of today, making beats out of bullets and broken glass. Jakinda holds things down for the utopian end, using the cosmos as symbol of future freedom and possibility.  His music hums with a palpable yearning to storm the heavens.

  • Maramza: Low-key but Kwaai-fi

    “Low-key” is a phrase Maramza uses multiple times in our half-hour phone call interview and it’s an apt way to describe the ever-evolving producer. I’ve met Maramza, real name Richard Rumney, a few times and he’s always struck me as the quiet, reserved and observant type – someone who would rather listen than talk. When he does talk, it’s usually to ask a question so he can get some insight to process whatever it is he’s already thinking. So that I managed to get half an hour of conversation out of him is quite something. “I’m very introverted, I guess I’m shy, you know?” He explains when I ask him if he considers himself an introspective cat. “I don’t drink, I used to but I don’t anymore. I’ve been partying for over 20 years so when I’m out now, I’m just there and observing, listening to the music and chat to a few people, but I’m not like “Yo, this is my best life, I’m outchea.” That ended a long time ago. Since I’ve been doing Maramza, it’s been like that. The thing with Maramza, the whole idea was to be low-key. When I first started it was this incognito, low-key thing. I was just kinda not feeling Richard The Third and wanted to release a very different style of music. Originally, no-one knew who I was. But then people showed interest and I was like “Now I want the gigs and I want to be known.” If anything, now I want to go back to being low-key again. Which is kinda weird now that I’m on the Bubblegum Club cover.”

    Originally from Joburg, Maramza, then known as Richard The Third, moved to Cape Town in the early 2000s to be part of the fresh wave of electronic music in South Africa. “In the 2000s, I was very inspired by Cape Town electronic music and I think that was a general feeling in Joburg, that Cape Town were the guys who were doing the most forward thinking shit at that time.” He tells me. “African Dope, Real Estate Agents, Felix Laband, Lark and even Goldfish, they were just doing the coolest shit, you know? and I was very inspired by that and that’s essentially why I moved to Cape Town, I wanted to be a part of that. When I got there that was probably the tail end of that era, moving into the kind of Discoteque, electro era and the dubstep era.”

    The move did Maramza well and he soon found himself deep in a flourishing Cape Town scene he’d admired from afar, “For me, it felt like there were days when all of us in that scene were lucky. Discoteque was a weekly event, the dubstep parties were quite regular, it felt like there were quite a lot of venues, for a whole lot of us it just felt like a lot was going on club wise, event wise there was a very enthusiastic vibe happening, and there was just a lot to do.”

    Since then, things have changed a lot in Cape Town. On a commercial level, people are following the global 4/4 to the floor resurgence, and in the underground, young folks are more politically conscious, and aware of identity, privilege, and power. Maramza makes note of this, “I feel that in Cape Town a lot of young people are woke now, you know? They’ve awoken and are looking at things, and a lot of young people are angry and they see things differently. I think similar groups of people hanging out in the 2000s weren’t so concerned or conscious of it, now they are. Especially around race, gender and sexuality. Not being okay with the way things are, justifiably, and not wanting to support things that aren’t willing to change in that way. As a result, I think there’s a transition, I’m hoping that we see the change now. There’s a crew called 021 Lit, there’re Uppercut parties on a Friday, and when you look at those, at the audience there and actually the DJs themselves, and you feel like, now I’m older now- I’m a guy who has been doing this for a long time- I look at that and think “This is what younger people wanna see. These are the DJs they want to see get put on and who they want to see become successful, who they want to hear making music.””

    Adjusting to a scene whose identity is shifting away from your demographic can often be met with resistance. When asked how he’s adapted to the change in culture over the years, Maramza answered thoughtfully, “I think the simple answer is that you just need to be low-key, as low-key as possible. If you’re an older white guy, pull yourself away from any feeling of being offended, or wanting to see things in a certain way, or feeling miffed because things aren’t a certain way. Invariably, that’s going to be your privileged, old-school perspective coming through and that’s just not going to help. You’ve gotta lose that shit, just drop it, it’s gonna cause problems.”

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    It seems Maramza has learned a lot since being called out for culturally appropriating gqom, “I had this thing when gqom started blowing up, I was like “This is so dope, I want to do my own version of this” and I was actually called out on it online in an article. It really got me thinking, “Fuck, well, that’s true. I can’t do that.””  Maramza has since moved away from the sound and is more aware of his place in the world. “I’ve been very lucky, I am privileged, I’ve had a lot of things work out the way I’ve wanted. I just need to listen to other people and connect with the right people, that’s very important. It’s about proximity. Who do you spend your time with? Who are you listening to? You can’t force that but I think if your intention is out there to be like “I don’t want to be in a world that’s a white privilege bubble”, as much as that’s automatically where I fit in, especially in Cape Town, but if you put the intention out there, you’re more likely to be opening up and connecting with people that aren’t a part of that bubble and they will make you think differently.”

    Maramza’s low-key vibe is also about putting others on. When asked what he’s currently working on, he casually replied with “Not much”, and proceeded to tell me more about other artists than his own music. “I started a kinda label project towards the end of last year called “Kwaai-fi”, and I want to do that which really looks to highlight corners of scenes in Cape Town that I think could do with a bit more love and I also would personally think would be nice to connect together. Like the bass music scene, the house music scene, the sjoko joko scene. The guys who I’ve already worked with for “Kwaai-fi”, Terrasoul, DJ Fosta, they all just have a fresh Capetonian, South African take on things. I wanna pursue encouraging those kinds of artists to put out music and remix each other and do it through that platform as “Kwaai-fi”.”

    Maramza has already been such a crucial part of the SA music scene, but this next era might be where he has the most impact. Not just as a producer but as someone dedicated to continually pushing the culture of electronic music in South Africa. It’s important for the old guard to use their knowledge, experience, and connections to help the new wave successfully take over, and through “Kwaai-fi” and keeping it low-key, that’s exactly what Maramza is doing.

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    Photography by Luke Maritz

    Styling by Luke Bell Doman

     

  • Techno in the City: the story of TOYTOY

    Run your finger through the history of techno and you will eventually come to the source: Belleville, Detroit in the mid-1980s. It was here where the Belleville Three — Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May — first melded Chicago House, Funk, Electro and Electric Jazz to create the blueprint for what we now know as techno music. It was a sonic fusion at the very foundations of today’s club culture. ‘Clubbing’ as a practice is threaded with the histories of warehouse raves, inner-city politics and underground counterculture. And its soundtrack was a blend of techno and acid house: alternative electronic music. Nearly three decades after techno’s inception in Detroit, one of its founding fathers, Kevin Saunderson, would find himself on the decks at a small basement nightclub in Rosebank, at a weekly event called TOYTOY.

    I sat down with Fabio — owner, promoter and DJ at And Club — to talk about the history of the TOYTOY phenomenon.

    Reflecting back on his initiation into Johannesburg nightlife during the 90s, Fabio recounted stories of a club called Idols. Positioned on End Street, in Doorfontein, it would later become ESP: a landmark in the Johannesburg rave scene. During the mid-90s, inner-city Johannesburg experienced a forceful rave movement and Fabio immersed himself in that scene. This is when he says he first started to draw distinction between the music he was hearing on the radio, and the alternative, electronic dance music that reverberated through city raves. He decided to try out DJ’ing, regularly rummaging for vinyls at House Africa Records, on Louis Botha Avenue.  It was here that he first met Graham Hector (G-Force). “He was fundamental in getting the rave scene going”, Fabio told me. “I was star-struck at first”.

    In 1997, Fabio moved to London, where he collected music and experienced the night-scene, later also spending some time in the Netherlands. When he returned in 2000, the rave scene had settled. Deep House was starting to take off in a big way, and although he enjoyed the sound, for Fabio this wasn’t party music.

    Feeling like Johannesburg club culture was missing an alternative electronic scene, he and Ryan Vermaak (Dogstarr) began throwing parties, having both also been involved in line-ups for festivals like Rustler’s valley. Teaming up with G-force, they formed a DJ collective called Digital Rockit.

    The first TOYTOY was thrown as a once-off event at Carfax, and, in line with the theme, saw the venue draped in inflatable toys. The Carfax venue already had important weight in the city’s rave scene, and in the tradition of global culture was converted from derelict industrial space into a club space. TOYTOY’s aim was to fill a gap in Johannesburg’s club culture, offering the best of alternative electronic dance music, and attracting both international and local talent.

    During the noughties, Digital Rockit put on multiple parties, often losing money in each iteration. “We a used to spend ridiculous amounts of money on sound. Double, triple the amount of money that other promoters would spend. Because we believed this was the most important part of the event”. But something felt different about TOYTOY, and the team started playing with the idea of hosting it as a weekly night.

    They began in the basement of Capital Music Café in Rosebank. “On the first night we had about 30 people and we had an international DJ. It was horrific. We thought, ‘What have we done?’ But slowly somehow we started connecting with an audience and people started coming”.  It was during their time at Capital that the indomitable Kevin Saunderson featured on the lineup. Craig and Grant Van Rensburg (Sound Sensible) also came on as important partners, as did Andi Dill. At this stage TOYTOY drew an older crowd, many of whom were friends of the organisers, but it also started to attract a much younger generation, which Fabio found heartening. “We would hopefully spawn a new generation of DJ’s and producers and people who see potential in this music”.

    From very early on, the organisers of TOYTOY started to give pedantic attention to the sound quality, investing in expert sound systems. “People felt the music. Really in their bodies. The base was powerful. Without that, TOYTOY wouldn’t be what it is now.”

    When Ryan and Fabio opened the first And Club in the basement of Braamfontein’s Alexandra Theatre, TOYTOY became the Friday night party. Owning venue would help them sustain TOYTOY, for which they had thus far only been claiming door revenue. The duo acquired a ferociously expensive sound system from the UK. The Void Acoustics Air Motion was the first of its kind in South Africa. The event ran there for some time, but ultimately moved to its current Newtown home. The move also entailed a fundamental creative component. “We had to wrestle back creative control. [Unless it’s our own venue] it’s not gonna look the way we want it to look”, Fabio said.

    When they moved And Club to Gwi Gwi Mrebi, Fabio and his team were absolutely pedantic” about how they wanted the space laid out. “We’ve situated the bar in the middle. It [the club] is compact. It flows really well. There’s an outside area.” Regulars at TOYTOY speak about the spaciousness of And, the ease of accessing the bar, and the wooden interior. The crowd travel mostly from the Northern Suburbs. Some come from as far as Pretoria and Centurian.  “I’m a firm believer in inner-city clubbing” says Fabio. “I just don’t think it should be in the suburbs. At all. From a noise level point of view, to people out on the streets. And just the edginess of what the city brings you.” It makes sense, Fabio went on to say, even within the narrative of electronic music. Jo’burg is a tough, gritty city with many comparisons to be drawn with Detroit.

    The predominantly white (but nevertheless mixed) partygoers at TOYTOY are not representative of Johannesburg’s inner-city working class. But they have nevertheless become significant participants in the city’s night culture, where TOYTOY features prominently in the weekly calendar. Today TOYTOY attracts approximately 500 clubbers weekly. The magnet remains the music, attracting international artists from the world’s most renowned clubs, including Berghain (Berlin), Trouw (Amsterdam) and Fabric (London).  Over the years, TOYTOY has hosted a sea of local and global acts including Kill The DJ’s, Butane, Dubspeeka and Transmicsoul. Together, the resident DJs probably have close to 80 years of experience behind them.

    Uncompromising music curation is at the heart of TOYTOY’s success. “You shouldn’t really ask to play at TOYTOY” Fabio says. “You should be invited. To play there you kind of have to be an established DJ. You have to be doing your thing. You have to be pushing your sound.” Fabio tells me DJ’s will prepare for as long as two weeks before a TOYTOY set.

    And because the music and the immersion are primary, TOYTOY does not allow photographs, and cellphones in general are discouraged. “We don’t want you on your phone” says Fabio. “It’s about bringing you into the music. Close your eyes”.

    “[TOYTOY is] about what we curate as a music experience”, Fabio explains. “When you start reaching people and they start connecting with you on that level, it’s not copy-able.”

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  • Angel Ho- Energy Without Restraint

    In the comic book series The Wicked + The Divine (written by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Jamie McKelvie) ancient gods return to Earth in the form of modern pop stars. The series wittily bases its super beings on real life icons. Lucifer is a riff on David Bowie, Odin is essentially a member of Daft Punk and so on. The story shows the extent to which the contemporary consciousness is stalked by the fame machine. In the same way that our ancestors projected their hopes, desires and fears onto mythological beings, we worship at the altar of sound and vision.  Look at how Michael Jackson and Prince have effectively being deified in death. Under the screens of daily life lies a harsher and brighter world of wild emotion and uncontrollable dreams.

    South African musician Angel-Ho is an artist who profoundly understands this collective cultural unconscious, and how to manipulate it for their own ends. Through their recordings, image and performances they conduct the iconography of pop into transgressive realms. A key example is the blistering ‘ I Don’t Want Your Man’, a mutation of  a Keyisha Cole sample into the national anthem of  dread post-human robot empire.

    The Cape Town based producer has become an acclaimed global underground figure over the last year. With their brutal music and assertive non-binary queer image, Angelo Valerio was identified by many publications as making the perfect soundtrack to the tumult of Rhodes and Fees Must Fall. Their musical output is combined with intense live performances. Dancing on glass and a carefree attitude toward pyrotechnics. They is also a founder of the NON Collective, one of most visionary, intense electronic labels out there. NON has also been blowing up this year, with one of their most recent releases being his spiritual allies FAKA’s mind expanding Bottoms Revenge. They share personal visions of glamorous extremism- glitter and tinnitus, gold paint and bloody wounds.

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    Angelo’s first brush with musical glory occurred at the Manenburg Jazz Club when they was a little kid- ” little did I know the song I loved the most ‘ I love you Daddy’ was going to be performed live by Ricardo Gronewald himself. So he called me on stage, and I had stage fright throughout the whole performance, omg! All I do now is laugh because it was embarrassing, but it was funny because it happened at his gig!” The former child star sadly passed away last year, but as Angel-Ho notes ” he lives on”.

    This charming anecdote may almost seem out of place with Angel-Ho’s dystopian and sexualized work. But while they deals with intense subject matter they sees their work as embodying a hard-won optimism. In response to a question about how politics impacts on his practise, they suggested that it’s about keeping positive in dark times. ” There’s no escaping reality and fantasy, they are the same. Of course, what happens around you affects you, and people collectively. With every event that happens globally, we see the repeating of white supremacy and collateral violence which comes out of a desire to maintain power. You see it in South Africa, you see it everywhere in scales. It makes me want to spread good energy and make tracks which counter negativity. What better way to step away from negativity then to let it thrive in itself, like a parasite with no wound to feed on?”

    To this end, 2016 has seen them spreading good energy around the world. They recently took on the Performa Biennale in New York, in collaboration with Dope Saint Jude, Vuyo Sotashe, Jackie Manyaapelo and Athi-Patra Ruga. Their forays into the world of High Art also saw them unleash the firestorm of his Red Devil performance on the Berlin Biennale. This performance was inspired by the Kaapse Kloopse festivals- ” Red Devil was a desire to be your complete diva self, in my drag. It had a lot to do with the Red Devil performer who  traditionally lead the atjas in procession, and would scare the kids away alongside moffies. Red Devil, in my case, was chasing away fears, in celebration of the things which make people separate from each other. It became an intervention where I performed a re-birth of my feme energy, without restraint, using fire to light the way.”

    The performance has the Devil transformed into a character called Gia. The theme of transformation is central to his work more generally “our generation leads by not conforming to gender, race, sexuality… As a performer it became important to tell the narratives which I live day by day, to be fearless”. And with their track record, the secret projects they has lined up for 2017 are bound to be as fearless.

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  • Bubblegum Club mix Vol 8 by Hlasko

    Just over a month ago we featured Hlasko on the cover of Bubblegum Club. He described music as “a calling” and even a process of divination. Today he opens up a portal into his future through a stirring 11-track mix which includes 5 new Hlasko productions.

    For a little more insight we spoke to Hlasko about the mix and what’s influenced the development of his sound.

    Why did you choose to place your tracks alongside the other songs in the mix?

    The arrangement of the songs was to me an interesting way to create contrast and give a teleporting (back and forth) feel to a series on similar moods/themes expressed at different times.

    There seems to be a development in your sound from ambient, drum driven patterns to more percussive rhythms – would you agree? whats influencing it?

    Yes, this is a thing now for me, I feel like there is an urge to zoom in lately, I’ve become less interested in the patterns but rather into the forms within the patterns  so I guess it becomes more rhythmic, and I’ve listen to a lot more West African drum music lately.

    Your tracks have always had a very spiritual feeling and some still do but there is also a more menacing feel, is this your way of reflecting or commenting on the state of the world in 2016?

    Possibly may be reflecting and projecting, yes. And also 2016 has been menacing.

  • Bubblegum Club mix Vol 6 by Thor Rixon

    Cape Town based producer Thor Rixon has blessed us with an eclectic mix, filled-to-the-brim with deep melodic gems and  beautifully textured soundscapes, all his own original productions. The mix was originally performed live at Churn Festival where Thor performed alongside other local and international acts pushing the boundaries of electronic music.

    Thor revealed that most of the music that made it on this mix was produced earlier this year when he spent a few months living in Berlin and according to him the rich concentration of great electronic music coming out of Berlin was a huge influence to both his live performance and his production.

    Keep and eye out for Thor Rixon’s upcoming album set to be released in December but for now listen to this exclusive mix and acquaint yourself with the direction his ever expanding sound is taking.

  • Healer Oran- Serving The Afro-Noise Medicine

    Since 2014, Healer Oran has been creating a library of ‘afro-noise’ releases. Healer hails from the Eastern Cape, but has more recently been based in Johannesburg. And much like the harsh  Midrand sprawl,  his aesthetic is all about  the power of disruption and  dissonance. His ear is tuned to the abrasive potential of the many genres this continent has produced. Relentless percussion and repetition tell the story of social realities  moulded by an apocalyptic past, runaway technologies and strange mutations.

    In his previous interviews he has listed an enticing list of influences. His love of furious music ranges from the stately jazz of Charles Mingus, to the provocation of Throbbing Gristle and The Fall and the epic post-hardcore of Texan legends At The Drive-In.  Most intriguingly he has drawn from the demented world of Japanese Noise and in particular the infamous Hannatrash. During the 80’s, the group terrified Tokyo audiences with their destructive tendencies, including bulldozers being driven into the back of venues and plans to throw Molotov cocktails off the stage!

    But unlike some of his more brutal antecedents, Healer Oran favours subtlety and nuance over raw power. This has been a consistent theme in his prolific run of albums too date- The Recognitions, Jerk, Love Is My Only Shield, Darling The Pickled Fish and Mirror For A Saint.

    ‘Camomile Parrot Blues’ begins delicately with whispered vocals. As the song progresses it starts to steam and hiss, culminating in a menacing beat. On the more aggressive Jerk, the songs show a punk quality, which is given the genre categorisation of ‘violent house’ on his Band Camp page.  It’s a useful description for his work as a whole. By focusing on the aggressive aspects of African music, he entices the listener down into the dark alleyways of contemporary life.

  • 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.