Bubblegum Club

Tag: experimental

  • 9 Ether Movement – The Extra-terrestrial Music

    9 Ether Movement are a young creative collective who are using music, fresh clothes, art  and a lot of humour to get their name out to the world. Coming out of Nyanga, Gugulethu and Observatory, the crew has a ever shifting roster of members who adopt a dizzying array of pseudonyms- MC PocketKniife, Skhotane From Mars, Some Nasty Shit .  They made their first foray into cultural consciousness with 2014’s Wawuphi, a kwaito inspired posse cut which highlighted their lyrical dexterity.

    Since then the Movement’s Soundcloud account has been filled with group and solo tracks. On their Facebook page they list rap crews like Black Hippy, Odd Future and Wu Tang Clan as being their key influences. (Although they also make the absurd claim that Justin Bieber is their biggest stylistic ancestor… He’s really not).  The latter are the best point of comparison. Along with the love of bizarre acronyms,  9:EM share Wu Tang’s love of dense wordplay and esoteric references.  The BlackxIntellegence EP is filled with allusions to conspiracy theories, UFO’s and spiritual concepts. Complex lyrics float over smoky beats, reminiscent of the psychedelic hip hop currently pouring out of California. In fact, they even describe Cape Town as ‘the place where real psychedelic and extra-terrestrial music is at’. Their space fantasies are kept grounded in earthy humour, such as a hashtag used on their Facebook page- #WillRap4MoneyIAmVeryVeryVeryGood.

    Having spread their message through Cape Town, 9:EM are now looking to export. They recently announced  their ‘FIRST FUCKING PARTY IN JHB’ Held at Khona Daa Café on the 29th of April RealOnezzzAndFriendzzz is set to ‘feature live debuts of songs from the ‘Bree St EP’ by GREEKGOD and NINETY4. Aside from the debut of the Bree St EP, Yung Makhap$ will be accompanying them onstage to perform some 9 Ether and Ostrich Camp cuts, and we’ll also have guest performances from our good friendzzz Jay Beatz and Jusst Peace to round out the performances of the night. silkylavender also makes his DJing debut on the night. So all the familia in Joburg, please do come through !!!!’.

    9emovement

  • Battle of the CBDemons; The spiritual-synaesthetic-sound and Afro-anime-tinge of a revolutionary new club culture

    Fuck your false sense of reverence as you snort and swallow for sensation, lapping up the glitter of smashed glass in sweaty rooms. Different artillery is required for these cities where hate can be placed on a heart through the harsh angles of the grind through grimey streets. In a summoning by the Open Time Coven, and as a unit of the tribe Angelboyz Choir (comprised of Bogosi Sekhukhuni, Angel-Ho, Fela Gucci and Desire Marea of FAKA, and Neo Mahlasela of Hlasko) artists Angel-Ho (of NON Worldwide Collective) and Bogosi Sekhukhuni have joined forces to create Battle of the CBDemons, a sonic narrative that churns the metaphysical in an archetypal battle to purge the hostile and desperate infestations of life in the CBD.

    The Battle of the CBDemons discharges cloud-ground lightening to reassemble ancient mythologies with modern technologies, cleansing the way that meaning is crunched between foreign teeth. It bleeds a shield for shallow love, staking a space to reassemble all the parts of self that have been so thoughtlessly dispossessed. It is a synthetic Lebombo Bone burning clean, a fever-dream to blaze through the night at accelerating speed, the 3D printing of a sacred chant. Sounds and samples are manipulated on the edge of a sword, refracting light to a frantic phantasmagoria where the avatars gleam in dirty constellations. There is something of the complicated African orchestral filtered through pixelated pop culture to create a new sonic cosmology, a new technology of healing. Not only does the mix cleanse and create anew the makers, but it also acts as a physically affecting interface for the listener; vibrating Kemetic force to strengthen their engagements with the world.

    Battle of the CBDemons is an answering-back to the vampiric energies of stagnant representations; it kicks Tay AI in the shins and looks the Sakawa Boys straight in the face. It’s a digital, crystalline, plastiglomerate rooted in a genetically-evolved contemporary Africa. This is redefinition of club culture. Listen through. Don’t be embarrassed of the things it touches. This is the love-child of a communion of future sounds.

  • Joburg’s creative arts scene and the pitfalls of music success; A conversation with Kazim Rashid

    Motlatsi Khosi (MK): The South African music and art scene has seen a new growth in the quality and success of her local acts. Artists such as Nakhane Toure, Moonchild and Elo are setting the bar high for the next generation of music entrepreneurs. I sat down to talk with Kazim, a young man neck-high in the UK creative and music scene who has frequented Johannesburg and other local cities. We met through mutual friend on his earlier visits and was quickly amazed by his stories and where his travels had taken him. I wanted to get a better sense of how he as a global citizen from London had been experiencing our local budding creative industry. 

     

    Please give us an excerpt of what you are about, where you come from and where you are going? 

    Kazim Rashid (KR): An abstract question to kick things off, you’re not for the feint hearted are you Mo. How to answer this? Where I should say, I am Kazim, full name Kazim Rashid, the artist formerly known as Kazim Kazim Kazim. I am a part of the Indian East African diaspora whose parents came as Immigrants and settled in the UK. I come from people who move about and thus it explains my current situation – one of nomadism of sorts. Where I am going Is a tricky one, tomorrow I leave for my next burst of activity [Berlin-Ethiopia-Johannesburg-Ibiza-London-Moscow-Paris-New York-London] but where I am going spiritually, emotionally and creatively is a question I don’t have an answer for the first time in my life and what I hope we can discuss today.

    MK: I guess not having answers can be somewhat of a blessing in disguise. Having the answers can be a burden and I’m sure there is an old Chinese or African proverb that warns us that it is the wise who don’t have all the answers. Well, hopefully its through this interview that some answers will pop up but I’m also hoping the right questions will manifest themselves to our readers. 

    Coming to South Africa meant tapping into local talent and in your last visit you even scouted for some new music acts. Joburg has become somewhat of a favorite for you and you seem to be venturing here each time on a new mission. 

    KR: Originally I came as a guest of the British council for a project they were running called Connect ZA which invited leading entrepreneurs from the UK and Africa to Joburg to connect, workshop and hang. I immediately fell in love, head over heals, with the city, Its people and a spirit in the air. It reminded me of Berlin when I first moved there now around 8 years ago. A feeling I haven’t had since then, even having travelled all over the world; a truly unique magnetism and chemistry between the environment and myself. As of today I have now been here 3 times and each time it has been for different reasons and work, including a working Residency, an artist tour and of course the original British Council trip. The 4th time is happening in a couple of weeks where I will be returning to finish a TV project where I will be directing with some local friends and TV people.

    MK: You get around Kaz. To me you represent a new stage in what it means to work. Multiple skills will be needed for an ever-globalizing world. You started out making music and DJing at parties. Your next move was working in the record company where you honed your entrepreneurial skills and now you’re working for the British council where you’re running workshops and moving onto teaching as part of your career. In your experiences there is plenty of on the job learning and you have also been blessed with the opportunity to travel as part of your training. Yet you have also gained from working and hanging out in Johannesburg. 

    KR: If I’m honest, most of my learning has been on a human level. I have spent my time with people who have had a very unique experience of the world; it’s history and the culture. In doing so my exposure to new ideas, new approaches to creativity and crucially critical discussion has been greatly influenced. In that sense, I think that has been both my greatest learning as well as my greatest stimulus and inspiration and most probably the reason I keep on returning. My experience and the community I work and hang with employ a level of critical discussion that I just don’t experience outside of SA, and it hugely inspires my thought process and thus my work.

    MK: The Jozi bug has definitely hit you! Johannesburg historically has been seen as a place where anyone could come to make their fortune. Even its name says it all Gauteng, which translated means city of gold. Yet you’ve tapped into another side of her wealth less applauded in the mainstream. You see it as a place of ideas and knowledge I’m proud to say.  Your biggest influence has been engaging with her people, her artists and business starters but with her youth in particular. You recently told me an anecdote where you were talking with one such community where you explained to them where you were at and where you had been. They responded with such amazement and awe yet you were quite dissillusioned with yourself. You had come this far yet something was missing and you could not look back at your own life with such vigor. You seem to be at your peak, one in which you are actively needing to look back on your life and more introspectively.  

    KR: Right now I’m at a very interesting stage in my life, a stage I hadn’t prepared for, nor had I anticipated or expected. I have been fortunate to achieve what I had set out to do. I have done great things with my work, things I also never set to do or never even imagined. My work has seen me travel to nearly every continent, all but the cold ones, and have friends in some of the best cities in the world. In doing so I have also come to realize that this feeling is flawed, it’s a trap I never thought existed. I have held many positions and am able to express myself through music, film, editorial and art. I have reached what you could describe as a somewhat professional and creative utopia. Having spent most of my life being driven by work and now realizing most of those ambitions, I have also come to realize that in fact, this isn’t the recipe for emotional or spiritual happiness – in the truest sense of the word. So, having not even reached 30 yet, how do I plan to live the rest of my life, in fact, how do I plan to live what will be the majority of my life? In a way which is both stimulating and satisfying.

    MK: Its funny how life will always find a way to bump you outta action. You make your plans and you achieve them and yet you realize that actually that is not enough. Your experiences show two fundamental key points for any creative. The first being that you have to be willing to constantly learn and add new skills to the craft. There is this overwhelming need to work hard, keep busy and keep moving forward in order to reach your goals because there are thousands of others in the industry ready and wanting to take your place. But then there is the second point of choosing your goals wisely. We need money to survive but will it be enough to thrive on? You speak of spiritual wellness, of something beyond the immediate desires, for a more holistic approach to one’s well-being and identity. It’s not enough to reach our goals but to look deeper into who we are and figure out whether this is the person we want to become. This now, more then ever will be a very important question for the artists and entrepreneurs in South Africa’s booming music and cultural industry. 

    Thank you so much for having this interview with me Kazim and for sharing thoughts with our Bubblegumclub readers. 

    Kazim can be followed on Instagram through the handle @kazim_kazim_kazim

  • NOTHING GETS ORGANISED- Spaces of Freedom

    On the 28th March, the Nothing Gets Organised group  is opening a new project space in the Johannesburg CBD.  NGO – NOTHING GETS ORGANISED will highlight a wide program of visual arts against the unassuming background of a converted commercial property wedged in next to car repair shops.  The event spotlights a diverse range of multimedia work from South Africa and beyond. Included with the NGO collective, are the Brazilian artists Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado, along with  Pratchaya Phinthong, Nyakallo Maleke, Caner Aslan, Lerato Shadi and Donna Kukama (with Nadia Myburgh). The opening night also highlights a special performance of Donna Kukama’s work ‘To be announced’.

    ngo 3

    The Nothing Gets Organised project was founded by an original core of Johannesburg based curators and visual practioners. Dineo Seshee Bopape, Gabi Ngcobo and Sinethemba Twalo  have  all previously experimented with using unexpected spaces in the city as a platform for showing contemporary art.  This has involved taking art out of the white cube and gallery space, and into unexpected, sociologically potent settings.   Gabi Ngcobo was previously the curator of the now defunct Centre for Historical Reenactments, which  specialised in striking and original interventions into Johannesburg’s historically traumatised psyche.  For instance, PASS-AGES was staged at the site of a former Pass Office in Alfred Street, a space which had been used for the Apartheid state’s  surveillance and control of black people’s basic freedom of movement.

    The NGO project takes these interventions in a new direction, by focusing on creative a progressive aesthetic for the challenges of the present. NGO’s mission statement is an interest ‘  in un/conventional processes of self-organising – those that do not imply structure, tangibility, context or form. It is a space for (NON)SENSE where (NON)SENSE can profoundly gesticulate towards, dislodge, embrace, disavow, or exist as nothingness!’.

    ngo 2

    In recent times, Johannesburg has seen a lot of an attempts at the corporate regeneration of the inner city. But behind the rhetoric of upliftment, the reality has been the creation of securitised, exclusive spaces which often reinforce segregation and inequality. By contrast, NGO have taken it upon themselves to open creative spaces at a grassroots level. Over the last months, their Facebook page has shown their busy work on getting the venue ready, and the sheer joy of building a unique creative space in an often imposing and alienating city.

    NGO, 127 Albert street, 28 Nuggett Square, 2001, Johannesburg, South Africa

     

  • Noirwave; reflecting alternative black identities

    Noirwave is telling the story of black glory, of Africa, through art. The creative collective of Petite Noir and RhaRha Nembhard form the heart of Noirwave and their collaboration with Lina Viktor reveals the beauty and diversity of experience that is being African.

    While the immorality and brutality of imperialism perpetuates much pain and suffering on the continent, its people and geography are more than elements or victims of an imperial agenda, or beneficiaries of international aid. Africa, Africans and the African diaspora make incredible contributions to the world’s culture, colour and creativity. From the Americas to Europe and the islands through which black people are positioned, we make the music that the world dances and drones too. And while our images are often used against us, the beauty of black people, the potency that melanin projects is undeniable, despite the hegemonic mission to make mockery of it.

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    Blackness progressively makes strides, against the forces that oppress and divide us. And as black people continue claiming our right to be ourselves without apology, there are black artists working to create reflections of blackness and Africa that are based in a perspective that educates and empowers. Enter Noirwave, a movement and collective making strides  towards progressive representation and integration of black identities. Synthesizing politics, art, fashion and music to tell a story about the incredible beauty of Africa and the diversity of experience black people exist in on the continent and beyond.

    Noirwave breaks the boundaries between the stereotypes and archetypes of Africa, projecting images that are progressive and positive. Africanness and blackness are not monolithic constructions of colonialism but shifting, complex identities and cultures that are also subject to the influence of the internet and form an important part of the international community. All of the above should go without saying, but the hegemonic powers that determine what we see and hear and consume would erase this unalterable truth if they could.

    In 2015, Petite Noir, RhaRha Nembhard and Lina Viktor produced images and sounds that subverted the status quo and offered a view of blackness that reflected Africa, Europe, America and Asia, that vivified the experience of walking the world in black skin while being a global citizen, reflecting the progressive forces that are working to unify humanity, as well as the historic fact that Africa is the home of humanity.  The video for Best, touches on the striking and emotive themes encapsulated in La Vie est Belle, Petite Nior’s critically acclaimed debut album. The artwork and music video for the album are rooted in Africa and use influences from artists and cultures the world over to tell their story. Noirwave offers the world beautiful music and visuals to enjoy and admire from a creative consciousness that upholds black beauty and promotes black love. The importance of these ideals cannot be underestimated in a world that tries to erase and divide us. So the struggle continues with new sights and sounds to take us into a noir future.

  • Witness the Funk – Trapping the Durban Sound

    In 2014, Durban group Witness the Funk made their first impact on South African consciousness with their hit ‘Nomusa’.  The song highlighted smooth multilingual flows over an insidiously catchy beat. It was accompanied by a stylish music video which showed the glamorous side of Durban with parties in tropical mansions and beaches, and long drives down the promenade.  WTF have steadily followed up with more group tracks, like the woozy ‘Dreams’ and collaborations such as their striking features on Gigi Lamayne’s ‘Moja’.

    The group started in 2010, originally experimenting with an alternative hip-hop sound. But they quickly began to play around with both their musical style and image, solidifying into the current line-up of Efelow, Aux Cable and Moshine Magnif. Throughout they aimed to combine international influences with the sound and vernacular of their home city.  The result has been their self-described  ‘ Gqom-Trap’ sound.  The gqom part refers both to the dark, hypnotic electronic style coming from Durban, and an overall aesthetic that is wild and exuberant. The trap points  to the influence of US rap, with the group being inspired by the flow of artists like Migos, but reinterpreted in Zulu and focused on South African life.  But their syncretic approach has not been without some (minor) controversy.  In 2015, a later deleted tweet from Atlanta rap group Rae Sremmurd dissed them as plagiarists  ‘we was watching on MTV Base. We see FUCK BOYS, WTF- Nomusa Guys Wanna be Us WTF Thou??’.  The fact that this tweet was later deleted suggests that these allegations were more to do with superficial similarities in clothing and style than actual artistic appropriation.  In fact, if Rae Sremmurd had watched more MTV Base they would have probably come across far more serious offenders. Unlike WTF, who combine international influences with Zulu lyrics and local sounds, far too many hip hop artists in SA lazily plunder their accents and references from the US. Rather than mimicking anyone, gqom trap adapts to create a new Durban style.  To fully appreciate these innovations requires a detour into the meaning of both ‘gqom’ and ‘trap’.

    wtf moshine

    Musically gqom takes kwaito and house into a dark, menacing direction characterised by ominous drums and threatening synthesiser lines.  The style was pioneered by bedroom producers in the townships and shantytowns of Durban, and tested out at underground club nights. A brilliant 2014 article by Kwanele Sobiso suggested that the rawness and minimalism of gqom is a reflection of the stressful urban reality that surrounds it producers- ‘Whereas the best of Durban kwaito production is sleek, with lyrics suggesting upwardly mobility, gqom is loopy, lo-fi and off-beat, sounding exactly like the pervasive nihilism it sometimes documents’.  The cinematic heaviness is displayed on compilations like the excellent The Sound of Durban Vol. 1, and while the style is still fairly underground in South Africa its innovative rawness is commanding attention overseas.  Gqom nights have popped up in the UK and Europe, and it has received coverage from tastemaker US websites like Pitchfork. The appeal of gqom is conveyed in an often sited quote by UK producer Kode9- ‘like being suspended over the gravitational field of a black hole, and lovin’ it’. Gqom is powerful because while it is totally rooted in contemporary Durban, its dystopian tone has universal relevance. The positive reception in the UK is especially telling, as gqom often sounds like the South African equivalent of the continuum of dark, urban based British electronic music, a line which stretches from Joy Division to Burial. In fact, a Paul Morley quote about how Joy Division musically interpreted bleak 1970s Manchester could equally be applied to gqom’s mapping of the urban landscapes of KZN- ‘It was almost like a science-fiction interpretation of Manchester.  You could recognize the landscape and the mindscape and the soundscape as being Manchester.  It was extraordinary that they managed to make Manchester international, if you like—make Manchester cosmic’.

    wtf efelow

    Similarly, the trap sound emerges from a specific sense of place.  Before it was a genre, trap was a slang term from the Southern US which referred both to the specific location of the ‘trap house’ where drugs were sold from and to an overall condition of being trapped in crime, violence and grinding urban poverty. It became a distinctive musical style in the early 2000’s, when artists like T.I, Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane combined cinematic tales of drug dealing with a bass driven sound. As T.I put it in 2003 ‘I’d probably still be trapping if I wasn’t rapping right now’. Trap rap became commercially successful while maintaining a dark sound and bleak lyrical perspective, but gradually the term began to mutate.  EDM artists played a form of trip which kept the sonic architecture but lost the lyrical themes, and it even turned up in songs by pop artists like Lady GaGa and Katy Perry. In rap itself, trap has become more hedonistic and expansive, seen in the ebullient hits of Fetty Wap, the outrageous psychedelia of Young Thugs and Future’s tormented narco-ballads.

    WTF are drawing on these sources to create an effective hybrid style.  Their music takes a less brutal direction than straight gqom, and adds more focus on individual personality and visual images to what has been a scene primarily represented by faceless producers. Simultaneously, they repurpose American influences for their own purposes.  Like Jamaican dancehall and UK grime, rap is crossed with a regional style. The result, like on the their triumphant ‘ Shonaphansi ’ collaboration with DJ Wobbly is music with both mass appeal and a razor sharp experimental edge.

    wtf aux cable

  • Meet Espacio Dios, the 17-year-old making music which explores universal themes of love and youth

    When Espacio Dios joins my table, at some faux Italian joint in Sandton, I’m startled to meet three beaming young men, so I cautiously enquire about the crew, if they have a collective name and so on, expecting a fun or corny comeback but I’m quickly placated by their humility and openness. Espacio’s manager, Zidaan Gutta, a mogul in the making, introduces himself and the artists, one Espacio Dios and his DJ, Leonardo Lobelo. In the time it takes me to interview Espacio, I learn how millennials are changing the face of entertainment to represent them and their experiences. 

    The 17 year old Espacio Dios  has been musical for as long as he can remember and his passion for it is palpable. His music explores universal themes of love and kidulthood, in rap and rhyme and singing,  all shaped by his boundless perspective on creativity and grounded in his excellent, esoteric production. Young yet composed and uncompromising, Espacio lives to make music that is relatable; in his songs  Amelia and Feral, he tells his story of a young man in love and lust, and the music is honest and beautiful. Espacio expresses a range of emotion and experience, revealing his layers and lyricism over smooth spacey beats.

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    Backseat Galaxy, will be Espacio Dios’ debut EP. He describes it as him handing out stars from his world to ours. His career is about to go into overdrive and he hasn’t even finished high school. He is on the brink of a new life, maybe even a new world. So I tease him about seeing him in six months with gold chains and entourage but he balks at the thought, reminding me, ‘Not everyone relates to being rich’. The simplicity of the statement strikes a chord and confirms his sincerity, his determination to be authentic and honest. I wonder how he will change as his experiences and life takes him far from Mafikeng and his quiet upbringing.

    And while the internet ruined the music industry financially, it also connects artists, offers platforms that loosen the grip of record companies and provides alternatives to the broadcast of heteronormative, hyper masculine, eurocentricity offered by mainstream media. It is a new world; where people can create and express and organise and connect. And those connections and creations are changing the world. Espacio Dios is a teenager from Mafikeng but a Space God online with a following stretching from Newtown to Nairobi to San Francisco. He is set to make a stellar contribution to South African music. Look out for his upcoming EP, Backseat Galaxy and cava his Soundcloud here.

  • Watch Fight Master, the surreal video from Agord Lean’s collaborative EP “WU”

    Agord Lean spent Feburary recording his upcoming EP in the Bubblegum Club project space at Workshop Newtown. He describes the residency as, “strenuous but fruitful” and provides insight into the creative process, emphasising the importance of, “making work and cultivating your own voice”. And realising the incredible scope of creative expression while embracing the changes that come from creating and collaborating.

    From an exhibition of zines and paintings, Lean has taken a creative journey through his residency in the space. Through collaboration with other creatives and a mindful, open attitude to art marking an EP, WU, has been produced. Fight Master is the first taste from WU and it is a glimpse into Lean’s esoteric and ethereal soundscape, reflecting space and time of this age and beyond.

    WU will be available online this month, it features production from Uncle Party Time, with some creative luminaries on the mic including Dokta Sypzee, Boogy and KillSmith. Lean was kind enough to let me jump on as well; my debut as a recording artist.

    Cava the tracklist below, WU drops later this month.

    1- Intro,in time (Ft Boogy x Viva)

    2- Iyanishiya Ft Dokta Spyzee x KillSmith

    3- Find me

    4- Illumination prod Uncle Party time

    5- Interlude

    6- Fight Master

    7- Outro

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  • Disappoint Your Parents is a new zine offering serious insight into generational tensions

    ‘Disappoint Your Parents’ is a Cape Town based zine which launched its first ‘episode’ this February. As the title indicates, it deals with a range of the ways in which young South Africans can let their elders down, from ‘use of illicit substances, hanging with the wrong crowd or just not having much ambition’.

    Although the presentation is flippant, the content offers serious insights into the generational tensions in South African society through a series of personal essays. ‘Young Muslim Girl in the Big Bad World’ explores the pressures patriarchy and religious conservatism exert on women.  Another piece offers a biting dissection of white privilege in Michaelis art school- ‘It seems everyone is only concerned with being the coolest but no one cares for being the best. This is a luxury not afforded to us brown people within the creative sphere. Our parents don’t have the gallery hook-ups or internships lined up. This is pure hustle’.

    These texts are interspersed with a wide range of drawings and repurposed  images.  The most successful piece in this issue is the bizarre  ‘The Corner Stone Home of Wayward Boys’.  Told through a series of posters, fictional alumni like Obama and Mike Tyson praise the institute before a disruptive final appearance by Charlie Sheen.

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    Zines are a great format for self-expression, which allow creators to bypass media gate-keepers.  The self-publishing aspect of zines means that authors are afforded complete creative autonomy, which can sometimes result in beautiful works of uninhibited expression. Zines are also important for documenting political and counter-cultural movements.  In particular, since the 1970s zines have been central to promoting punk, feminist and anarchist ideas throughout the world.

    Even poorly produced zines can offer a raw snapshot of the cultural context against which it was produced. Fortunately, DYP 1 looks sharp and has swagger. South African university campuses have recently become hotbeds of social conflict, which has also taken on aspects of a generational clash. The government and media often present young people as dangerous and ignorant. Fortunately, zines like this offer witty and sophisticated alternative to this apocalyptic narrative.

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  • The unsettling of JHB’s necropolitical reflections in Zandile Tisani’s Highlands

    A police van veers around a corner, a loaf of bread is placed inside a box, leaves crackle and turn in the ambiguity of words; “In my third life, I learnt about mortality”. Zandile Tisani’s Highlands is a kind of forensic infrastructure, unfixing and unhinging the masculinity and certainty of Johannesburg’s necropolitical reflections through the opening and closing of pores, architectures of light that pull in- and out-of-focus, and the slow movements of water carving rock.

    Sun-dizzied camera shots sweep and descend to give Highlands an alien quality of defamiliarisation while the ubiquity of water stands strange and sputnik in its Yeoville towers. Is the ‘clean air’ up there supposed to descend in the same way water does? Are there ways that we can structure our own sermons, self-designate the sacred? And what could that mean in relation to the way a reef is formed, the way boreholes now honeycomb beneath the surface of the city?

    Tisani beautifully unsettles what constitutes ‘the documentary’ in a layered interrogation that blurs just where the edges might be. There’s a kind of quiet delirium in obscured hyperrealism, sedition in the spatial rendering of the mysterious narrator who stands somehow beyond the trinity of spirituality, commerce and survival. Dialogues form between soil and skin as the ground moves to meet those who traverse it, those who would both regard and disregard it in the instant of lifetimes.

    The experimental format that Highlands engages reclaims the physical space in which it is shot from the violent patina of Hollywood glitz, from the blunt force of linear narrative and the designation of ‘history’; opening up breathing-room for questions that speak incredibly intimately to the complexities of existence within, and to the side-of, JHB as a ‘post-colonial, post-apartheid, modern, African, metropolis’.

    Tisani’s Highlands is a co-production between GoodCop Productions and the Encounters Documentary Lab and even if I wasn’t writing about it, I couldn’t only watch it once. Check out the South African kick-back against stasis below. #MbokoLead

  • The Rude Boyz bring Gqom to Johannesburg, as they advance the sound in South Africa and beyond

    The Rude Boyz are in Johannesburg. The trio of Andile, Masive and Menchess has begun a journey to world domination. The story of Gqom and the Rude Boyz begins in KwaZulu Natal,  it is a Durban story, and while it cannot be confined to a single article or artist, it can be traced by the rise and rise of the Rude Boyz.

    KwaZulu Natal is the land of rolling hills and hips, and the home of Gqom. Dancing is deeply steeped in the culture there, resulting in the most authentic centre for dance and rave culture in South Africa. Nobody gets down like Durbanites, the clubs in the city are fuelled by ecstasy and house music and it is from this scene that Gqom emerges. A subdued, deep house made to hypnotize and enchant dancers. The Rude Boyz gained recognition in this scene with their first EP; Rude Boyz, The Best. Masive, debunks his hometown celebrity status but Menchess and Andile, being high schoolers when the first EP came out, admit that their profiles have exploded somewhat since then. Their debut was followed by Rude Sounds 2, Durban House Mafia and the critically acclaimed Rude Boyz EP which reworks their most favoured tracks and has been released internationally by Goon Club All Stars.  

    From growing in the same street in Mount Moriah, north of Durban, to pioneering the proliferation of Gqom, the Rude Boyz are en route to big things in 2016. This tour to Johannesburg sees them in studio with Stilo Magolide, working on what they claim will be a huge hit. I don’t doubt it. Their energy is palpable, and their output is outstanding. Their music is being lauded by tastemakers and clubbers the world over, and it seems this is just the beginning.

    Listen to one of their latest tunes below.

     

  • The Tembisa fashion show at the forefront of fashion presentation

    Fashion 4 Sho an annual fashion show, now in its third years was held on Sunday the 14th of February in Tembisa, a large township situated in the north-east of Johannesburg. The event has little institutional recognition and no social currency within South African fashion industry circles. But despite being ignored by the mainstream its approach and presentation is actually far closer to the current innovation in international fashion presentation than the more famous South African events.

    The event had all the features that currently define an “industry shifting” approach towards fashion presentation. Through the event curation, the organisers and the designers engaged in topical fashion industry conversations such as Gender fluidity  and body positive casting, the democratisation of fashion transmission and the reimagining of the traditional runway show model.

    Mapungubwe street was blocked off for the event, with  two white twin-pole tents running about a hundred metres down the street. Green astroturf was draped over a low platform and flowed onto the runway. A red carpet was laid along the length of the runway and was flanked on either side by black plastic chairs. Where the chairs ended a row of centre-fold tables (also on either side of the runway) continued along the road marking out a second part of the runway intended for designers to exhibit and sell their show pieces directly after the shows when the event transformed into a pop up market.

    The British luxury fashion brand Burberry, which is at the vanguard of important shifts in the fashion industry has been experimenting with a similar model in recent years. Burberry  makes pieces from its collections available immediately after the runway show, in what they describe as “shop the runway”.

    Givenchy is another leading international fashion brand which has been taking similar bold steps, making moves which Women’s Wear Daily suggests “could dramatically change the fashion show system for the long haul”. Givenchy opened their September 11 2015 show to the public, showing an acknowledgement of the change in the way fashion is disseminated, shifting from a hierarchical model where collections are for insiders such as editors and buyers to a democratic model described by Vogue as “open-access entertainment”. For the most part fashion shows in South Africa have existed as a form of entertainment even though concerted efforts have been made by local fashion week organisers for them to reflect the Western commercial system.

    Fashion 4 Sho rejected this system outright, exploring further the concept of fashion presentation as  performance art. The show started with a sole performer dressed only in a pair of green and and blue color-blocked underpants, sitting  still on the platform at the top of the runway with a noose tied around his neck. Then another performer emerged on the opposite end of the runway, reciting a haunting poem as she made her way toward the platform. Behind them,  models who had been standing still in a caged trailer began banging on its sides as the recital progressed. Just as the poem reached its climax the models broke through the trailer doors gently spilling onto the platform and then lethargically disappearing down the runway. Where the poet left off the Master of Ceremonies continued with improvisational ad-libs delivered in a raspy rolling voice, adding a futher layer of the fantastic and mysticism to the fashion presentation.

    Models of all shapes and sizes were cast to walk the runway, and many of the labels on show presented gender fluid looks such as “Tangz” distressed genderless streetwear pieces, which were modelled by both men and women. At times the idea of gender was subverted altogether with “Yayaz Accessories” a predominantly female targeted jewellery collection shown on men. The New York times describes this as “fashion’s gender blur, the narrowing of the sexual divide” calling it a “seismic shift in fashion, a widening acceptance of a style with no boundaries”.

    In the South African fashion industry new practices and ideas are recognized or become legitimate only if they are channeled down from the overseas. It is through a more inclusive system where local fashion media and institutions begin to look at, and start taking the creative production developing outside of established and privileged spaces more seriously, that South Africa can become the place where the agenda is being set.

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