Considering the richness and diversity of the Jo’burg music scene, it’s not really the most effortless achievement to become one of its most influential acts. Still, Soweto-based quartet BLK JKS, has not only grown into one of the most revered bands burgeoning from the Jozi musical landscape, but from the...
Tag Archives: Johannesburg
There’s a country and a city in it that never cease to (musically) surprise us. New acts are born every day, everywhere around the world, but the diversity of styles and influences embodied and manifested by musicians and bands from Johannesburg and Soweto, in particular, constantly amazes us and it’s...
Check out Johannesburg-based band BLK JKS performing live their “favourite urban traditional song ‘Join uMzabalazo’ (Join The Revolution)”. The tune is a “for the people by the people anti-apartheid anti-colonial rallying a cappella fight song, turned African punk rock classic”. BLK JKS performed it “outside the National Arts...
Ukhoikhoi are a multimedia and multilingual “indigenous-electro” duo from Johannesburg, formed by multi-instrumentalist & composer Yogin Sullaphen, and vocalist & performing artist Anelisa Stuurmana. Employing opera and praise poetry, and using a variety of traditional and contemporary instruments, they create their “unique afro-futuristic sound that is rooted in the...
Soweto-based quartet Urban Village just released a video for their song “Dindi’, part of their brand-new album Udundolo (out on NØ FØRMAT!): https://idol.lnk.to/Udondolo “Dindi more accurately put Dark-Dindi was a colloquial term, which describes people who are dark skinned, as to address Black Pride. For this was a necessary...
Every now and then (and by far, it happens more “now” than “then”), Jo’burg and its music scene surprise us with the new release of one of their offspring. The city and its cultural environment, because of its social fabric and history, is a tireless forge of talents, ideas, creativity...
![Album Review: Spoek Mathambo – Tales From The Lost Cities [TEKA Records; February 2020]](https://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/spoek-mathambo-tales-335x335.jpg)
‘Remember back when good rap was just a cool dance hit / Even though it wasn’t saying shit’, Paris spat on his militant debut The Devil Made Me Do It. Released only three months before Rodney King’s assault, it made an accurate prediction about the future of hip-hop. Try looking...
It’s been 15 years since Nthato Mokgata, better known as Spoek Mathambo, began composing, producing and releasing music and in the 15 years of doing so, he has also brought the South African scene forward. We don’t like to make extensive use of words like tastemaker or trendsetter, but in...
![Album Review: Spaza – s/t [Mushroom Hour/Half Hour; June 2019]](https://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/spaza_album_art-335x337.jpg)
Cementing Johannesburg as the third point in the triangle of modern jazz, this album transcends the traditional boundaries of genres to create something captivating, original and outstanding. Released in 2019, this album joins a year of supreme albums that merge genres and eras, taking modern jazz to new heights. In...
They were one of the sensations of 2018, and we inevitably lost ourselves in their embracing and entrancing Afro-psychedelia too. That’s because you can’t simply escape BCUC’s unadulterated Sowetan groove; the way they progressively build it, blending vocal melodies with relentless rhythms, and supporting each other throughout 15, even 20-minute-long...
