This is the future sound of Africa

It’s Friday already and the Tonic office people are getting ready for the weekend. Our Greendimes division moved into a new office today so we all had a lovely Mexican lunch and toasted the desks, computers and luxury carpet. I am currently visiting Palo Alto for some idea generation and planning for the rest of the year. We have some great stuff coming to Tonic soon. We are also launching our new events site, so if you have time or if you are organising any parties, get together or dressing up for Halloween, please try out our events platform and do some good at the same time.

I have had a few emails this week and one band’s name keeps coming up. They are called BLK JKS and hail from South Africa. Apparently, they played in the US recently and were also featured on the cover of The Fader. Four friends make up the band and they recently released the ‘Mystery’ EP. The band’s sound is both African and not, dance and tribal, rock guitar and infectious beats — in other words an indescribable, shape-shifting blend of kwaito beats, jazz, punk, and eerie noises. It has been said that their diverse arrangements echo the conflict and celebratory spirit of modern day Africa. I downloaded the Mystery EP and have it playing today in the office. I challenge anyone who aren’t able to enjoy the upbeat feel to their music and, if this is anything to go by, the more African artists bring their sounds and culture to us here in the Western world, the better off we all will be. You can buy the EP here for $3.99 and download a sample remixed track here. They have finished playing a small tour of America and recording in Electric Ladyland studios which I hope will allow them to release and album and come back playing live soon. This is the future sound of Africa. A review of BLK JKS By Jon Pareles, New York Times:

Now and then it’s easy to guess that Blk Jks, from Johannesburg, are an African band on their four-song “Mystery EP” (Robinson Projects, available for download from digital.othermusic.com). That’s when they go bounding into three-chord South African township grooves in “Lakeside” or overlay the reggae foundation of “Summertime” with syncopated guitars. But Blk Jks make their music in a global swirl of possibilities; they are an art-rock band. Produced in New York by Brandon Curtis of the band Secret Machines, the songs on the EP are far closer to TV on the Radio and the Mars Volta than they are to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. While the lyrics (mostly in English) ponder philosophical quandaries — “All the wise men ’round the world don’t know the answers” — the band’s quick-fingered, multilayered vamps well up out of murky echoes, piling jubilation atop the anxiety, before submerging again.