Tag: experimental

  • Hlabelela or The show must go on: The Brother Moves On solo show at Goodman Gallery

    “Make it look like a Spaza”, these were the words overheard as we waited to enter the gallery. The Goodman gallery on upper Jan Smuts drive would be the esteemed venue for the evenings show. The Brother Moves On (TBMO) made up by the members Siyabonga Mthembu, Zelizwe Mthembu, Ayanda Zalekile, Simphiwe Tshabalala and Mbalikayise Mthethwa, are a high energy jazz performance group. On this balmy night at the Goodman Gallery I would get to experience their first solo exhibition entitled Hlabelela. In Zulu, Hlabelela means to sing yet it would be in this exhibition that the brothers would not be doing their usual set. They would instead be selling us the ‘South African dream.’

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    The event would be set during South Africa’s bidding to host the 2010 soccer world cup. TBMO would toss out their usual brightly covered garb of tights and topless dress for somber grey suites and hard heeled oxford shoes. Even their usual collaborator, Kyle De Boer’s persona of metallic eyed and shadow winged character called The Black Diamond Butterfly, would be wearing his suite for the event. The boys would be the sharp tongued escort that would convince the FIFA delegates that South Africa is the number one choice.  The part of the delegates would be stunningly played by the audience with their free wine as the perfect prop to get us all into character.

    The brothers did a fine job in selling. Upon entry we would be greeted by gold covered pots. One of which would be filled with water like the copper bowls filled with holy water at the entrances of old Christian churches. TBMO were telling us that this gallery site was now a holly site and we would need to baptize ourselves and enter clean. Yet the next visual to greet us would be an arrow pointing our next direction with the words ‘Songs about death’ attached.

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    The exhibition would feature many corrugated structures spray painted in gold. By the entrance a non-functioning toilet with the warnings “Parental advisory, explicit lyrics” where one could take a photo of themselves whilst watching a video over a Brocken latrine. Ceiling lamps, bull skulls, cricket helmets with human skull and ear phones dangling from ceilings; all these artefacts painted in gold. White walls would feature constant messages of encouragement. “Say something stupid’, “Alice in Pondo land” and my favorite “I’m on lunch” acted as testaments to experiences of dealing with state bureaucratic procedures. The brothers were selling us a country that was living but was ‘not working’. They showed us a country with toilets that didn’t function, where heritage is ready for sale to the highest bidder. The bull, a treasured animal with cultural significance to many peoples on the continent, would be given at a special price even.

    The exhibition would also feature videos of the boys as well as girl, the group’s manager Ghairunisa Galeta. The images were un-astounding to say the least and featured impromptu interviews and quirky conversations of the band on tour. This event would be a performance of the band performing themselves as well as a country on its knees performing to the highest bidder. Yet this would all make sense too during the Q and A afterword when one of the members stating “We brought Philip here to remind us of how stupid we act to an international audience’.

    This exhibition would be an examination of what it means to perform as a black body to a white audience or a white capital owned space. The boys were doing their thing, making money, getting famous. A poster even featured a portrait of the boys written “we are finally on a Bill board”. The group would further comment to the audience “we sold ourselves in a time when it sells, realizing that we are pointing out what we are implicit in.”

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    The brothers would give the example of a previous winner to a prestigious art award, a Sangoma who was denied from slaughtering an animal as part of a ritual performance. Such acts show the contradictions of being black within white spaces as we are only able to act as such to the extent that a white audience deems acceptable. Yet it is those very white spaces, galleries and the paying art buyer who decide the value of one’s work and how far the young artist can go in his profession. The brother’s exhibition was in response to this as well as a perpetuation of it in their decision to host their exhibition at the Goodman.

    An audience member and travel comrade of mine, Dr Nolwazi Mkhwanazi a Wits anthropology lecturer, would for me, ask the most pertinent question of the evening. “Knowing that this is an exhibition of poverty porn, what is the line between subversion and co-option?” The group would sharply respond and end the gallery event with the words “I don’t we are having a black majority conversation.” This is a question pertinent to what it means to deal with the inequality and injustice faced by the majority black South Africans. This exhibition may not have held the answers but it definitely provided a good start to where we should begin our investigations of what it means to take “the South African dream” seriously.

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  • 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.

  • Mashayabhuqe, the Modern Maskandi intersects tradition and the avant-garde to capture the millennial mood

    Mashaya shows up to Father Coffee just a few minutes late for our interview and he quickly allows me into the landscape of his life these days. He is fresh from AfroPunk in Paris and we fall into step chatting about his experiences in Paris.

    He is refreshed and ready to work on more music, now on the other side of Amancamnce mixtape, released last year with a host of cosigns from the upper echeleons of the creative industries along with a feature from his friend uMalume KoolKati and a sampling of the original Urban Zulu Busi Mhlongo.

    The Black Excellence Show first released in 2013  introduced Mashayabhuqe KaMamba as someone to watch, and be enthralled by, it presented him and his unique blend of the traditional and Zulu with the digital and urban. He has even been successful enough to have a few copycats, but he’s already onto the next concept, and scheming on greener pastures.

    Mashaya occupies a niche space in South Africa’s music scene, his influences and style collide the past and the future, and his perspective is about walking in creative purpose and pushing the boundaries of what performance and urban music mean within this space. An individual steeped in his tradition and culture, with a mind opened to the global possibilities of his craft.

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    ‘Why are you here? Am I here to make things that are acceptable to the community or am I here to challenge people’s minds?’

    With that said this alchemist of modernity and Maskandi is doing it like it hasn’t been done in a minute, and he has worked with some of South Africa’s legends. I mean real legends; KingTha For The Babies, was a groundbreaking challenge for emerging artists to win a free feature from Le Grande Artiste herself, Thandiswa Mazwai. Mashayabuqhe won it. Now, they have a song, ‘Izayoni’ together. We both geek hard for a second. Then he says, ‘She’s amazing. I listen to the song and pinch myself all the time, her music moulded uMashaya, noBusi Mhlongo, no James Blake and Bon Iver…’

    For a moment I consider Mashaya’s forebears and then him as the next bearer of the legacy both Busi Mhlongo and Thandiswa have built upon. That pioneering perspective that broke new ground and resonated with the culture of coming to Johannesburg to follow a dream and grappling with urbanity and modernity, dealing with the anonymity and isolation of the city while using it to propel yourself to new heights.  It is not a new story, but it presents us with a new face, a new hero every so often; some of them shed their skin and make a whole new persona, eschewing their roots for a brighter future. Mashaya revels in his culture and eschews expectations and definitions, consistently curating his own style, always looking to do what the industry is too afraid to; break musical ground, bring the truth of South Africa to the fore using its culture and its current permutation as an outpost of western culture, to tell the story that we can relate to and be inspired by.

    His energy, wonder and sincerity are on a hundred this crisp Jozi morning; he lets me in on how he grew up in a village eNkandla and how most of his English was studied from the television and music he was exposed to at his family’s home. Then he wound up working in television in Jozi with his most faithful friend uMatsoso who has supported Mashaya’s career from its infancy and continues to call him to this day to inform him of the latest copycat to appropriate Mashaya’s sound. These simple things, these pieces of his history give context to the person I see before me now, that understands and reconstructs the relations between art, technology and tradition and refuses to be pigeonholed or defined by anybody but himself. And he’s already onto the next one.

    ‘I just dropped Sun City flow, and there’s a lot of attachments to it, it could be the jail, or the casino, or any city in Africa because there’s always sun. This song is about sharing my experiences with the kids; letting them know that if you’re a raw talent, they will try to chain you.’

    Mashayabhuque chooses substance and creativity when it comes to his art, thus staying true to the source to leave awe and imitators in his wake while the world waits and watches to see just how far he takes it.

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    Editorial image credits

    Photography: Hanro Havenga

    Styling: Jamal Nxedlana

    Image 1:

    Mashayabhuqe wears a suit by Diego Ranieri, beret by Crystal Birch and a neckpiece by Pichulik. (Accessories stylist own)

    Image 2:

    Mashayabhuqe wears trousers by Diego Ranieri, beret by Crystal Birch.  (Accessories stylist own)

    Image 3:

    Mashayabhuqe wears a shirt by Studio W, trousers by Diego Ranieri, beret by Crystal Birch.  (Accessories stylist own)

  • Big Hate Permanent Vacation in Hell Mixtape vol 1 – Seasons in the Abyss

    The frustrations and brutalities of urban life have often lead artists and musicians to depict cities as Hell. For Percy Shelly, smoky London was the abyss while a century later Bertolt Brecht saw it in sunny Los Angeles.  More recently, Hell has been central to Hip Hop. In the 90’s Mobb Deep unleashed Hell on Earth while Tricky offered it around the corner.   In 2014 Vince Staples confidently predicted ‘I’m probably fitting to go to hell anyway’.  And now Cape Town based producer Big Hate is taking us on a Permanent Vacation in Hell.

    This ambitious mixtape is structured like a concept album based around a cynical trip through CPT, a city of ‘broken dreams and summer nightmares’.  Its intention from the cover art onwards is to mock pretension and excess.  It starts with a fake news announcement at the airport welcoming the listener to a bullshit trip through a ‘raggedy ass motherfucker’ of a city. As the ambient track swells, a vocal sample from Abel Ferreira’s crime epic King of New York is introduced.  The lines of dialogue between Lauren Fishburne and Christopher Walken reappear as a distorted leitmotif throughout the project-:

    Jump:  Yo, congratulations, Frank. Congratulations, man. Them Columbian motherfuckers, they took permanent vacation in hell, if you know what I mean.

    Frank White: Well, I must’ve been away too long because my feelings are dead. I feel no remorse.

    The mixtape combines hyper-specific local references (City Bowl Sis Khetiwe, 1820 Settlers Bandwagon ) with music that draws inspiration from hip hop, kwaito and 90’s RnB. Smoky  samples from Old Dirty Bastard and Ginuwine float through the murk. The satirical aspects of the work come through clearly on tracks like the acidly titled Trust Fund Yacht House Boyz.  But at other points, it seems like Big Hate is really just revelling in being offensive for its own sake. The final track is an outrageous ‘tribute’ to musician Taliep Petersen, whose own wife plotted to have him murdered. On one level, I enjoyed the complete absurdity of this mocking song, but on the other it seems in terrible taste. Nevertheless, despite a certain puerility in lyrics, the EP is an enjoyably atmospheric trip through Hell.

  • Notion of Form // Constructing Platforms for Multi-Culturalism in a Global World

    Swathes of rich honey melt into tones of sun yellow. Individuals representing divergent identities are sheathed together. The rich cloth, draped over two figures, depicts a unified form.

    Mina Lundgren, Swedish artist and designer is the founder of Notion of Form. Employing a conceptual approach to the field of fashion, the project began out of a desire “to create a modern abstract expression that visualized diversity avoiding clichéd representations such as exoticism, symbolism or statement fashion.”

    Lundgren was fatigued and frustrated with the prevalence of “stereotypical multicultural fashion” and created the brand as a platform to explore alternative options. “I wanted to create a visual language that was universal in the sense that anyone, regardless of where they came from, could comprehend it.”

    Minimalist shapes are “explored through dynamic expressions” in which the “subtle and suggestive features of the abstracted body”. The visual language constructed in Notion of Form is founded on a “minimalist/maximalist” aesthetic in which bold colour, structure and form take precedence in this “raw essentialism”.

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    Notion of form is conceptually rooted in a sculptural approach in the field of cross cultural dress, as an attempt to navigate and avoid the pitfalls of ‘othering’. “The aim for Notion of Form is that its products can effortlessly be appreciated and integrated in different parts of the world.” As diversity is celebrated and visualized through abstract forms and colors.

    The project is also an innovative collaboration with Nigerian fashion photographer Lakin Ogunbanwo. For a long time, Lundgren had felt an affinity towards his vibrant and conceptually bold work. In which Ogunbanwo often explores and consolidates identity politics and a larger cultural collective in a visual field. “I love the rawness in his photography and how he works with the body as a form as well as his strong use of colours.”

    Navigating multi-culturalism in an ever increasingly globalised world is a challenging project to undertake. As a primary position Lundgren describes the importance of tolerance in order to co-exsist. “As a western cultural practitioner its especially important to not culturally appropriate, commercialize or commodify other cultures. Nevertheless, cultures are not stagnant phenomena and are results of multiple influences merged together through history and it’s important to understand our own role in society when creating new expressions.”

    She sees the future of Notion of Form extending into other collections and projects. “I’m interested in abstracting the body even more into pure forms. I want to investigate this both through commercial clothing and through an artistic approach.” Lundgren also plans for more collaborations that proliferate the Notion of Form philosophy.

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  • 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.

  • Petite Noir – Future Wave

    The media coverage of last weekend’s South African Music Awards has been dominated by Riky Rick and AKA’s petulant responses to not winning any awards. Basically, they feel that they were snubbed. Shame.  Unfortunately this has overshadowed how another  of the night’s winners- Petite Noir’s La Vie Est Belle/Life is Beautiful (which won in the best alternative category) is one of the most innovative and sophisticated albums to have come out of South Africa in years.  Released through UK label Domino , Petite Noir (aka Yannick Ilunga) has been touring the world and winning critical acclaim for his pioneering ‘Noirwave’ style.

    On Life is Beautiful the ghosts of 80’s new wave artists like Depeche Mode and The Cure are mixed with contemporary SA electronic production and Afrobeat drums to produce elegant songs of romantic regret and personal disillusionment. ‘Freedom’  stabs like ice shards to the heart, while ‘Just Breathe’ is warm and elegiac.  The wildly infectious ‘Down’ sounds like a lost collaboration between Fela Kuti and The Talking Heads.

    Petite Noir’s closet contemporaries are bands like TV on The Radio and Wild Beasts, who trawl the sounds of Europe, America and Africa’s recent past to make cosmopolitan rock for the present. But the ‘Noirwave’ tag goes beyond just a sound- Ilunga sees it as complete aesthetic.  Defying backward or rustic sterotypes, Petite Noir creates a kind of retro Afrofuturism. This is showcased on the music video for ‘Best’, in which mythological imagery runs riot. As the notes for the video describe it  ‘ Best’  ‘’ looks at how only through visiting the continent can anyone gain a sense of one of its most fascinating features, that of its split identity; how incredibly and indescribably beautiful it is on the one hand, yet on the other hand, how raw and unforgiving it can be.’’  And aided by the imagery created by his collaborator and partner Rharha Nembhard, Petite Noir is taking Noirwave to the world- a style with no boundaries, at home everywhere.

  • Premiere: Swishy Delta drops ‘Bronwynne’, exlcusively with Bubblegum Club

    Today we drop an exclusive to settle you into the crisp, cold months ahead. Coming out of one of the coolest label in Cape Town, Swishy Delta has all the right co-signs from Damascus to Yes in French… but let the music speak for itself.

    The 21st century is the age of multi-hyphenates and slashies, creatives have unbounded themselves from genres, titles and mediums to infiltrate the attention spans of the online audience. Swishy Delta aka Daniel Mark Nel, painter/beatmaker has hitherto expressed himself through atmospheric paintings and graphics and is now releasing his first solo musical effort, Bronwynne;  a 4 track EP released via Quit Safari. The sounds are fresh and emotive, with smatterings of urban sounds and new-age-y murmurs.

    Quit Safari is headed up by Bas Van Oudenhove and Sebastian Zenasi. The Cape Town based label is releasing some interesting sounds, and this first effort from Swishy Delta is a welcome reminder of all the edge and emotion that can come out of the Mother City, the meeting of the natural order with urban elements spills out of the sounds and offers something to sway and maybe have sex to this winter.

    Just listen, it is so lush.

  • Hadedah – Taste Experiences

    Collaboration has become a buzzword, although not everyone who uses it takes full advantage of the possibilities of working with a wide network. In contrast Hadedah, a Johannesburg based collective, is using this framework to deliver unique conceptual experiences. Their curated experimental events are not just feasts for the eyes and ears, but also for the taste buds. The flavour of their work was evidenced in the latest of the Well Spent Sunday series. Along with electronic sets from Hadedah members Leeu and Behr and new duo Rooiknek and Vox Portent, guests were offered a culinary mix of gourmet burgers and flatbreads.

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    The mix of great food, experimental beats and visual eye bombs is characteristic of the collective’s approach.  With their first event being held in 2014 the core membership- Pebuh, Leeu, Behr and Polarimpala- combine food and music with costume making, stop motion film and art installations.  These highly stylised happenings are accompanied by carefully thought-out advertising, with detailed stop animation short films being used to promote each. Rather than just another live show, the audience is made to feel like they are attending a never to be repeated novelty.

    As a result the imaginative scope of each has grown. For instance, 2015’s Nerve took sit down eating to a sumptuous new level.  The evening saw a five course meal served with live electronica, beautiful décor and installations.  But the group puts as much emphasis on music as they do on eating. Last year they were involved in curating Churn festival. Described as a boutique mini- festival, and held in a disused dairy factory, it featured an eclectic line-up from Los Angeles scenester  Daedalus to Durban qqom pioneers Rudeboyz.  They also maintain a regular Soundcloud presence, provided mixes in conjunction with events.

    In the next month they will be holding another Nerve, which promises to be an unmissable dining experience. Watch their website for more information on this sensory experiment.

  • TCIYF: Soweto thrash punk, the rare breed and the raw edge

    TCIYF are a dirty-riffed, crass, thrash punk band with Pule on vocals, Thula on guitar, Tox on bass, and Jazz on drums.  Started by members of the Skate Society Soweto family, they’re leading the rule-breaking, Sowetan skate and rock revolution with their uninhibited, conformist-refusal; spitting-out in vulgar lyrics and frantic drum smashes. Fuck your civilisation, with the uncensored and inappropriate thrust of hard-ons and hot tempers. Are you softer if you don’t have to face it?

    Most of the articles I’ve read about them say they don’t give a fuck. But that’s bullshit; they just don’t give a fuck about things they’re told to with no reason. They actively smash empty nine-to-five high regard. They’re making new meaning through their own kind of value. These members sweat against the system that would have them punch their lives into the monotonous grind of no-hope. They’re a generation of redefine; tearing down as they build; making the songs, making the videos, making the art, making the events, making the half-pipes, making the subversive sub-culture in all of its unrestrained and unrefined, DIY glory.

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    It’s self-written, it uses its hands, it’s a fever that licks to the bone and brings blood together. Fatherless kids choosing their family in punk-fuck freedom. It can see the sexless suck-dry and the hollow-out, the ‘two rand, two rand’ Nyaope zombies skulking new victims through the night. It knows the way the haunt takes hold, and the way you have to shake it out; makes spaces for bodies to jump and fall and be lifted and shoved-forward in abandon. They can see you and they’ve got you; real care buried in the reckless purge.

    No one’s going to seize this. It’s got the speed of where it comes from. It’s a kind of sacred profanity. Strung-out sincerity unfiltered at five in the morning. It’s a code that can’t be commodified, held up in the kind of respect you never have to articulate to understand; it’s checking-in with your grandmother, turning off the TV, chilling in the crowd before the show, not replacing your brother when he has to disappear for a year, working hard without fronting, disrupting the stage-space by being on the floor with your friends. It’s a new ritual of youth unhindered, staring death down, because no matter what, you’ll have what you created; the justified rage of the impossible moment made real.  If all you can see is the filth of provocation, then you can get lost; this is a forceful stripping-down of all the crap that crowds in and it’ll always move faster than your patronising condescension.

    Keep glued to TCIYF Facebook page for their upcoming full-length album, kicking-in soon with rapist-slayers and crash-landings from outer space. You can also catch them live, in all their gritty imperfection, at the Hostile Takeover in June. Smash it up and hand it over. The rare breed and the raw edge. Bite more than you can chew. And keep going harder… together; faster, faster, faster, until there’s cum in your face.

  • The Fashion Lab Johannesburg – High Fashion, High Art

    As its name suggests, the Fashion Lab is an experimental space dedicated to pushing the boundaries of clothing and style. Founded in Johannesburg in 2014, it has used the workshop format to create cutting edge clothing which meets high fashion with high art.  The workshop has an egalitarian ethos ” developed for anybody wanting to learn new skills, develop additional techniques or just experiment and explore to further their existing ability. Mentors are all experts in their specific fields, and have lots of practical and professional experience that they love to share”. Participants have worked on everything from drapery to textiles to doing fashion shots with smartphone cameras.

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    Along with teaching, the Lab has given birth to numerous striking collaborative projects. In 2014, they produced the ‘L’afrique C’est Chic’ shot for GQ Magazine, a celebration of contemporary African style.  Its participants have experimented with music photography, producing stylised and baroque shots of local band The Sextons and rapper Gigi Lamayne. Photographed by Richard Thompson, Lamayne looks regal in silver and black dresses and headpieces. It’s an incredible futurist piece which looks like character designs from some yet unconceived science fiction epic.

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    Perhaps the most ambitious work produced to date is the short film Feral. The key theme of the work is fear- ”Fear of Time. Fear of Change. Time waits for no one.” The two minute film focuses on two dancers wrapped in an arcane power struggle. Alison Sischy Smith, in a skeletal white costume and Kieron Jina, in coffin black, writhe and snake around a set full of masks, puppetry and headgear. The result is supremely effective- more a plunge into the psyche than a conventional fashion piece. The success of this film shows the strength of the Fashion Labs collaborative ethos.  Linking together different creative people in a workshop space allows their collective imagination to soar.

    The Fashion Lab is on Facebook and Feral can be viewed below.

  • Lenny-Dee: Brightness and Darkness

    For her cover feature with BubblegumClub Lenny-Dee Doucha, the lead singer and keyboardist of Bye Beneco, wanted to mix the contemporary and the traditional.  Photographed by Charlemagne Oliver at the National School of Arts Campus in Braamfontein, the concept was to merge Art Deco and Japanese motifs.  The Art Deco style speaks to glamorous modernism with a focus on precise design and elegant geometry. The photographs convey this through Lenny’s subtly glamorous accoutrements- the snow white sunglasses, the stem of the cocktail glass. This is complemented by her floral shawl and scarf, which hint at the Japanese influence. Flowers have a particular importance in Japanese aesthetics, with their rich pallet of colours conveying a powerful spectrum of emotion.

    The photos also speak to Lenny-Dee’s broader artistic project ‘’ The shoot merges a classical time with the now, which is kinda where I see myself.’’  Bye Beneco was established in 2012, ‘’ The story of the name is based on an enigmatic fictional character we once wrote about.’’ They released their debut album Space Elephant in 2014, which was recognized with a SAMA nomination for best alternative album. The group’s line up also consists of Bergen Nielson (drums, guitar) and Matthew Watson (guitar) and they describe their style as ‘’eclectic dream-pop with a dark underlying spirit.’’ They are currently working on a EP which will be released next month as a taster for their second album.

    The group is inspired by a diverse set of artists, but ‘’ we do all have one thing in common – we’re kids of the 90s.’’  Growing up in that decade meant that rock, rap and electronic music were all part of the cultural menu. Bye Beneco reflect this heritage with their mixing of guitar and drums with synthetic beats. One of the highlights on Space Elephant is Witch Port, which combines a loop which sounds like a less clinically depressed version of The Weeknd’s The Party & The After Party with gentle percussion.  They cannily use melody to smuggle in a darker agenda, like on Vampire in which dejected lyrics are combined with a sparkling melody and rousing outro. Lenny suggests that they are closest in spirit to a hybrid of chill wave and hip hop.  In a similar vein to Animal Collective or Neon Indian they work experimental sounds into their pop hooks.  Although their hip hop influence isn’t overt, it’s clearly there in the use of repetition and incorporation of diverse styles.

    Bye Beneco also project a powerful visual identity. As titles like Witch hint at there is dark undertone to their music and they have regularly played this up in  music videos which are as she puts it ‘’ mind pools of cult craziness.’’  The visuals for On The Line are colourful but speak to a midnight world of dark forests, weird rites under the moon and non-human forces. Like some occult ritual it’s both alluring and disorientating, coming from a right brain realm of myth and symbols.  This approach gets especially feverish in the all-out surrealism of Chemirocha, which mixes Frida Khalo, UFOs and other unexpected elements. As Lenny-Dee told us, the song itself has quite  the history:

    The story of Chemirocha is a remarkable one. I came across the original traditional arrangement whilst recording Space Elephant and naturally did some more research on it. The recording dates back to WWII when an ethnomusicologist traveled to Kenya. He had records of popular American yodeler, Jimmie Rodgers which he played on a gramophone for the Kipsigi Tribe. The villagers were taken by the music and started worshipping Rodgers as their ‘half antelope-half human’ God. They called him ‘Chemirocha’. The original song is sung by the young girls of the village. We loved the story and loved the song and wanted to do something with it. Nothing will ever match the original composition but we couldn’t resist taking it on.

    With such a strongly defined sonic and visual aesthetic in place Bye Beneco will soon be exporting their vision abroad. Next month, they will be taking their unique vision to Germany, Switzerland, Amsterdam and the UK.

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    Credits:

    Photographer: Charlemagne Olivier

    Styled by: Lenny-Dee Doucha

    Make-up: Orli Oh Meiri

    Location: National School of Arts