Electronic Beats Magazine Issue 02/2010 by Telekom Electronic Beats

EDITORIAL

“Doing Summersaults” If there’s something like a parallel universe to be found on earth it could only lie at the diametric opposite of where you are now. A place where night is your day and summer is your winter. Where things are the same, yet totally opposite. An antipodal type of a place. ‘The Antipodes’ is used to refer to Australia and New Zealand, but in colloquial English, with its customary disregard for technicalities, South Africa gets included too. Fair enough for this occasion, because there’s nothing like a like a long cold lonely winter – and a football world cup! – to snap one out of Euro-centricity, and so here we are with an issue dedicated to the many stars and secret treasures of the creative scene far on the other side. A visual potpourri of the art & design standouts from Australian and New Zealand will make you wish these two distinctive scenes were a tad more accessible than the Iron Man challenge flight generally required. Meanwhile, in the wake of the increasingly influential 2010 Design Indaba, Emer Grant looks at the evolution of South African design and introduces some of the talent currently garnering attention at home and abroad. Not an Antipodean per se, Jamie Lidell is nevertheless a man who has incorporated many a 180-degree twist and turn in his musical career, perfectly embodying the beauty of the flipside that we are celebrating in this issue. Max Willens interviews the ever-nomadic Jamie in NYC a week before his genre bending gig at the Bowery Ballroom and gets at the heart of the complexity behind artistic identity and the creative process, while also getting into the brilliantly restless new album, Compass, which seems so perfectly to capture the soul of its creator.

More brilliance comes in the way of Pieter Hugo, a photographer from South Africa, whose beautifully arranged portraits with their otherworldly quality are extraordinary and unforgettable. Katie Fowley’s interview with this supreme talent reveals a genuine and down-to-earth character. The photographs speak for themselves. Australia and New Zealand have always been a reliable source of fresh sounds and individual artists, Paul Sullivan reports on the history and significance of the dub scene in New Zealand. South Africa’s musical star is now also very much on the rise with an alternative scene gaining kudos internationally. Wyndham Wallace has got the whole story on a scene leaving the previous obstacles of geographical and political isolation behind it. With all that and much more, I hope this issue is something like a somersault, bringing a rush of fresh blood to the brain and a dif ferent angle from which to see everything. Prepare for exhilaration and a new perspective on the world! Enjoy, Viktoria

ELECTRONIC BEATS MAGAZINE PUBLISHER

Toni Kappesz

PRODUCER

Commandante Berlin Gmbh, Schröderstr. 11, 10115 Berlin, Germany

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ART DIRECTOR FASHION & STYLE EDITOR GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

Viktoria Pelles (viktoria@electronicbeats.net) Lisa Borges (lisa@electronicbeats.net) Sandra Liermann (sandra@electronicbeats.net) Leona List (leona@electronicbeats.net) Dörte Lange (doerte@electronicbeats.net)

MUSIC EDITOR

Gareth Owen (gareth@electronicbeats.net)

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Paul Schlosser (paul@electronicbeats.net)

PROGRAM MANAGER

Claudia Jonas (claudia@electronicbeats.net)

PROJECT DIRECTOR ONLINE

Carlos de Brito (carlos@electronicbeats.net)

PRESS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Tim Brandt (press@electronicbeats.net) Anja Mutic´, Emer Grant, Hana Yanetski, Jan Joswig, Johannes Bonke, Katie Fowley, Kazim Rashid, Max Willens, Neale Lytollis, Paul Sullivan, Wyndham Wallace

ARTWORK / PHOTOGRAPHY

Anja Mutic´, Anson Smart, Chris Saunders, Eduard Meltzer, Gerald von Foris, Guy Aroch, Jason Evan, Jason Nocito, Laura Bateson Lindsey Rome, Pieter Hugo, Rachel de Joode, Rikki Burns, SAV, Sharmila Sandrasegar, Tim Levy, Veronica Vasicka, Vic Castell, Katie Pashley, Sean Metelerkamp, Robin Jonsson, Andrew Curtis, Rom Anthoni, John Gollings, Oreste Schaller

COVER WEBSITE

Laura Bateson www.electronicbeats.net

Subscribe ELECTRONIC BEATS MAGAZINE

Inspired by varying topical themes Electronic Beats Magazine appears quarterly and free-ofcharge. The last half a decade has seen over 20 engaging issues come into being and most of these can be ordered independently from a subscription from our online shop. Subscribe to Electronic Beats or make a gift of a yearly subscription for only €10 within Germany or €20 internationally. Single issues can be ordered for €3 (Germany) and €6 (international). More information and all orders via the online shop: WWW.ELECTRONICBEATS.NET/EBSHOP

02/2010 THE ANTIPODEAN ISSUE TUNE IN 08–27

Worth A Visit: The City Never Sleeps.............................10 News............................................................................12 Tough At The Top: Steve Pavlovic / Modular Records.....14 Ones To Watch: Canyons................................................15 Electronic Beats Festivals..............................................16 Kele »On The Outside Looking In«.................................18 Features: Pieter Hugo »Nollywood«................................22

MOST WANTED 50–81

Smarteez Rise From The South......................................52 Offside..........................................................................54 Along A Trail Less Travelled.........................................56 Sydney: »Welcome To The Garden Of Hedone«................68 Catching The Beat Of South Africa................................78

FOCUS 28–49

Jamie Lidell: »The Compass Commander«......................30 Treasures Of Downunder..............................................34 Sam Worthington: »Aussie True Blue«............................44 South African Design: »Beauty With Substance«............46

HEAR THIS 82–99

Baa Rastafari...............................................................84 The New Sound of Southern Rock..................................88 The Collector’s Guide to Antipodean Music.....................90 Jamie Lloyd: »A Single Man«........................................92 Music Reviews.............................................................94 My Music Moment: Tame Impala.................................98

CONTRIBUTORS

Tim Levy Tim originally started photographing big nights out to help him remember what actually happened and soon made a career out of it, or is that, made a career of being ‘out of it’? In any case, his ‘work’ soon branched out to encompass all facets of photography including dog portraiture, collecting cameras and getting drunk at photographic exhibitions. He is also currently the head photographer for Sydney’s The Brag Magazine.

Chris Saunders Originally from Johannesburg, where he plied his trade as a commercial fashion and portrait photographer, Chris now lives in Italy, on a scholarship grant at Fabrica, Benetton's Creative Research Facility, where he works as a researcher, photo editor and photographer on assignment to Colors magazine. Born a big city boy, Chris has been enjoying the simple life in Italy. Recent Clients: Dazed & Confused, Colors, Benetton.

PHOTO VERONICA VASICKA

Katie Fowley

Katie Fowley is a writer and poet currently living in an old worker's tenement building in Brooklyn, and on her way to China to spend the summer in Wuhan, a city known for its punk shows and its sweltering heat. From China, she will head to America's Midwest to attend the Iowa Writer's Workshop. With Michael McCanne, she runs Lightful Press, a publishing venture that will publish an illustrated book of Russian children's poetry this fall. In this photo she is shown drinking grapefruit juice in Miami. WWW.LIGHTFULPRESS.COM

Robin Jonsson

Robin Jonsson is a 23-year old Swedish-Sri Lankan boy, who studied photography in Paris and plans to move to Argentina or Japan as soon as he can. He’s currently working on his first book project entitled The Adventures of Charles the Bear: Part 1, which will be a children’s picture book for adults. For our Antipodean issue Robin shot the fashion story Along A Trail Less Travelled in the wild and vast bushland of Berlin. WWW.ROBINJONSSON.COM

ELECTRONIC BEATS THE ANTIPODEAN ISSUE

O P LE R MODERN PE FO S D N U O S E C LE C T IC FA S H IO N A B LY

IMAGE RIKKI BURNS WWW.RIKKIB.NET

TUNE IN Olafur Eliasson and Basquiat, seminal artists of their era, use the city both as a source of inspiration and a medium of expression. Meet the Modular maker now bringing the astral influenced jams of otherworldly Canyons to earthlings. In Nollywood, hitherto invisible worlds are made visible by the immersion-based work of Pieter Hugo: “I’m not an idealist and I’m not a philosopher. All these images do is pose questions about the way we look at images of Africa.”

Exhibitions worth a visit

THE CITY NEVER SLEEPS TEXT PAUL SCHLOSSER

OLAFUR ELIASSON »INNEN STADT AUSSEN« Bicycles with oddly dematerialising mirrored wheels and other oddities appearing in unexpected corners throughout Berlin hinted at it already; Innen Stadt Außen (Inner City Out), the first solo exhibition by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson to be shown extensively in Berlin, debuted in conjunction with Berliner Festspiele. The exhibition’s theme stems from Eliasson’s close relationship with the city in which he has lived and worked for many years, and will profit from the fact that Germany’s capital, as a site of constant change, is still open to experimentation with architecture and urban structure. In this showcase, the city is brought into the museum turning insides into outsides and vice versa, while its focus is on the very process of seeing and experiencing the world itself. MARTIN-GROPIUS-BAU BERLIN | APRIL 28 – AUGUST 9, 2010 WWW.GROPIUSBAU.DE

BASQUIAT »STREET AND STUDIO« Dead at only 27, after a frenzied life highlighted by his ferocious graffiti art works, drug addiction and a complex friendship with the polemical Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat established himself not only as one of the most important artists of the second half of the past century, but also as a tragic icon of the contemporary art world leaving him and the amusingly facile Keith Haring as its only memorable exponents. On the occasion of his 50th birthday, the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland is hosting Basquiat’s first large exhibition ever held in Europe, while the Kunsthalle in Vienna is dedicating its major showroom to highlighting the dynamic production of a contemporary generation of artists characterised by urbanity and mobility, and for whom the city itself is both source of inspiration and medium of expression. The exhibitions demonstrate not only that Basquiat, inspired by his own heritage, Afro-Caribbean imagery and his music interest along with his use of techniques such as collage and silkscreen, was a key figure in the eighties, but also that his artistic qualifications have significance for 20th century art as a whole. KUNSTHALLE VIENNA | JUNE 25 – OCTOBER 10, 2010 WWW.KUNSTHALLEWIEN.AT FOUNDATION BEYELER, BASEL | MAY 9 – SEPTEMBER 5, 2010 WWW.FONDATIONBEYELER.CH

ANDY WARHOL, JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT UND FRANCESCO CLEMENTE NEW YORK, 1984 | COURTESY GALERIE BRUNO BISCHOFBERGER, ZÜRICH © BETH PHILIPPS JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT IN ITALIAN, 1983 COURTESY, THE BRANT FOUNDATION, VEREINIGTE STAATEN © 2010, PROLITTERIS, ZÜRICH

Smart Urban Stage

BRAVE NEW WORLD If you’re ever wondering about what the future of urban spaces might look like and how us urbanites might move around them, have a look at the Smart Urban Stages. Smart brought together visionary minds of various disciplines like design, architecture science and technology in a creative dialogue to present their ideas about communal sustainable city life. The setting is impressive: A huge, colour-lit air-inflated tent serves as a pop-up gallery in Berlin’s Mitte district from where the exhibition will move to Rome, Zurich, Paris, Madrid and London. The protagonist is the Smart for two electric-drive, which plays an important role in an environmentalfriendly roadscape of modern cities. WWW.SMART-URBAN-STAGE.COM

eEtiquette

THE DOS AND DON’TS OF MODERN TALKING

A life without the Internet and mobile phones is now but a vague and distant memory. Not so many years ago, however, was an era in which you planned to go on a date by agreeing to a specific time and place and just sticking wit it. Last minute cancellations were practically impossible! You had one postal address and a home phone. Fast forward two decades and most of us have at least one mobile phone, a private or commercial email address, a social online account and about a zillion of other ‘chat’ possibilities. A reliable ‘code of conduct’ to navigate through this myriad of communication spheres was just a matter of time; “Am I allowed to place my mobile on the table while in a restaurant?”; “Is it ok to ignore a friending request on a social network?” Answers to these and a multitude of other questions are long overdue. The creatives at Telekom Laboratories creation pool (called Creation Center) have – in collaboration with advanced users, the Royal College of Art in London and the timehonoured Knigge Academy – accepted this challenge to develop a reliable guide. The eEtiquette manual lists 101 helpful hints for all communication channels, such as: “Only R2D2 can end a relationship digitally.” “Constantly broadcasting that you are busy implies just the opposite.” “If your friend request is not accepted, accept it.” ILLUSTRATION GABI BERLIN WWW.EETIQUETTE.DE

No. 57

Black Coffee

EVERYONE CAN BE A DESIGNER Listen up ladies! As befits our Antipodean issue, our favourite summer must-have comes from down under – South Africa that is! Highly rated Joburg based fashion label Black Coffee who’ve already showed their collections at the New York and Berlin Fashion Week came up with a piece of clothing that is pure fashion genius. The dress is versatile in a million ways with everything from playful girlie to sleek and modern or Greek goddess looks possible. It also comes with a trés handy video for inspiration. Added bonus of course is that because this dress is all you need, there is much more money left to spend on shoes and such! WWW.BLACKCOFFEE.CO.ZA

2010 Auto China in Beijing

FALL OF THE BICYCLE KINGDOM TEXT SANDRA LIERMANN

It’s like the 1950s all over again: drive-through fast food restaurants and car washes, retrolooking drive-in movie theatres and obligatory youngsters enjoying some backseat courtship. China has discovered the romance of the road and the Chinese car hype is reaching the heights of Americas automobile cult, the car has influenced the national psyche like no place else Before China began its economic evolution in the early 1980s, the only buyer of vehicles was the state. Virtually no one owned a car other than party officials and even the busiest streets in Beijing were rather desolated. The bicycle was the principal mode of transportation and its sturdy frames carried goods and whole families alike. Morning rush hour in China’s major cities used to be streams of pedal power flowing in a grand hush down wide bike lanes. Today as inner-city highway systems are exploding, many of those lanes have been taken over by cars and buses, their roar and blaring horns drowning out the jingle of bicycle bells. Cyclists have become an endangered species in China. Ironically as the Chinese fall in love with the automobile, the Westerners fall out of love with it and the younger generation in Europe and the US make use of newly built bike paths and are hesitant to buy cars. In China, however, owning a car stands for so much more than individual mobility and travelling from A to B. It’s a piece of freedom and liberation, as well as a tool of communication for younger people. In the land of censored Facebook car clubs are a way of social networking and making new friends. Travelling by car for fun just opens up a whole new horizon for many Chinese. For decades they were not able to afford a vehicle and had to travel in groups. But with massively increasing urbanisation, higher incomes and the development of a middle class, owning a car became reality for many Chinese. Between 2000 and 2009, car sales went up nine times in China. Today about 1,000 new cars hit the streets every day. China last year has become the world’s largest car market overtaking the US with more than 13 million cars sold last year and all the global players want to be part of the bonanza. At this year’s Auto China in Beijing foreign car companies were trying hard to impress the land of the dragon with everything from cheaper smaller cars for the mass of first-time car buyers, to the newest in technology and design and on to the most premium levels of luxury.

Global rules have changed. These days the name of the game is what Chinese buyers want, they get. The ‘C‘ factor stands for design features that appeal to the new alpha consumer: Roomy back seats for chauffeur driven cars, high-tech amenities such as i-Pod hookups and video screens, extra chrome and above all the feeling of grandeur since size does matter in China. Car ownership is also status expression of the new capitalist class and global automakers such as Mercedes-Benz, who unveiled their new long wheelbase E-class, are determined to keep their star rising in China. Daimler also partnered up with Chinese battery and auto maker BYD to jointly develop a new brand of zero-emission mobility especially for the Chinese market. Electric cars were ubiquitous at this years auto show where 95 models where shown. While domestic car makers are still struggling to enter the more mature markets with gasoline powered engines they could get a jump-start in the next field of green technology. The Chinese government is promoting the drive toward electric cars with tax cuts and subsidies. While hoping to clean up its beaten environment and reducing the dependence on imported oil, it wants a share of the promising infant industry. Since most Chinese car owners don’t drive long distances, but rather commute in smoggy, gridlocked cities, a switch to alternative energy vehicles is more logical in China than in other countries. So far only a fifth of the population owns a car and as the number of vehicles is rising, oil consumption and carbon dioxide emissions associated with on-road transportation are increasing dramatically in a world already struggling with the threat of global warming. As two-wheels are slowly replaced by four, sustainable automotive technology is not only a possibility but a necessity in China. After all the dream of the open road can also be dreamed blissfully quiet.

Steve Pavlovic

MR MODULAR It’s probably fair to say that Steve Pavlovic (those in the know call him Pav) is something of a legendary figure in the Australian music scene. He first got a foothold as a promoter bringing some of the biggest names in nineties music – think Beastie Boys, Nirvana and Beck – to Australia’s shores which in turn led to him being inundated with demos from local bands. But what to do with all this new domestic music? Well, start a label of course, and so 1998 saw the birth of Modular and the first LP by The Avalanches. Since then, the label has carved a niche for itself as the home of the best in Australian electro; Presets, Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts, to name a few, all belong to the Modular stable. When he’s not surfing with his daughter at Bondi Beach he’s buried somewhere in his office and told Electronic Beats all about what makes Pav tick. TEXT NEALE LYTOLLIS

What were your original aims when you started Modular and are they still relevant today? Yes and no. Music has changed dramatically since 1998 so our dayto-day aims and the ways we go about achieving them are starkly different to how they were back then. Most simply I started the label to release music I was psyched about and have some fun doing it, and in essence that ethos stays true today. What are the biggest pros and cons of running a label? The pros are working with people I respect and admire everybody and seeing them start from humble beginnings to achieving the accolades I felt they deserved from the beginning. The cons… well the music industry’s full of cons, but that’s another article entirely. Does experience make it harder to get excited about new bands? In a way, but I still get no less psyched when I find something I truly love than I ever did. The global financial crisis has been a disaster for many indie labels. How has Modular weathered the storm? On the whole I think what we do, be it record releases, parties or tours, is probably enjoyed by a relatively niche audience to whom investment in entertainment and culture is a huge part of their lives, and not necessarily a massively expensive one at that. So they didn’t seem to slow up because the global economy was going tits up. Which Modular artist are you most proud of and why? That’s a bit like picking a favourite child. You can’t really do it. I can honestly say we’re proud of what we’ve achieved with all our acts on different levels and for different reasons. I’m proud of The Avalanches’ record we released because it felt like a truly exciting record, and it was a massively fun time, and the record has endured and seems to have remained important until today. I’m immensely proud of what we’ve achieved with both The Presets and Cut Copy.

Presets, Cut Copy, Midnight Juggernauts, to name a few, all come from Australia – what is it in the water there that is producing all this fantastic electronic music? It was kinda weird that all this stuff emerged from Australia around the same time and was able to endure and go on to become so popular internationally. I think it was part coincidence that it all came around the same time, but once it all emerged it was also maybe a bit of them all forming a scene down here, playing together and pushing each other. But has the scene managed to retain its edge? Dance music has become pretty mainstream in Australia. To me, it’s possibly not as exciting as it was a few years ago but Australians still have an insatiable thirst for dance music on all levels. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth are probably the hungriest. What new stuff should we be keeping an eye open for from Modular? We have the Tame Impala record coming in June, CEO in July, we’re doing records by Klaxons and Robyn in Australia, plus new music before the end of the year from Cut Copy, Muscles, Bag Raiders, Canyons, The Swiss, Ladyhawke and maybe even The Avalanches. We’ve got a bunch of tours, events and festivals in the works in Australia, the UK, the US and Europe, plus we’ll be launching a new range of death metal merchandise and opening a massage parlour. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Jamaica. Kevin from Tame Impala is also featured in this issue. Tell us something about him that he’d never admit himself! He is president of the Fremantle Chapter of Dungeons and Dragons 4 Lyfe!

Canyons

SOUNDS FROM THE OTHERWORLD TEXT GARTEH OWEN

Welcome to the world of Canyons, where nothing is quite as it seems. Formed by school friends Leo and Ryan, Canyons are a slowburning story of success who have built a word of mouth reputation through little more than their music, which has been carefully and slowly eased into this world from another dimension. With one EP and a clutch of remixes, Canyons’ repertoire is lean and mean and stands apart from their many contemporaries who have been lazily monikered with the nu-disco badge. With one self-released EP on their own Hole in the Sky label, a single on DFA, and the inclusion of the ‘Blue Snakes’ on Cosmo Vitelli’s ‘I’m a Cliché’ compilation, the band are currently preparing their debut album which is set to disengage the duo from a wonderfully twisted dance-floor trajectory. With only a handful of releases they have gained a strong and loyal following, having had their songs picked up for mixes by an unusually wide range of DJs from Kate Wax to Jacques Renault (who incidentally has released a record of fantastic edits for the pair’s Hole in the Sky label) A number of stunning remixes for the likes of fellow Australians Tame Impala and DFA operator The Juan Maclean have helped to add more fuel to the Canyons’ fire where they have fused aquatic rhythms with a peyote disco shimmer that has lit up the blogosphere. However, they have generally remained somewhat elusive figures, popping up for occasional bursts of activity such as a DJ tour organised by DFA in America or a club residency in Melbourne

and then retreating back to their home base. In fact, at the moment Canyons only exist as DJs, and this restriction has informed much of the music they have made so far. However, to categorise Canyons as a purely dance band, or in fact any one thing, would be a grave mistake. Their debut album is rumoured to have moved the music into a less restrictive dimension where they can let the full force of their inspirations run free. Existing somewhere in the swirling maelstrom where folk, psychedelic, progressive house and cosmic music meet, to call Canyons otherworldly would be an understatement. On the one hand they manage to rein in their more ethereal elements with solid grooves and an eye for the dance-floor – a perfect example being ‘Fire Eyes’ taken from their debut EP. A mutating swirling beat is married to a disembodied vocal that does little more than declare: “fire eyes are paradise”. Its shaman-like quality calls to mind classic New York tribal house such as Men From The Nile. On the other hand, they let their astral influenced jams run and run, moving with the music in whichever direction it seems to be taking, which is where the inspiration for their upcoming album comes from. Recently signed to Modular, being on a local label will no doubt prove to be an even greater incentive to push their sound into the wider world and beyond. You may not have heard of Canyons before, but you can expect to hear a lot more of them soon. CANYONS’ AS YET UNNAMED DEBUT ALBUM WILL BE RELEASED THIS SUMMER.

“The performance at the EB Festival in Graz was the kick-off into a new era!“ MODERAT

ELECTRONIC BEATS FESTIVALS IN REVIEW This spring Electronic Beats brought three fantastic festivals with all-star line-ups to music fans across Europe. TEXT GARETH OWEN PHOTOS EDUARD MELTZER

Starting out in Prague on May 7, Electronic Beats took over the enormous National Gallery and put on a sold-out show with Hot Chip (for their first show ever in Prague!) Booka Shade, Turbowekend and DJ Hell. A last-minute change to the line up saw Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band replaced by N.O.H.A, but no matter as this party went off with an even bigger bang than we could’ve ever hoped for. Next up was the stunning Kasematten in Graz, Austria where Electronic Beats brought a mixture of new acts like Xbloome to join our favourite Danish party starters Turboweekend, EB Recommends Tour stars The Asteroids Galaxy Tour and the jaw dropping Moderat. Despite the 11pm curfew, this party at an amazing mountain top location was a rocking riot. The final killer event was at Cologne’s cavernous E-Werk where Moderat once again entertained the masses of fans with their bittersweet bass. They were joined on the stage by a grat live performance Miike Snow, Little Dragon, Turboweekend and Bloc Party singer kele. Dance-floor vandals Major Lazer, who got the dancefloor absolutely heaving, even treating the people to a little stage diving action. Partying on until 4am, the huge indoor space and outdoor beer garden were jam packed with party revellers until the very end. With total of over 7,000 music lovers getting down at three sold-out events, we could not have asked for a sweeter start to the festival season.

“Electronic Beats is always a good production. We played a lot of shows for EB already and it was always very professional, and the handling for us artist treatments has always been superb as well.” BOOKASHADE

“What a night, what a crowd! Thank you Cologne!” MIIKE SNOW

“EB is a perfect platform, everything is so well done and what I personally like, is that even though it’s clear that Telekom is initiating all this the music is the centre of everything.” TURBOWEEKEND

“Our music did something primal to the audience!”

„Electronic Beats was a right laugh!”

THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR

KELE

“Thank you! Thank you all! We love you, as if you were our children.” HOT CHIP

MIIKE SNOW

Kele

ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

Only five years ago, a little band with a big sound entered the music industry almost unnoticed, through what seemed like the back door. They did so ever so quietly and politely, yet had a colossal impact on the scene at the time. That band was Bloc Party. Indie music has a tendency to have its heroes and Bloc Party were amongst them. As for Kele, he politely filled a whole other hero niche; black, gay, articulate, intelligent, somewhat nerdy – he became an unlikely hero and front-man, but admired nevertheless and perhaps more so because of it. Bloc Party’s first album Silent Alarm is ranked among the finest of its generation; its epochal sound really captured the minds, ears and hearts of its audience whilst also having great crossover appeal with its heavy bass lines and club-friendly sounds. Two more albums followed, headline slots at festivals worldwide, five years of non-stop touring and then the end of the road seemed imminent. Like most front-men and bandleaders it was plain to see Kele needed a new creative outlet and so he went solo. Kele’s first solo album is called The Boxer, which he and performed at it is at ‘the Electronic Beats Festival in Cologne on May 20. that Kele performs his first Electronic Beats show. I caught up with Kele whilst he was in Berlin before his gig at Weekend to talk about Bloc Party ending, his new album, not working with Hudson Mohawk, drugs, and how becoming a DJ and growing up as child of immigrants in England shaped the music he makes. TEXT KAZIM RASHID PHOTO COOPERATIVE MUSIC PR

Kele, so you’re playing at Weekend in a couple of weeks, are you aware Will.i.Am of Black Eyed Peas fame is playing there this week? Are you a fan? “I never played there before but I am looking forward to it. I mean I’m not really a fan of theirs, I think they are super cheesy. That song they did; ‘Where is the love?’. At the time, I thought if a band has released this and are capable of producing it, then I am never going to like this band. But some of the BEP singles I’ve heard this year have been quite good. I really like ‘Boom Boom Pow’. You’re currently on tour; how’s it going and is it different without the band? I’m currently touring the album on a press junket. For sure, it’s completely different, you’re on your own. Where did the decision come from to go solo? I wanted to make another Bloc Party record at the beginning of 2010, but some of the others decided they wanted to take some time off. Which is fair enough considering we’d been on the road for the last five years non-stop. So, I just thought I’ll do my own thing for the next year and the album was born. What’s everyone else up to? The guitar player is playing with Ash at the moment. The bass player has started up a new super group who I don’t think are particularly super and the drummer is at home in New York, watching Lost and playing computer games. An interesting way to spend a year… The musical direction of The Boxer is really different to Bloc Party’s. Was the decision to go solo born out of a creative differ� ence? Not really. But I guess it was important to me when I started that I didn’t want to do this record in the same way. I didn’t want to start with guitars for example, because then it would just be Bloc Party. I went to the studio and just programmed some rudimentary beats, and then laid some synth lines and then just added stuff on top of it. It was a new way of working for me. Then it kind of leant itself to a more electronic realisation in its sound. The new sound, although not a million miles away from Bloc Party, is still quite different. How does that reflect where you are at personally? I’ve always said from the beginning, I’ve always been inspired and interested in electronic music of all kinds. Be it house, techno, r’n’b or pop music. All those mediums excite me the same. The longer we were making records with Bloc Party, the more my interest in music outside of that grew. My interest in guitar music is really waning and anyone that been following Bloc party will see that we’ve been trying to incorporate different sounds as well as different ways of playing. How was making this solo album different to the creative process with Bloc Party? Well, with Bloc Party we’d all sit in the room together and just jam. However, with the last record, Intimacy, at least half the record was just the producer and me sat in the studio just chopping stuff up and editing it, so the band weren’t really involved in that. They’d play and

we would kind of mess around with that, It wasn’t necessarily a band composition as such. That approach has stayed with me and has fed into this project I think. So, with Bloc Party are the doors still open? Is there a plan to do another album? We’ll see… I told them that if we stop, it might be difficult to start again. But I’m just waiting to see how this goes and how the next year pans out. Also, it’s not solely my decision, they might not want to come back to it either. I guess if your progressing musically in a certain direction and the rest are progressing in another direction, it may be difficult to carry on from where you left off and to create a new album? Exactly, but the one thing about this process which is really clear for me is, I enjoy the idea of live musicians playing together. And with Bloc Party, I feel like I shoehorned a lot of my own stuff into our sound. So now, with this outlet I don’t need to do that. So, if we do get back together it would be a very organic record and better for it. So, this new album you have worked with people like XXXChange and Hudson Mohawk. (Kele interjects) Well, no actually I haven’t worked with Hudson Mohawk. Where did that come from, everybody seems to think you had? I don’t know, I think he told everyone we were working together. I sent him some stuff but he took so long getting back to me. By the time he got back to me I’d already finished the album. So who have you been working on this album with on The Boxer? A guy called XXXChange who was the primary beat maker for Spank Rock’s album and Philippe Zdar of Cassius mixed it. I’m really interested in the creative process and how what you are taking in at the time affects what you make. How and what were you listening to, reading or watching when this album was born? There were lots of things I was referencing; I mean you can’t help responding to the things around you at that time. I was DJing a lot, which was probably the biggest single influence on this album. As a guitar player, your first entry into creating a song is a melody, and as Bloc Party progressed I began exploring more rhythmical ideas. But the thing about DJing that I have noticed is that it has had a big effect on the way I view music. It makes you super aware of frequencies, you become more aware of low and high ends. It was the first time I ever really considered the sonic ranges of music and the effect it has on the listener. Sound is completely physical and that is totally what I wanted to capture with this album. That’s quite interesting, there are quite few people who are exploring music sonically at the moment. People like Flying Lotus are very vocal about that and the way drugs effects the way we receive music. That’s the other thing, which I haven’t actually mentioned to anyone yet. But I was smoking a lot of weed whilst I was making this record and I’m not usually someone who smokes or condones it. I think

that had a large effect on me, I’m not encouraging anything but I began to question a lot and how things were moving me physically and emotionally, and personally I feel that had quite an impact on what I created. Finally, I’m particular interested in Diaspora, the movement of people and how it affects those people. You were, of course, born of Nigerian immigrants in England. Do you think this had quite a large effect on you and what you create? For sure, I think it has had a profound effect on me. When you’re a child of immigrants in a country, it can be a perplexing thing sometimes. You are in between two cultures and it can be hard to feel an affinity to either. So then you view things, hierarchies and institutions with suspicion. There isn’t a lineage that you can feel a part of. I personally became suspicious of conformity, which has gone on to form what I create. I actively try and challenge the rules of what I should be doing and being on the outside looking in shapes that.

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NOLLYWOOD

Pieter Hugo

The Johannesburg-based photographer Pieter Hugo sent waves through the photography world with The Hyena Men, his series of large-scale, arresting portraits of hyena trainers in Nigeria. His most recent work, Nollywood, explores the Nigerian film industry, one of the three largest film industries in the world (larger than Hollywood and second only to Bollywood), which produces over 1,000 low-budget, straight-to-video films a year. These portraits feature violent and macabre imagery and play with Western stereotypes of West Africa. Hugoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s immersion-based work makes visible worlds that would otherwise be invisible to Western viewers. Whether his images cause reactions of awe and praise or discomfort and criticism, they always leave viewers with something to talk about. TEXT KATIE FOWLEY PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

How did you become interested in photography? My dad bought me a camera when I was 12. Growing up in South Africa, I felt really isolated, and it became a great excuse to go out and engage with the world. I started working as a photo journalist, but I wasn’t really all that good at it. I had slow reflexes. My current practice evolved out of the fact that I wasn’t good at photo journalism. Being white and living in Africa, most of the places I worked, everyone I worked around was black. By just being there, I was affecting the situation. I had to find another methodology, and that was portraiture. Can you talk about your portraits of the hyena men? Well, with the Hyena photographs, 90% of it was getting to Nigeria, getting their trust, staying with them – and the photographs are only 25% of it. They’re nothing. So much of it is dependent on the relationship between the photographer and the subject. I like the subjects I photograph to return my gaze. I’m looking, but what’s really significant is that they look back at the same time. I want to feel urgency in the images.

it was a hotel, bar, people’s houses, these movies were playing all the time. You’d sit in a bar, and salesmen would come with 50 new DVDs that came out that week. What was interesting to me about this wasn’t actually the narratives. There was something here that I hadn’t seen before. It was the first time I saw a contemporary-media mass self-representation of West Africa. I’d seen this while working on the hyena guys and while working in Ghana, and I found it interesting, but I didn’t quite know why I found it interesting. I knew I wanted to come to understand it, and when I decided to go photograph these movies, I knew I wanted to not just photograph the cameras and the lights. I wanted to isolate theatrical happenings. How did the project begin? I started photographing on the sets, but it just took too long. It was really laborious, and I just wasn’t getting proper results. One evening, I was sitting at a bar with a makeup artist called Gabazzini Zuo, and he takes out this big bag of prints that he’s taken and starts bemoaning the fact that he doesn’t have any proper documentation of his work. So the light bulb went on and I said: Here’s the deal: you help me to facilitate these ideas I have, and I’ll provide you with proper documentation of your work.

“All these images do is pose questions about the way we look at images of Africa or images of the other. ”

How did you go about gaining the trust of the hyena trainers? I paid them – no, I’m joking! (laughs) With charm (more laughing). Good looks and charm. No, it’s pretty much an individual thing – there were some people who wanted to be photographed and some people who didn’t. It used to piss me off if people wouldn’t agree to be photographed, but now I realize there are more than enough things in the world to photograph. What’s so interesting with the hyena guys is that there’s something about the spectacle of these photographs, but the irony is that when I photographed them in Nigeria, there weren’t any white people on the streets [of Nigeria] at all. I almost turned into more of a spectacle just walking around with my Hasselblad, marching around with these guys with hyenas. People were almost more interested in the photographer than in the performers.

How did you find out about the hyena guys? I found out about them from a photograph that was taken on a cell phone by a guy from South Africa who was an employee at a cell phone company. He had been working in Lagos and he showed me a picture on his phone. And with a country of how many people in Nigeria – 150 million? – I just tracked these guys down. It happened really quickly. The first journalist I contacted knew them personally. In a way, it was meant to be. How did you become interested in Nollywood? When you’re travelling in West Africa, no matter where you go, people are watching Nigerian movies. These movies are produced on really small budgets. Actors often get their scripts on the day of the shooting. Aesthetically, they’re closer to soap operas than they are to large budget Hollywood or even Bollywood films. No choruses, no dancing people. The sound is terrible. There are continuity errors the whole time. But somehow, wherever you went, whether

How would the photographs happen? They were collaborative and collective between myself, Gabazzini, and the actors. Here’s an example. I’d show him a reference, I’d tell him we need four guys with machine guns tomorrow, and we need them at 9 o’clock in the morning; and at 4:30 in the afternoon three girls dressed in denim with machine guns would arrive. The photographs are recordings of these happenings. How do the images play with stereotypes and �� W�� estern assump� tions of West Africa? I came in knowing the stereotypes I wanted to photograph, and this is, in a way, indicative of the Western presumptions, the baggage that the viewer brings to look at images of West Africa. There’s a picture of these three slaves girls in chains, and a lot of viewers – Western viewers – get angered by this image, it’s kind of an issue of representation. But what these girls are – all they are, are actors, actresses, and they’re there solely for the entertainment of the people. So, the anger, or any kind of baggage that one brings, or emotion that one feels towards these images, has more to do with collective Western guilt than it has to do with the actual depictions in these images. So, are these images meant to challenge Western viewers? I don’t know if challenge is the right word. I just wanted to play with it. I’m not an idealist and I’m not a philosopher. All these images do is pose questions about the way we look at images of Africa or images of the other. There’s an Africa concept – people always view African as pan-African. The convenience of the category makes it easy to make it the other. Hopefully these images, sometimes suc-

P I C T U R E S C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T: PIETER HUGO, MALL AM GAL ADIMA AHMADU WITH JAMIS, NIGERIA, 2005 F R O M T H E S E R I E S T H E H Y E N A A N D O T H E R M E N , D I G I TA L C - P R I N T © P I E T E R H U G O , C O U R T E S Y Y O S S I M I L O G A L L E R Y, N E W Y O R K PIETER HUGO, EMILIA IBEH, DORIS ORJI AND SHARON OPIAH ENUGU, NIGERIA, 2008 F R O M T H E S E R I E S N O L LY W O O D , D I G I TA L C - P R I N T © P I E T E R H U G O , C O U R T E S Y Y O S S I M I L O G A L L E R Y, N E W Y O R K PIETER HUGO, ALHAJI HASSAN WITH AJASCO, OGERE-REMO, NIGERIA, 2007 F R O M T H E S E R I E S T H E H Y E N A A N D O T H E R M E N , D I G I TA L C - P R I N T © P I E T E R H U G O , C O U R T E S Y Y O S S I M I L O G A L L E R Y, N E W Y O R K P I E T E R H U G O , C H R I S N K U L O A N D PAT I E N C E U M E H E N U G U , N I G E R I A , 2 0 0 8 F R O M T H E S E R I E S N O L LY W O O D , D I G I TA L C - P R I N T © P I E T E R H U G O , C O U R T E S Y Y O S S I M I L O G A L L E R Y, N E W Y O R K

P I C T U R E S C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T: TA R R Y K I N G I B U Z O , E N U G U , N I G E R I A , 2 0 0 8 F R O M T H E S E R I E S N O L LY W O O D , D I G I TA L C - P R I N T © P I E T E R H U G O , C O U R T E S Y Y O S S I M I L O G A L L E R Y, N E W Y O R K SONG IYKE, ENUGU, NIGERIA, 2008 F R O M T H E S E R I E S N O L LY W O O D , D I G I TA L © P I E T E R H U G O , C O U RT E SY YO S S I M I LO GABAZZINI ZUO, ENUGU, NIGERIA, 2008 F R O M T H E S E R I E S N O L LY W O O D , D I G I TA L © P I E T E R H U G O , C O U RT E SY YO S S I M I LO

C-PRINT G A L L E R Y, N E W Y O R K

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cessfully and sometimes unsuccessfully, struggle with this kind of discomfort. Are the stereotypes taken from the films themselves? No, I worked with actors and I worked with the variables that were given to me. It’s like performing Hamlet in Nigeria as opposed to Denmark. The context of it is going to give it a completely different meaning.

continual imagery, film or HD, and do still grabs from it that will have the same resolution as shooting stills with film. This completely changes the notion of the photographer as editor in sequence. This is not photography, it’s become something else. Where do you see your work going? I want to keep things interesting for myself, so I will change what I’m doing. With my portraiture work, I feel like the pictures are starting to look like what I want them to look like. I’m getting good at a certain way of photographing. But the moment you feel good about it, it’s a good time to start switching. There’s nothing worse than falling into formula. And I’ve done that. I think most photographers do that, I think all artists do that. You get into a formula and then you need to change. It’s an exciting period for me. As I start working on the next project, I know I am going to be moving into another direction. What it is, I’m not sure. But it’s a nice period. You get to play and fuck around.

“My life in South Africa is really removed from the art world. I go to exhibitions, but I never go to openings. I surf. I like nature. I like reading.”

What has the response been to this work? Mixed responses. But mixed responses are good. It means people aren’t apathetic about it. Some people are pissed off, some people love it. That’s great. That’s what art’s supposed to do. If, in some way, the people who see this work change the way they look at images or images from Africa, or the way that images get used, then I’ve succeeded. One of the things that makes good photography is that it changes the way you look.

What is the greatest difficulty and what is most rewarding about your work? The most rewarding is forgetting about a project when it’s done. My work is laborious – I try to make it fun. It’s not always fun. It’s really cathartic, and I enjoy it. Now that I have a kid, I’ve been questioning why I put myself through some of the experiences that I do, the discomforts that I put myself through. The conclusions I’ve come up with aren’t very reassuring (laughing). Travelling starts to wear thin very quickly. I’ve been doing it for 16 years, 20 days out of the month. What do you do when you’re not out working on these projects? My life in South Africa is really removed from the art world. I go to exhibitions, but I never go to openings. I surf. I like nature. I like reading. I have a boring middle class existence. I like to spend time with my wife and child. Modest pleasures. I also work a ton. The great thing about being a photographer is that no two days are the same. I don’t ever get bored. I get frustrated. I get angry. But I don’t get bored. What are those frustrating moments? When working on a project, you get a conception about how you want to do it, and then you get there and it’s always different. You have to adjust your state of mind. It’s about being able to embrace change. Getting in the water is uncomfortable. But once I’m in, I love it. I’m swimming. What do you think about the state of photography today? I’m really bored with photography. Well, not photography per se, but the vocabulary of photography is getting increasingly boring. There’s a shift, I think, with the shift to digital, but not exactly in terms of the actual subject matter. Soon, one will be able to shoot

What is your next project? I’m working on photographs of a computer dumping ground in Ghana and this group of kids that live there and scavenge from it. How did you find out about it? From National Geographic. I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so devastating, but when I went there, it was like the end of the world.

IMAGE RIKKI BURNS WWW.RIKKIB.NET

FOCUS “When you’re on the pioneering tip, you never know, ‘coz you’re in unfamiliar territory.” Moving to the swing of his own compass, Jamie Lidell lands on his feet after a somersault in musical exploration. “Images are their own language, trying to explain them in words is like listening with your eyes”, New Zealand artist Rob Tucker once said. His work is beauty with substance, which coincidentally is also the design mantra coming out of South Africa, global tastemakers attend the 2010 Design Indaba and are taking notes.

ELECTRONIC BEATS THE ANTIPODEAN ISSUE

JAMIE LIDELL

THE COMPASS COMMANDER TEXT MAX WILLENS IMAGE LINDSEY ROME

From the outside looking in, Jamie Lidell is impossible to figure out. The English singersongwriter-producer has worn a dazzling array of hats throughout his 20-year musical career, and it’s tough to imagine anyone else pulling off half the looks Lidell’s tried on. In listing them off, he tells me: “There’s the straight pieces that serve a purpose, there’s the weirder stuff that’s a little more out there, with a twist. That’s the kind of stuff I’m drawn to.” Over the course of one afternoon in April, Lidell explains how it took him nearly 20 years to embrace that attraction. Back in late April, I met Jamie Lidell in the lobby of a very hip hotel near the Garment District in Manhattan. Decked out in track pants, gnawed but expensive-looking leather shoes with no socks, and a luxurious-looking sweater, he had some time to spend with me before heading downtown to rehearse with his band. He was scheduled to perform a week later at the Bowery Ballroom, and at one point during our interview, Lidell admitted that he and the band hadn’t rehearsed their set enough. “I hope it doesn’t fall apart,” he said. “It probably will,” he continued, and, before I could get a word in edgewise, he finished his thought:“But if it does, brilliant!”

That Bowery Ballroom gig is kind of a big deal. It’s his first with a new band, and the first warm-up gig for a new tour for a new record, Compass, that is likely to undergo significant critical scrutiny. It would seem, at least from the outside looking in, like starting off on the right note would be very important. But it’s clear that Lidell’s bravado isn’t empty. Something in his voice and gaze makes it clear that he is ready for anything, that he is willing to let this tour, this new phase of his career, grow organically, even if that means stumbling out of the gate. He sees it as a risk, and one he is totally invested in. It is his soul music. In order to make Compass, Lidell had to walk to the midway point between his career’s two extremes, take a deep breath, and dig his heels in. What began on the fringes of techno and recently reached the outer reaches of pop’s blue-eyed soul revival, now sat at a crossroads, and Compass reflects that. The album is a maelstrom of selfdoubt and conviction, with lyrics swerving from regret (‘Completely Exposed’) to self-hate (‘Coma Chameleon’) to sexy (‘It’s a Kiss’), and with music matching the curves in both sound and ambition. There are rough patches, with fuzzed bass and drums bashing the ends of melodies, and blown-out guitars and bass growling at one another (‘The Ring’), and funky, excitable ones too (‘I Wanna Be Your Telephone’; ‘Enough’s Enough’). But there are also sublimely serene, peaceful moments in which Lidell sounds everything from sexy (‘She Wants Me’) to redeemed (‘You See My Light’). Befitting an artist with Lidell’s history, and also his talent, it is one of the most distinctive, exciting and (yes) soulful albums of the year. It is also a wilful, almost violent reaction against the most ‘soulful’ record in his catalogue.

The fact that Compass is all of these things isn’t surprising, either. Lidell’s tastes are far-reaching enough, and when he made Compass, his life was in the worst kind of flux. As he puts it, 2008 and 2009 were tough years for him, a “triple whammy” that saw Lidell changing “the cornerstones of [his] sanity”: his place of residence, his management, and his relationship, all at once. Changes that momentous are normally avoided unless they’re absolutely necessary, but for Lidell, they were. Those moves were all reactions to a failed transformation, to Lidell’s attempt and failure to become Jim, the sharp-suited, blue-eyed soul man of his last album. In hindsight, it seemed only natural that he’d try the suit on. Like all soul men, music serves many different functions for Lidell simultaneously. Each of his personalities and passions manifests itself in his songs. But because of all of Jim’s parameters, conventions and confines, it’s no surprise that the suit didn’t fit, either. Lidell’s journey towards Jim started out well-intentioned. As Lidell puts it, “it was kind of, ‘Can I make a pop record?’” It was a fair question, and 14 years into his recording career was an especially intriguing time to pose it. The mix of era-spanning r&b and EDMinspired production of his preceding album, Multiply, was a huge surprise that earned him an avalanche of critical praise. It was also the result of a new way of working, a new creative partnership and a relatively recent move towards making music that was intended for a mass audience. All of a sudden, and maybe in spite of himself, mainstream relevance seemed very much within the grasp of someone who’d spent much of his career actively shunning it. All he’d have to do was pare himself down.

Prior to that, paring down was very much not what Jamie Lidell did. Growing up in a tiny village in England, Lidell was a loner who decided that music was going to get him somewhere. He had no idea where that was, but in hindsight, it seems clear that it was far away. He spent his youth obsessing over any way-out sound he could find, from Prince and Funkadelic to Beefheart and anything else he’d catch wind of, and do his best to wrap his head around it. “I was in a band with this guy called Simon Scott,” Lidell recalls, detailing one such head expansion, “and he was kind of a real musician, he used to play drums with us, and he told me, ‘You’ve gotta listen to Can, man. Tago Mago.’ “And I was like, ‘Okay,’ so I bought it, and I was like trying to smoke weed, hating it,” Lidell laughs, a fond smile on his face. “But I was like, ‘I’ve gotta do this, man! I’ve gotta smoke weed and listen to Can!’” Lidell, obsessed with Can shortly thereafter and still hungry for new experiences in sound, moved to Bristol, where he had company. “It was like everybody was discovering genres,” Lidell recalls. “It was like the whole music industry just stopped and went, ‘What is that’”

is great when it communicates,” he continues. “It’s kind of shit when it doesn’t.” That realization, combined with the ambition that pushed him out to Bristol and Brighton, eventually pushed him in another direction: toward Dominic Salole, a.k.a. Mocky, a “precocious punk genius” who can quickly chart the shortest distance between two musical points. By that time, Lidell was living in Berlin, where he and Salole met through mutual friends in the techno world. It was instantly clear to Lidell that Salole was a very different kind of musician, and before long they were working on Multiply. More than anything, Lidell credits Salole with showing him a new creative path. “I get buried in tunes,” he explains. “He [Mocky]’s very much the other way. He’s like, ‘Look, we’re going here: chord, bass root pinned, extensions on top, jazz style! Like that. Keep it moving, keep it clean.’ I’m like, ‘Fuck it man! we’ll leave the bass out, we’ll just imply it with a weird feedback noise or something.’”

Like all soul men, music serves many different functions for Lidell simultaneously. Each of his personalities and passions manifests themselves in his songs. But because of all of Jim’s parameters, conventions, and confines, it’s no surprise that the suit didn’t fit, either.

After a few years of swirling around in this melting pot, excited by its temperature and possibilities, Lidell did what so many other young musicians who were excited by the climate did: he began to make EDM. Down in Brighton, he partnered with Cristian Vogel to form Super_Collider, and, for a time, with Phil Wells and Jason Leach on their project, Subhead. At the time, there were people who considered EDM to be the future of popular music, part of a new paradigm, and Lidell wanted in. “At that time, at my age, it felt necessary, to go to that limit. To do something really serious,” he explains. “Fuck the squares, man! They’ll never know what the fuck is going on with this! I just wanted to be against mainstream. I didn’t want to deal with anything familiar. I wanted to blast it all away and get further out.” Ultimately, Lidell was looking for himself. and he was looking under other rocks as well. In addition to his EDM output, he was also the frontman of Balzac, a bizarre, brainy psych-funk outfit he “kind of destroyed” shortly after joining them. Lidell wanted to express himself and slotted himself into something at the same time, but as EDM began to fracture, and as the adolescent fuel that drove him to its frontiers evaporated away, he realized that those borderlands weren’t worth settling in. “It was a lonely place,” he admits. “Music

But Multiply had both, and by the time it was done, Lidell’s search for meaning and a place in music had taken a 180 degree turn, with more of an emphasis on collaboration and common ground. The critical and artistic success of Multiply made collaborating on its follow-up, Jim, a no-brainer. And before Lidell or Salole could begin to think about it, they had their idea for a pop record.

It all began with a remix Lidell had been commissioned to do for Matthew Herbert’s ‘Moving Like a Train’. Every approach Lidell took was dissatisfying, boring, or both. Finally, in the interest of making the process enjoyable, he decided to try something different. “I thought, why don’t I try to make a Motown song out of it?” Lidell recalls. The results galvanized him. “It made me feel really good,” he says. “When you’re on the pioneering trip, you never know, ’coz you’re in unfamiliar territory, whether it’s done or not. When you’re working with a known quantity... you kind of have a reference point.” Those reference points – some of the most iconic periods and genres in pop’s history – proved to be a mixed blessing. Lidell and Salole had a new goal, but their relationship had also fallen out of balance. Every time Lidell had even a scrap of a song idea, he felt as though he had to run it by Salole first. In searching for something that truly communicated, something he could share with others, he had gotten away from himself. Suddenly, Lidell wasn’t expressing himself anymore. He was trying to write hits, and not his hits, either. “Jim... was very much about

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that, taking something personal, disconnecting from it, making it more a theme rather than the specific thing,” he explains. “Even taking something that’s personal, and twisting it ’til it’s not really true, just for the sake of making it a better fantasy.” The creation of Jim’s amalgam of soul style and pop star lyrics had started to feel “like a job” rather quickly, one that Lidell enjoyed less each day. But Jim had been assembled, and it was time to take him on tour, and Lidell and his band toured Jim into the ground: Europe twice, America twice, Japan, Australia, and everywhere in between. It took a toll on everybody, and it wasn’t long before Lidell began to resent the box his avatar kept him in. “I kept trying to change all the arrangements all the time,” he admits, “which was infuriating for the band. Because they’d just learn one version, and then I’d go, ‘Come on guys, I’m over this! let’s do it all electronic.’ And they’d go, ‘WHAT!?’” By the time the Jim tours finally ended, Lidell knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that soul – his soul – was in more than anachronistic recreation. “I’m not Sharon Jones,” he tells me flatly. Unfortunately, that information was only marginally helpful. Now 16 years into his career, not Sharon Jones, not Jim, not a soul purist, he still had to figure out how to express who he was. On stage at the Bowery the following week, Lidell and his band didn’t fall apart, even though they practically dared themselves to. Rather than running through the gauntlet of genres that exists on Compass, they re-imagined them; ‘Completely Exposed’ was lean instead of fat, ‘Coma Chameleon’ groaned forward as a dirge instead of stamping ahead. It was impossible to tell what would come next, and Lidell probably wanted it that way. Early on in the set, the band’s sloppy and somewhat sleazy take on ‘Enough’s Enough” suddenly became Multiply’s title track, and as the band closed the song, singing its chorus in harmony, a small, relieved smile passed across Lidell’s face, as though he sensed that his old self and his new self were finally in sync again. Lidell performed three songs from Jim

during his set, but they seemed tacked on, somehow separate from the spectrum of songs that Lidell and his band worked on. ‘Little Bit of Feel Good’ was almost thrown together, and he sang the other two, ‘Wait For Me’ and ‘Another Day’, alone, along to instrumental versions from the album cued up on a laptop. On both, Lidell seemed to be performing rather than communicating, swallowing the lyrics but owning the performances, turning loose one melismatic run after another. He performed them out of professional obligation, and seemed to enjoy doing so. They remain part of his discography, and they will always be among his biggest hits. But they have nothing to do with who he is. Before the band left the stage at the end of their set, Lidell snuck back up to the microphone and offered his audience a quasi apology. “We’re just starting out,” he said. “It’ll never be this raw again.” Lidell was referring to the set he and his band are about to tour, but now that he’s finally moved back from his career’s earlier extremes, it’s possible (and, hopefully, probable) that his blue-eyed soul music will stay this raw for quite some time.

ANTIPODEAN AESTHETICS

TREASURES OF DOWN UNDER From architecture and fine art to fashion and beach house culture, this visual potpourri of aesthetic treasures from the antipodes is a feast for the senses. Light up your life with Volker Haug, dress yourself in the designs of Alpha 60, discover the humour of the everyday with Rob Tucker…there’s something to suit each and every occasion here.

ROB TUCKER The work of this bright and exciting young artist from New Zealand is beautiful simplicity without simple-mindedness. Filled with wit Tucker’s work is as likely to draw awe-inspired sighs as cheeky giggles. “Subverting advertising plays a big part in my work”, he states. Indeed, the brash techniques of advertising are transformed in the flair and freedom of his paintings, which not undeservingly have been credited with a Basquiat-like magnetism. WWW.ROBTUCKER.NET.NZ

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RICKY SWALLOW Selected as the Australian representative at the 2005 Venice Biennale with the memorable This Time Another Year, Ricky Swallow is best known for his three-dimensional work, which uses a range of sources from popular culture to the tradition of natura morte. The meticulous craftsmanship out of different types of media results in work which both replicates and pays tribute to the original subject. With solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle in Wien, Stuart Shave/Modern Art in London and Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Swallow’s strong place within the contemporary art world is evident. Born in San Remo, Victoria, Ricky Swallow currently lives and works in Los Angeles. WWW.RICKYSWALLOW.COM

HISTORY OF HOLDING 2007 (DETAIL) TURKISH BOXWOOD, TWO PIECES (14 X 124 X 14 CM AND 16 X 106 X 19 CM) COURTESY THE ARTIST AND DARREN KNIGHT GALLERY, SYDNEY FLYING ON THE GROUND IS WRONG 2006 BRONZE EDITION OF 12 + 5 AP (14.5 X 5.5 X 4CM) COURTESY THE ARTIST AND DARREN KNIGHT GALLERY, SYDNEY

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KILL PIXIE Mark Whalen is Kill Pixie, a prominent street artist from Sydney whose captivating patterned compositions are best described in his own eloquent way: “Being influenced by architecture, geometry, and nature, my work is an examination of humanity; set as a forecast – projecting communication, emotion, sexuality, humour, and the greater experience of mankind. Through using a bright and luminous colour palette, I study ideas of invention and interaction through my compositions. Although I am exploring these subjects for myself, the works are open to the viewer’s interpretation of beauty and the uncanny form.” WWW.KILLPIXIE.NET

CHUNKY MOVE Founded by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek in 1995, Chunky Move has earned an enviable reputation for producing a distinct yet unpredictable brand of genre-defying dance performance. Chunky Move’s work constantly seeks to redefine what is or what can be contemporary dance within an everevolving Australian culture. Chunky Move’s multi-tiered programming initiatives foster and support a strong and vibrant dance culture in its home city of Melbourne and also creates critically acclaimed and popular larger productions for touring.

PHOTO 1 ANDREW CURTIS (PICTURED ANTONY HAMILTON) PHOTO 2 ROM ANTHONI (PICTURED KRISTY AYRE)

WWW.CHUNKYMOVE.COM.AU

SANGEETA SANDRASEGAR Sangeeta Sandrasegar’s practice centres around postcolonial and hybridity theory and draws strongly from her mixed heritage. She is interested in the many ways structures of culture, sexuality and identity have become intertwined and in interpreting and representing these shifts. Represented in group and solo exhibitions since 1996, Sandrasegar is the recipient of several fellowships and prizes, she also completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in 2004. Sandrasegar explores her context within Australia and its relationship to migrant communities and homelands in her work. WWW.SANGEETASANDRASEGAR.BLOGSPOT.COM UNTITLED NO.11 FROM THE SERIES »THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED 2007« PAPER FOIL, CARTRIDGE PAPER, WATERCOLOUR, 45 X 47CM PRIVATE COLLECTION UNTITLED NO.16 FROM THE SERIES »THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED 2007« PAPER FOIL, CARTRIDGE PAPER, WATERCOLOUR, 42 X 48CM PRIVATE COLLECTION (COURTESY MORI GALLERY) PHOTOS SUE BLACKBURN

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COÖP An ongoing collaboration between Paul Fuog and Dan Honey, the Coöp design studio was established in 2004 in Melbourne. A sound theoretical foundation coupled with curious imagination, Coöp’s work is both ordered and playful. The designer are passionate about crafting works which improve our surroundings, a dedication that’s resulted in a body of work warmly received by international media and industry experts. WWW.CO-OPONLINE.NET.AU

PHOTOS ROOF TOP CINEMA EVENT BRANDING

RINZEN A design and art collective of five parts (Steve & Rilla Alexander, Adrian Clifford, Karl Maier and Craig Redman), RINZEN has gained legendary status not only through the success of their collaborative approach but on account of their vibrant, optimistic and now oft-imitated aesthetic. Their designs have appeared on everything from wallpaper and fabric to bicycles and toys, they’ve published books and have exhibited in the US, Mexico, Japan and across Europe – most notably at the Louvre. The group are now scattered across three continents but continue their amalgamated output, working out of Sydney, New York and Berlin. WWW.RINZEN.COM

VOLKER HAUG Much more than a simple light, a Volker Haug design is a work of art with the capacity to transform any space. Melbourne-based Haug likes to shop for materials in the most unusual places – fishing shops, salvage yards, junk shops and leather wholesalers, to name a few. The eye-catching creations range in style from minimalist to industrial. WWW.VOLKERHAUG.COM

DEANNE CHEUK An artist and designer from Perth, Australia, Deanne lived next to the Swan River until relocating to New York in 2000. Working predominately with charcoal or watercolours on paper, her artwork always touches on nature, utopia, space and being, often distorting realistic representation into fantasy. She attributes her love of fantasy, otherworlds and space to her upbringing and youth spent outdoors. She has exhibited her art around the world, most recently in Mexico, Los Angeles and Sydney. Cheukâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first book of drawings, Mushroom Girls Virus, published in 2004, sold out immediately. WWW.DEANNECHEUK.COM

ZAMBESI With superior workmanship and a true collectable quality to their pieces, New Zealand label Zambesi is entirely modern and unconventional, characterised by a special brand of practical elegance that lets the label loom high over other fickle fashion. A fashion pioneer, Elisabeth Findlay co-founded the label with her husband Neville Findlay in 1979, and clearly has clothes creativity running through her veins; her sister Margarita Robertson is designer of other leading NZ fashion label Nom*D. WWW.ZAMBESI.CO.NZ

MARCH STUDIO With a passion for the spaces we encounter every day, March Studio “design and build the new through their architectural practice, transform and invigorate the existing with graphic and interior design and employ their art in public spaces to inspire and surprise.” Founded in Melbourne in 2007, March Studio has quickly established a global reputation for combining the experimental with the pragmatic, while using materials and processes with award-winning ingenuity and finish.

PHOTO PEN PLAN PARIS, 2006

WWW.MARCHSTUDIO.COM.AU

BACH CULTURE A ‘Bach’, pronounced Batch is the name given to the small and modest beach houses that became popular in 1950s New Zealand. Contrary to the easy assumption that ‘batch’ is beach pronounced in a Kiwi accent, the word derives from bachelor pad though these modest structures soon developed into family getaways. An original Bach, also known as a ‘crib’ on the South Island, is likely to have a fantastic view, be built with whatever was laying around, possibly have no electricity yet represent paradise on earth to its family. PHOTO VIC CASTELL

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MCBRIDE CHARLES RYAN McBride Charles Ryan is an award winning Melbourne practice with a studio-based approach to projects that defies specialization. Under the direction of architect Rob McBride and interior designer Debbie-Lyn Ryan, MCRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s projects are expressive in both form (sculptural character and geometry) and palette (colours and materials). In 2005, MCR were awarded the highest Victorian award, the Victorian Architecture Medal. WWW.MCBRIDECHARLESRYAN.COM.AU

KLEIN BOTTLE HOUSE & LETTERBOX HOUSE (PHOTOS JOHN GOLLINGS)

ALPHA 60 Catering to those with a love of style and an eye for the eccentric, Melbourne-based label Alpha 60 has developed into a veritable tour de force on the Australian fashion and design scene since launching in 2004. Embracing popular culture, sibling design-duo Alex and Georgie Cleary lists films like Buffalo 66, Twin Peaks or La Haine among their influences. Their name is inspired by Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 cult-classic Alphaville, and the growing number of Welcome to Alphaville stores in Melbourne and Sydney pay homage to the label’s celluloid muses. Items like their must-have pleat scarves are pure fashion genius. May their arrival to local shops be sure and swift! WWW.ALPHA60.COM.AU

DESIGN GUIDES The Sydney and Melbourne Design Guides are an upto-date record on everything you need to know about the creative community in Australia’s two biggest cities. Started in 2006 by editors Viviane Stappmann, Ewan McEoin and industrial designer Paul Charlwood, it has grown into regular little enterprise published by Stappmann’s, Alphabet Press. Designed by the most interesting design studios around, the books list hundreds of stores and galleries with profiles of designers and architects. It also features the bars and restaurants where the creative community likes to wine and dine. An expansion to Europe is on the cards. WWW.SYDNEYDESIGNGUIDE.COM

WWW.MELBOURNEDESIGNGUIDE.COM WWW.ALPHABETPRESS.COM.AU

SAM WORTHINGTON

AUSSIE TRUE BLUE INTERVIEW JOHANNES BONKE

It was in early 2009, during the first buzz around Terminator Salvation and Avatar, when Australian actor Sam Worthington was suddenly praised as Hollywood’s new secret weapon. Almost a decade earlier, the former brick labourer appeared in a string of Australian films, in titles such as Dirty Deeds and Thunderstruck before finally achieving acclaim and snagging Abbie Cornish in the Australian awardsweeping romance Somersault. Despite recent fame, this true blue Aussie, an avid surfer of course, still prefers to remain stationed Down Under and ‘commute’ to Hollywood. Currently on screen as the mortal son of Zeus in Clash Of The Titans, we meet the so-called action hero in an elegant suite at Berlin’s Hotel de Rome. His appearance is a casual one, dressed in blue jeans and a simple T-shirt, Worthington convinces with a charming, suburban slang and a down-to-earth mentality. He has not forgotten his life as a bricklayer, the 34-year old states – and soon forgets time by analyzing his current status. So Sam, I heard I shouldn’t ask you about football since your answer would take up my whole interview time. (Laughs) I can keep it brief: it’s World Cup season, but Australia is in a tough group! But I am sure you want to talk... ...About the common agreement that you are Hollywood’s next action hero. Yeah, I am not a big fan of the phrase action hero. For me, it has a negative connotation in my head, probably not to other people, but to me it always conjures up the idea of a guy just on steroids who’s a figurine. And I am trying to bring a bit more grit and gravity and sensitivity and vulnerability into those roles. I totally agree that ‘action hero’ is not the most pleasant phrase, but at least it ultimately leads to high budget cheques. It is an easy way to define the movie genres that I have found myself in. And you are closing a niche with it. Approximately a year ago, Variety had this article where they said Hollywood is really lacking strong men who can carry those kind of enormous blockbusters. I felt that too: we don’t have to mention names, but somehow in the nineties we had those strong parts.

Yeah, I was going to Hollywood and losing roles to those guys, and kept thinking ‘fucking hell, hopefully some of it will swing around again so that I can get a look in’. Because it does, it goes in circles. Who knows how long this one is going to last before it circles around again and we get a different kind of man that’s the hot new thing. How dangerous is it to get lost in that whole buzz thing that goes on around you? Oh, it is quite easy to get lost in the buzz thing if you are so inclined. I have been in this industry now for twelve years, so I’m not a green horn and not starry-eyed. I know all the tinsel and the bells and whistles that go with this industry, and I think that after twelve years, and being a 33-year old Australian, you tend to kind of have your feet on the ground. If you want to be famous, you go on Big Brother, I am here to do my job and tell the stories that my nephew and his friends can go and see and get inspired by, simple as that. A lot of other people say that your job also starts when the movie is finished, i.e. when you have to go promote it. Yeah, I get paid to sell it. I would work with Jim Cameron for a bag of bananas to be honest, but don’t let the studio know that. Yeah,

you are right, you get paid to sell it. But as long as you know what your job is... like, I know that talking to you helps sell your magazine and in turn helps sell my movie. So as long as you know what that relationship is, it’s a lot easier. If you try to shy away from it, get nervous, play a part or a role, I think I would get a bit lost in it. What exactly was the time frame? I’m guessing you shot Avatar first and then Terminator and then Clash of the Titans? Yep yep, I started in 2007. I did the 14 months on Avatar, finished on a Friday, kind of thing, and then started Terminator on a Monday, I think, something stupid like that. Then I did that for four months and finished that, and did a movie called Last Night with Keira Knightley and Eva Mendes. Then I finished that and did Clash of the Titans, and finished that about a month ago. So I have been working as hard as I could, and I had it in my head that if I am going to be coming out of the gate, I want to come out hard. You also fear unemployment because no one knew if Terminator was going to work, no one knew if Avatar would work, so I tried to get a few more under my belt to get a bit more financially secure. Thirdly, I love working. There is something about the opportunity to go to these other planets and play with people of this great calibre. Not only did you have to be in great shape to play those parts, but you also have to be in great shape to go through those intense shootings. The shootings encompass your whole life and suffocate everything. Your whole life changes, you don’t see your friends as much, you don’t see your home as much, and relationships crumble. Then you take that and become a pain on other film sets because that level of focus and commitment I put on everything else. And even though they are three or four months long, you see nothing is ever going to compare to the fourteen months I did, for example, with James Cameron. So the shooting for Clash of the Titans was about four months, four and a half months, I think ... easy. Some people find that long and hard, but to me, you dive-in, commit and lose your life for four months to become a Greek warrior. Does the question come up where you ask yourself: what for? Not at all man, because I love my job. I feel lucky and privileged to be in the position that I am. I have boundless energy when it comes to making films. There are a lot worse things to do for work and I have done them: digging holes, digging sewer trenches, mixing cement, putting anti-rust solution on corrugated iron in 40 degree heat. I have done those shit jobs. And some of my friends do them as well, so for me to kind of go, why am I doing this job? I am fucking privileged. Would you still like doing films if you had to go back to doing some of those kinds of jobs? If you gotta do it, you gotta do it. Someone has got to keep the world turning. Maybe this sounds like a cliché, but it has something to do with the Australian psyche somehow, because when you speak to people like Russell Crowe, they quite often have this very downto-earth attitude.

Russell loves his work and he loves his job and is 100 percent committed, but he is also this huge family man, and he’s also completely dedicated and committed to his football team, the sports team that he bought. He realizes it’s just a job, though. And he loves working with Ridley Scott because Ridley is his mate. That’s the ultimate goal: to work with someone that is your friend. That is the ultimate goal for me. When did you realize that acting is just a job? Pretty early on. I never wanted to be an actor so I was just falling into it… I went through drama school, and you get all the different techniques drilled into your head – everything from Stanislavski to Mammoth. You name it; we got singing lessons and dancing lessons. You have a tool belt of skills and then, when you go out and start doing the movies, that’s when you take your tools and all your skills and put them in. Well, for me, that’s the same as a bricklayer – you’ve got your tool belt and you go and do your job. So there never really was a moment when I went, ‘oh fuck, it’s just a job.’ It’s always been like that in my head. It’s just an extraordinary job. When did you make the decision to move from Australia to LA? I didn’t. I don’t live in LA. Los Angeles is like my office; I go there to work. But I’m like most Australians; I like to be based at home. Russell is in Sydney, Geoffrey Rush is in Melbourne, and Guy Pierce is in Melbourne. Cate Blanchett bounces around; Hugh Jackman bounces from New York to Sydney. At this stage wouldn’t it make sense to live where your office is? That’s what good businessmen do. Yeah, but dentists don’t live in their offices, do they? And it’s only a fifteen-hour commute. People go, ‘oh my God!’, but it’s fifteen hours where you are sitting on the plane getting fed and watching videos. So you just sit there and shut up and get over to your office. And then when it’s done, you can come back. It also gives you a perspective on the Hollywood film industry. You can kind of go into something but end up suffocating in it; you can’t see the forest because of all the trees. Being based somewhere else is what helps us Australians stay grounded. So now as we come to the end of the interview, I can ask you about the soccer… (laughs) What’s the question, brother? Do I think we are in a fucking hard group? That’s for sure. Ghana is in top form, Germany is always a powerhouse, and Slovenia, isn’t it? I think it’s Slovenia, well some European country you don’t mess with. And we have a young team, we have a lot of heart and a lot of ticker, so we’ll see how we go. But at least we are not in the Portugal, Brazil and Ivory Coast group. That’s the group of death, isn’t it? Will you at least use your name and reputation now to get tickets for the World Cup? I was actually going to go with my dad; I was going to take him over there. Well my mate’s from South Africa, so we were actually going to go over there and see if we can figure it out. I know my dad would love it, but I think all the tickets are sold. But I wouldn’t ever use my reputation to get free tickets; I’d just line up like the rest. Those are the things that keep you grounded.

SOUTH AFRICAN DESIGN

BEAUTY WITH SUBSTANCE “Design is too important to be left to the designers. We don’t need more stuff – we need problem-solving tools”. Ravi Naidoo, founder of the Design Indaba

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With all eyes on South Africa this summer as we head into the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup, the nation prepares to pull out all the stops to impress the international community as the chosen host for one of the most anticipated events of the global diary, but there is another reason that we should be looking a little further at a country that has not previously been associated with international innovation and creative foremanship. Currently, South Africa is a country where tourism and the economy are on the rise, and its residents are keen to ensure this development stays in sustaining the momentum beyond 2010. Cape Town has placed a bid to become the World Design Capital in 2014, a concept that was launched at this year’s prestigious South African design conference, Design Indaba. TEXT EMER GRANT

Cape Town Partnership, who are leading the bid for the award, state that there is a strong belief that Cape Town possesses many assets that could make it a World Design Capital. From a history of hosting big events like Design Indaba to the World Economic Forum and Cape Town Jazz Festival, it is rapidly becoming a nexus point for the international creative community. There are many creative industries that are concentrated in the city – with a high level of design-related companies and design leaders. There is a new infrastructure left by the 2010 World Cup: the new international airport terminal, a new train station, a new stadium and the beginnings of a more efficient public transport system. The challenge lies in proving that a city in which political unrest and events such as the Apartheid have left a legacy of ‘bad design’, can now evolve to prove that the focus of design should not rest upon aesthetics and highly glossed finishes. That design should

place emphasis towards problem solving in areas which, due to their political and economic history, have created a spatially, socially and racially divided society. The role of design needs to be considered beyond aesthetics and products. In positioning Cape Town as a centre for innovation, there is a recognition that the city works explicitly with many unresolved contradictions and tensions, but also strives to give expression to a number of core values such as sustainability, social justice and integration. Ravi Naidoo, founder of the Design Indaba says: “Design is too important to be left to the designers. We don’t need more stuff – we need problem-solving tools”. To get an idea of what is happening in contemporary South African design the place to turn to is the Design Indaba expo which took place between the 24th – 26th of Feb this year at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre. Indaba is the only 100% South African celebration of the country’s talent across all the creative

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industries – craft, products, industrial, fashion, film, animation, graphic arts, jewellery, publishing, ceramics, new media, and architectural design. The expo has been committed to a vision that is built on the belief that creativity will fuel an economic revival in a nation that has previously been overlooked as an inspiration for international development and setting a standard for progress to follow. Design Indaba has grown to incorporate an extensive range of elements such as events, publications, education, training, business, development and community initiatives. Aspects such as the conference have become an important part of the design calendar. Sold out for the past five years running, this year the conference drew 1,500 attendees from across the creative industries. The speakers touched on myriad aspects of design ranging from local South African designers to international major players such as Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, graphic designer Michael Beirut and Dutch designer Tord Boontje. One of the highlights reported from the event came from Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, who wowed the audience and offered up a revolutionary approach that could historically change the face of housing in developing countries. Aravena stated how cities are powerful tools to create wealth and provide shortcuts towards global equality, stressing the importance of investment to focus on public infrastructure, public space, housing and transport. He has created a housing project where instead of simply giving the house to the people, you create the most important part of the house and you allow the rest to be done by the people. He came to the conclusion that if you give people the one thing they can’t do – and that would be create structure or the first 50% of the house and probably the most expensive - then those that move into the house would create the rest and in this way, you are allowing them to make their house into a home and giving them a sense of power. The scheme has been a great success in Chile and struck a chord with many of the South African audience.

“We can win if we abandon the safety of mediocrity. We can claim our space and win the battle. OK is not OK.” Mokena Makeka, Cape Town architect

Low-cost housing is an issue of huge social relevance in South Africa, and indeed globally. Statistically it is significant that, for the first time in history, over 50% of the world’s population now reside in urban areas. The impact of this is particularly visible in South Africa’s townships and the urban sprawl of informal settlements around cities. Also at the expo, the Design Indaba 10x10 Low-Cost Housing Project was launched. Ten architectural teams, composed of handpicked South Africans paired with international architects and designers such as Thomas Heatherwick, Will Alsop and Tom Dixon, were provided with the objective to come up with affordable, attractive and innovative responses to the urgent need to house the urban poor. The response was phenomenal with many of the designs winning awards internationally and designs being presented to the South African Minister of Housing. The first design to be realized came from South African Luyanda Mpahlwa of Cape Town Architects, who designed a house made of sand which serves to control the temperature, stop flooding, dampen out sounds and even prevent bullets, which is not a situation to be overlooked in many of the global slums.

»BABA PAPA« LOUNGER & »SONGOLOLO« COUCH WWW.HALDANEMARTIN.CO.ZA

Other examples of revolutionary design that were debuted at the expo came from Cape Town’s top industrial design company XYZ Design who spoke about their practice and showcased some of the many award-winning products such as the Snuza Baby Monitor (a device for prevention of cot death amongst infants) and the Condom Applicator, aimed at preventing the further spread of HIV. Political and social concerns as focal points for creating design were discussed widely at the expo, but these do not equate to South African design ignoring aesthetic values or style. There were many products at the expo that hinted at the nation’s design reputation, suggesting that it could be placed on a par with some of the sleeker industries from Milan or Scandinavia.Various competitions and exhibitions such as ‘The most beautiful object in South Africa’ showcased some of the best from contemporary South African design presenting designers such as Snapp, David Krynauw and Khumbulani Craft. Haldane Martin introduced his brand new Baba Papa lounger, an ergonomically shaped lounger inspired by smooth water-worn pebbles, made from 80% recycled stainless steel wire loops welded together to create an organically contoured diamond meshed surface. Inspiring presentations were given by slum graffiti artists such as Faith47. Visitors were seduced by the stunning furniture designs that came from groups such as Casamento, whose range launched at the previous year’s Indaba has since won them international acclamation for their stunning handcrafted reinventions of vintage furniture.

Indaba 2010 proved South African design as something that is raw, creative and useful. It showed SA design that could operate on an international scale, but how its charm lay in how it addressed the neighbourhood concerns, it was all about dealing with what happened in South Africa and addressing issues such as community, sustainability and beauty, and how this can then be extended to a global agenda. The Indaba conference with its launch for the bid of World Design Capital has made the international community sit up and look at the nation’s curriculum in design, but there is still a lot of work left to do if their inspiring outlook can be passed on. Indaba organizer Naidoo explains how design is still not a big deal in South Africa. “Most of our players are cottage industry, mom-and-pop operations; we don’t have any big winners yet, almost no one who has leveraged an international brand.” Now is the time when everyone is looking, so it’s important that South Africa’s creatives don’t miss their chance or let themselves down. If you believe in design as something that can change society for the better, then South African design is definitely where you should be looking right now – and not only for solutions, but for inspiration too. As Mokena Makeka, a leading Cape Town architect says: “We need to think bigger than we ever have before, and not show Cape Town as it is, but as it could be! The pursuit of excellence can be bruising, but that is design… We can win if we abandon the safety of mediocrity. We can claim our space and win the battle. OK is not OK.”

IMAGE RIKKI BURNS WWW.RIKKIB.NET

MOST WANTED In Cape Town jazz may be what makes the city tick but this summer football is the name of the game and offside is when you get so ahead of the pack you are breaking the rules. “I always think yachts, oysters and champagne”, says local artist Lisa Lapointe summing up the spirit of Sydney. Yes indeed, prepare for an overdose on pleasure in this city by the sea! Robin and Rainer reveal the fashionable side to life along a trail less travelled…

SMARTEEZ RISE FROM THE SOUTH TEXT JAN JOSWIG PHOTOS CHRIS SAUNDERS

Every now and then a fascination for some African fashion pops up in the west. It’s not about ethno style. What catches our attention in our eurocentricity is the transformation of the western wardrobes. In the 80s the West-African ‘Sapeurs’ took the colonial style of three piece suits with shiny shoes and over emphasized it with clock chains, golden sun glasses, facial crèmes and pocket squares. Comparable to the way swing bandleader Cab Calloway made fun of the dress codes of the white oppressors and former slave drivers in the USA in the 20s with his Zoot suits. A deadly sharp fun.

Now the fun is even sharper with the Smarteez in South Africa. They mark the latest “Ju-Wish” movement. Ju-Wish is the South African slang term for a dressed up person. Smarteez means: Colourful from the outside, black from the inside. They bring back all the DiY adventure that once made Nu Rave such a driving force in the UK. Forget about brands and logos, sew your own flamboyant version of ghetto preppy smartass and top it with large rim glasses like Spike Lee in “Do the right thing.” But never mix it up with the Makarapa fashion, these pimped up construction worker helmets loved by South African soccer fans. You will see them in all the World Cup documentaries. They may be flashy too, but the opposite to flamboyant. Kepi, Floyd or Sibu are the names of the Smarteez style kids turning fashion designers in the way of UK Nu Rave poster girl Casetteplaya. I wonder when the first European fashion professionals will come back from one of their working trips to South Africa with their luggage full of Smarteez gear. Until then you should look out for the photos of Lolo Veleko, Chris Saunders or Jonathan van Zeller. But, well, kids, this is just a first glimpse of the new fashion craze from 5,400 miles away.

Forget about brands and logos, sew your own flamboyant version of ghetto preppy smartass and top it with large rim glasses like Spike Lee in “Do the right thing”.”

OFFSIDE GET AHEAD OF THE PACK WITH THESE WORLD CUP LIMITED EDITIONS

BRANDS ADIDAS | PUMA | NIKE | CONVERSE | Y-3 PHOTOGRAPHY RACHEL DE JOODE PRODUCTION SANDRA LIERMANN

ALONG A TRAIL LESS TRAVELLED PHOTOGRAPHER

ROBIN JONSSON

RAINER METZ MODEL SARAH BATT @ M4 MAKE UP PATRICIA MAKOSCH STYLING ASSISTANT ALINE HOLLSTEIN STYLING & PRODUCTION

VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO MANFRED & MONIKA

DRESS AS CAPE FAY ALICE LEGGINGS REALITY STUDIO

JACKET, DRESS, LEGGINGS SADAK SHOES RUPERT SANDERSON HEADPIECE STYLIST’S OWN

BAG WORN ON HEAD COOPERATIVEDESIGNS DRESS AS COLLAR MONO.GRAMM SHIRT REALITY STUDIO PANTS Y3

JACKET REALITY STUDIO SHIRT Y3 PANTS WEEKDAY TIGHTS FALKE SHOES SCHOLL

ORIGINAL BATIK AS TURBAN FROM THE GAMBIA NECKLACE AS HEADPIECE REALITY STUDIO ORIGINAL BATIK AS CAPE FROM NIGERIA ORIGINAL BATIK SHIRT AND PANTS FROM THE GAMBIA SHOES RUPERT SANDERSON

SHOE-CUFF AS CROWN AVR VAN REIMERSDAHL JACKET & SKIRT COOPERATIVEDESIGNS DRESS TIGER OF SWEDEN LEGGINGS WEEKDAY VINTAGE WEST-AFRICAN NECKLACE

ORIGINAL BATIK AS TURBAN FROM THE GAMBIA JACKET SADAK KNITTED PLAYSUIT COOPERATIVEDESIGNS PLATFORMS JULIE EILENBERGER

FRINGE NECKLACE STARSTYLING KNITTED CAPES & SHIRT BOESSERT/SCHORN HAND-LOOMED VEST FROM ETHIOPIA PANTS REALITY STUDIO TIGHTS FALKE SHOES RUPERT SANDERSON

CAPE BUTTERFLY SOULFIRE DRESS JULIAN ZIGERLI TIGHTS FALKE SHOES AVR VAN REIMERSDAHL

CAPE & 10 METER SCARF BUTTERFLY SOULFIRE BIG SCARF & BRACELETS AVR VAN REIMERSDAHL DRESS FAY ALICE SHOES RUPERT SANDERSON NECKLACES BOESSERT/SCHORN

Sydney

WELCOME TO THE GARDEN OF HEDONE TEXT VIKTORIA PELLES PHOTOS LEONA LIST, TIM LEVY MAP SHARMILA SANDRASEGAR

At the very opposite ends of the Earth, an urban creature sprawls along the edge of an island continent with the glittering waves of the endless Pacific lapping its shores. An exquisite natural beauty with no room for false modesty, this is a gorgeous and in truth slightly arrogant beast! It’s this characteristic that tends to either attract or repel visitors. Advice to enduring cynics, however, is to look beyond the glitzy, ditzy exterior and discover a sweet and sleazy side to life. Get ready for an overdose on pleasure. With an endless supply of sunshine and a massive area of secret bays and beaches, letting your inner pleasureseeker run free certainly is easy, but Sydney is highly competitive, especially for artists and other creatives (there can only be so many galleries and venues in a country of 21.5 million). These conditions are not only the breeding ground for many outstanding talents, but beyond the mainstream there are a number of accomplished DIY art and music scenes. It’s here you’re likely to encounter genuine style and taste, as well as a brand of uncomplicated sincerity that should also be considered a characteristic of this fun-loving city. 2007 saw a revision of Sydney’s tough liquor licensing laws extending the range of drinking venues from money-spinning poker machine dens, all characterless brushed steel and glass interior, to small cocktail and wine bars. Whether a quick cheap eat or fine dining with all the trimmings, it’s incredibly difficult to get a bad meal in this culinary heaven, where the best of Mediterranean and Asian cuisines meets with incredible seafood and the variety of fresh produce on offer. Ironically, you just need to stay away from the eateries around top tourist spots like around the Opera House or the main drag at Bondi Beach. The Oxford St. shopping trail from Darlinghurst to Paddington is plentiful, and Crown St. in Surry Hills offers many cute vintage stores interspersed with bars and cafés made for people watching. For a few alternative angles on the famed harbour city we meet with three born-and-bred Sydneysiders sharing their insights and favourites.

BAYS AND HARBOURS 1. Iron Cove 2. Darling Harbour 3. Elizabeth Bay 4. Double Bay 5. Rose Bay 6. Watson’s Bay 7. Port Jackson 8. Middle Harbour 9. North Harbour 10. Botany Bay

Manly

9 8

North Sydney

6 Kirribilli Balmain

Rozelle Glebe

Circular Quay

3 Kings Cross

China CBD Darlinghurst town d e g Surry Hills Paddington

h Bondi

Bondi Junction

Redfern

b c

Vaucluse

Bondi Beach

Newtown

Tamarama Clovelly

Marrickville

Bronte

Coogee

Tempe

Coogee Beach South Coogee

Sydney Airport Botany

Maroubra Beach Maroubra

Port Botany

Lisa Lapointe-Yusuf Sydney born and raised, Lisa has lived and loved many corners of the city. A graduate of the College of Fine Arts in Paddington, she wields her distinctive sense of aesthetics as fashion buyer at Sydney style mecca, concept store Orson & Blake (map, d), while continuing to paint and exhibit around Sydney’s creative centre stretching between Surry Hills and Paddington. Now also raising young daughter Kiki and importing some precious pieces from Turkey, this local diamond shares the tricks and treasures of her hometown. WWW.LISALAPOINTE.COM.AU

Having lived all over Sydney, what are your experiences of the different suburbs? I feel lucky to have experienced the city from so many different perspectives, but at the end of the day a good cold beer and a BBQ can be found in every suburb. A recent exhibition was called ‘Keith Street’. What can you say about this street in the Inner West and the influence or inspiration for your collection of paintings? Keith Street was a little bit rushed. But I think the colours are what speak the truth here – I was very happy living in Earlwood... our friends lived only a few doors down. It was fun, chaotic... something always on the go. These paintings reflect that sense of fun and chaos. Having lived in both of the notoriously competitive cities, can you complete this sentence: The difference between Sydney and Melbourne is… Sydney is blue, Melbourne is grey. Name your current favourite: Café - Currently Zubi in Newport, my new local. It blends rustic beach charm with a touch of Sydney slick and they do great coffee. Otherwise, Bourke Street Bakery (map, f ) in Surry Hills is a trusty old favourite.

Night of dancing - Mad Racket... if you really want to get your twisty shoe on. Australian designer - Therese Rawsthorne. Clothes boutique - Pretty Dog (map, c) in Newtown has always had the best selection of Australian and international designers. Tanya, the owner, is a seriously good buyer, always just ahead of trends. Sunday market - I have always liked Rozelle markets because it’s so random. It’s never too busy and there is a good selection of proper vintage finds... but I think it’s on Saturdays! What are a few highlights of the arts/culture scene to challenge Sydney’s reputation as a cultural wasteland? There is a night on called Secret Art Wars hosted at Name This Bar on Oxford Street Darlinghurst. I believe this type of thing is going on overseas, but I loved to see how everyone is really embracing it here in Sydney. Sydneysiders are well known for their hedonistic streak. Name your top five pursuits of pleasure? Drawing, bushwalking, entertaining, clothes, meditation.

Cheap & cheerful meal - A new favourite is Banana Blossom in Mona Vale. They have a simple menu of Thai dishes, all of which are created from the freshest ingredients.

Can you say a thing or two about Sydney style? Sydney style is so eclectic. I recently went to a fashion event and there seemed to be every style in the room. I think that is great... people dress well. They love fashion and trends, pick them up very quickly and are always hungry for the next thing.

Top-notch dining - Berowra Waters Inn at Berowra Waters. The food was fancy and delicious but the setting is the best. It’s located in a beautiful old sandstone building right on the water. You can only get there by boat, and the view from inside is like sitting in a mirrored bushland prism... It’s amazingly beautiful, and so Australian.

What would be your favourite building/street/space/place in Sydney? Our family farm of 40 years – it’s on the Hawkesbury River in a little locale called Gunderman in NSW. It’s a perfect blend of manicured gardens and wild rugged Australian bush.

Cocktail hour - My house, Peach Bellinis.

Finally, please describe a scene/setting/moment that you feel sums up the spirit of the city. I always think yachts, oysters and champagne – nothing quite beats Sydney Harbour.

Bar with atmosphere - Finally lots of little interesting places are popping up all over Sydney. I would be very intrigued to have a drink at The Shady Pines Saloon in Surry Hills – love the name!

BEROWRA WATERS INN

LISA LAPOINTE

BOURKE STREET BAKERY

PRETTY DOG

LISA LAPOINTE

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE OF PHOTOGRAPHY

ORSON&BLAKE

KING’S CROSS

CRICKETERS ARMS

BONDI BEACH

SPANK RECORDS

GOLDEN CENTURY SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

THE RACKETEERS

Andy Zootie Back in 1998, Zootie and fellow music lovers Jimmi James, Ken Cloud and Simon Caldwell got together to create a night in which they could play the records they weren’t getting a chance to in other clubs or parties. They planned a wee party at some squash courts, invited all their friends and asked them to spread the word. Thus, the legendary Mad Racket party was born and after relocating to the Marrickville Bowling Club (map, a) in Sydney’s Inner West, it’s gone on to provide over a decade-long oasis in a Sydney scene dominated by commercial house music. Zootie, the russet-headed racketeer, gives us his take on the electronic scene and some tips on how best to enjoy the spoils of Sydney city. WWW.MADRACKET.COM.AU

How would you explain the Mad Racket difference? It’s about passion for the music. All of us have different angles and influences and have been passionate collectors of music. This comes through in our events which were never about a style of dance music or what’s hot right now, rather listening to music and following what we think is good. A night can start with reggae and dub, move through minimal styles to deep house and a bit of disco and whatever we are feeling good about in between. What is the Sydney electronic clubbing/music scene like now, as opposed to 10 years ago? Seems to be a few more things happening, more people are getting switched onto underground or less commercial sounds. Some of the festivals are now bringing quality acts rather than your mainstream headliners, which seems to open doors for people. How has the Mad Racket collective influenced the scene? We must be doing something right, the nights are regularly sold out. People also like to criticise us on local forums, which means they’re thinking about what the four of us are doing. I would like to think that the music we pushed in a welcoming environment encouraged people to do their own thing and experience the wonder of music bringing friends and other passionate like-minded folk together. Who/what are the up-and-coming people, parties, venues to keep an eye out for if you’re after quality music and the right vibe? Sinclair is the DJ’s DJ. The guy has more dope-sounding music than you can imagine. Keep an eye out for the Late Night Shuffle parties and Paradise Lost. There are always little parties popping up as more and more DJs hit our shores… As a chronic vinyl junkie – or avid music collector, if you so prefer – who are your preferred suppliers in Sydney? I love all the second hand stores around, in fact just 200 meters down the road I have Marrickville Mint Records which holds heaps of second hand records, and there are similar stores all over Sydney (you never know what you may find). If I am buying new, then So Music or Spank Records also hold some good finds. We also have regular record fairs which I tend to save my cash for to find those little records with added quirk….

Sydney has a bit of a reputation as a hedonist’s paradise. What are your top five ultimate pursuits of pleasure? Snorkelling along our coast line (it’s a harbour city and warm seven months of the year). Eating – there is so much choice in Sydney, so many cuisines so many cheap eats or gourmet treats… mmmmm. Pool, BBQ , beats , beer and friends. Fellow racketeer Jimmi James cooks up a storm on his BBQ, it’s a must if you are in Australia, let alone Sydney, to experience this. He cooks one hell of a steak! And could easily become a tourist destination. Going bush/having picnics at any of the many national parks: Bottle of wine, some snacks, nice company and a relaxed dog and you’re now officially a Sydney person… The bliss of eating that crispy oh-so-succulent BBQ duck. Ah yes, you are a known anatidaephobic (person with an irrational fear of ducks), what places can you recommend to other sufferers? One answer: BBQ King! (Goulburn Street, Haymarket). The orange glow of the rows of hanging ducks at BBQ King really makes me feel safe. And while on the subject of Chinese cuisine, what are the top places in Sydney to end the myth that the Chinese kitchen has little to offer other than gooey MSG sauces and lemon chicken? I love Asian food! One of the best finds late last year for me was Din Tai Fung, a new restaurant just near Chinatown. The dumplings are beautiful with a mixture of crab roe to your pork and chive variety and a host of other great dishes. Golden Century has some great seafood options, choose from fresh snow crab or fresh perch and 15 minutes later you’re in eating heaven. There is also the infamous Chinese Noodle Restaurant where you watch your noodles being made fresh. The dumplings also offer a whole new level of mouthwatering, and as a twosome it’s very hard to spend more than 20 dollars. Finally, please describe a scene/setting/moment that you feel sums up the spirit of Sydney. On a nice warm day, head for a snorkel with a friend, then for a rare beef noodle soup at PHO BAC’s, my favourite Marrickville eatery, then home for a beer and a spliff in preparation for what the night may hold. If 60% of my life could be that, I would be sooooooooo relaxed. Sydney has a wonderful lifestyle attached to it and I am always up for company on a snorkelling trip.

Larissa Rate Growing up in Sydney’s suburbs Larissa moved to the inner city as soon as humanly possible. After studying method acting for three years she decided never to act again and instead fell into music, singing, writing and gigging with Simon Day from indie band RatCat and later Peter Mayes one half of dance act PNAU. These days Larissa’s busy with new project Kids At Risk, “a creative goldmine”, that has her playing bass for the first time. Having released an EP and completed the soundtrack to feature film Griff The Invisible, recording their album is up next, and possibly a move to Europe as well… WWW.MYSPACE.COM/KIDSATRISKBAND

Musically, do you think there’s something like a ‘Sydney sound’? How representative, or not, would KIDS AT RISK be? I think the sound of Sydney is as diverse as it’s ever been. A few years ago the whole eighties style ‘dance rock’ thing was popular but I think people got pretty tired of it. Anything goes now. We don’t often draw comparisons with other Sydney bands which is kinda nice. We want to be different. What are the top venues for live music in Sydney? The best venue in Sydney in my opinion is The Enmore (map, b). It’s not too big, attracts great international acts, and always has reliable sound. The Oxford Art factory is a pretty cool and fairly new venue. Smaller rooms like Spectrum and The Annandale are good for catching local bands. Sydney recently loosened the restrictions on their liquor licensing, which might encourage the type of small bars and relaxed venues Melbourne or Berlin are known for. How’s it working out? Little bars are popping up, but Sydney will always be slightly yuppified. I’m not sure it’s possible to create the same casual, cultured feel of cities such as Berlin or Melbourne. Sydney is a young, arrogant and slightly pretentious city with too much money. Beautiful, but naive. Saying that, I do have a few favourites. The Local (map, g), which happens to be my local pub is a great old school pub which has recently been refurbished. The decor is all original, so it doesn’t have that stainless steel vibe of a lot of bars around Surry Hills. The upstairs rooms, which are decorated with old birdcages and wall-towall books, are perfect for mellow Sunday afternoon drinks. Your recommendation for a breakfast/brunch place? One of the best cafés around is called Mint (map, e) on Crown Street in Surry Hills. They do the best breakfasts. Or even best everything. Sydney is generally not given much credit in the arts and cultural stakes. What are a few highlights to challenge that reputation? Sydney has a great independent theatre scene, which I’ve always supported. So many of my friends are actors, writers, directors and film-makers. Tamarama Rock Surfers, one of the most established independent theatre companies in Sydney, is about to relocate to a great space in Bondi called The Pavilion (map, h). The plan is to fill the space, right on Sydney’s most famous beach with theatre, film

festivals, art exhibitions and music. It is a constant struggle here for artists though; this country is so obsessed with sport. I hope that will change eventually. Sydneysiders are well known for their hedonistic streak. What are your top-five pursuits of pleasure? Friday afternoon vodka tonics, hungover shopping sprees, spontaneous jams in my lounge room (for the neighbours), late night local gigs, sleep! The many Sunday markets across Sydney are special. Where would you head for what, and do you have a favourite? The Surry Hills markets, which are on the first Saturday of every month are great, chilled vibe and full of second hand clothing stalls. Glebe markets have a bit of everything. The Paddington markets are great for new local designers, as are the Bondi Beach markets. How would you define Sydney style? Loose. Colourful. Metro-sexual. Slightly arrogant. I’ve been seeing a lot of guys walking round with bow ties lately. Not sure how I feel about that. And lots of girls with buns on top of their heads. Silly look. Sometimes I think Sydney wants to be LA. What are your top shopping destinations? Crown Street in Surry Hills has always been a favourite for vintage stuff. Oxford Street Paddington, can’t really go wrong there if you have some cash to burn. There are a few new little boutiques that have opened on Bourke Street in Surry Hills, which are really cute too. All Australian designers, and quite affordable. Do you have a favourite building/street/space/place in Sydney? I do love Bourke Street. It’s a beautiful old leafy street in Surry Hills. I’ve lived around it for years now and I never tire of walking along it. I’ve even marked out the house I want to buy on the street! Finally, please describe a scene/setting/moment that you feel sums up the spirit of the city. Well, the Sydney Festival is always a great event. The opening night of the festival is held in Hyde Park every summer in January, and thousands of people come to watch all the free bands and drink at the outdoor bars. To me, that sums up Sydney and summer.

THE LOCAL

OXFORD ART FACTORY

PADDY’S MARKET/ CHINATOWN

PADDINGTON MARKETS

MINT CAFÉ

KSUBI SHOP

NEW SOUTH WALES ART GALLERY

To delve a little deeper into the seed and soul of Sydney, we recommend: LEVIATHAN: THE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY OF SYDNEY, NOVEL BY JOHN BIRMINGHAM Beyond the cover story of a successful multicultural metropolis, Birmingham blurs the boundaries between past and present to the dark past and corrupted heart behind the shiny exterior of concrete and glass. BRA BOYS: BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER, DOCUMENTARY BY SUNNY ABERTON (NARRATED BY RUSSELL CROWE) A documentary about the cultural evolution of the inner-Sydney beachside suburb of Maroubra and the social struggle of its youth, featuring the tattooed and much maligned surfing gang known as the Bra Boys. OSCAR AND LUCINDA, BOOKER PRIZE WINNING NOVEL BY PETER CAREY In this lush novel set in the 19th century, two compulsive gamblers meet on a ship bound for New South Wales. A beautifully unconventional love story with rich descriptions of Sydney and its surrounds, later made into a film starring Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes. SUMMER HEIGHTS HIGH, MOCKUMENTARY SERIES WRITTEN BY AND STARRING CHRIS LILLEY A parody of high school life in the wealthy North Sydney suburbs epitomised by three protagonists. The hilariousness of this series is impossible to summarise. The setting and lingo may be specific, but the biting ironic wit is universal.

CATCHING THE BEAT OF SOUTH AFRICA

Many hotspots are hidden from the public eye and some of the best sessions happen at informal gatherings held at musicians’ homes. TEXT & IMAGES ANJA MUTIC´

To get to know the beat of a culture, you need to tune in to the rhythms of its music. In Cape Town, jazz is what makes the city tick. Born in the townships during the troubled times of South Africa’s history, the music of this port city showcases a blend of Western and African influences, composed of a variety of sounds from around the world. While the jazz scene may be vibrant, it isn’t easy to find for parachuting visitors. Many hotspots are hidden from the public eye and some of the best sessions happen informally at musicians’ homes. On a whirlwind three-day stay in Cape Town, I was on a mission to experience the city beyond the tourist heavyweights of Table Mountain, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and the admittedly spectacular beaches of Camps Bay and Clifton. A quickie tour of these was good enough but I wanted to dig into the fabric of life as it’s lived beyond the city centre and the wealthy suburbs. I wanted to find music in the everyday, detect the rhythms that the streets of Cape Town’s townships sway to. With limited time, I couldn’t just wander around aimlessly, hoping to unearth something unique. That’s where the jazz safari came in. Coffee Beans Tours offer a way to discover the city’s jazz secrets while contributing to the local music scene. Their visits with musical storytellers feature an intimate supper in their living rooms, where guests meet their families, listen to their music and hear their stories. To meet the people who are keeping music alive – what an ideal way to catch the city’s creative spirit. It is Saturday night in Gugulethu, a township in the Cape Flats, some 15km outside Cape Town. I’m sitting in the living room of Fezekile Tempi and his wife Sheila, chatting about music and life in the townships before and after apartheid. Throughout the evening, Blackie, as Fezekile is known to friends, picks up his trumpet at random intervals and treats us to a tune or two. After one of these impromptu performances, Sheila, a powerful presence with a cheeky face, commands us all to the table where a spread with “chicken à la Sheila” and a variety of sides, including pap (South African staple, a porridge made from maize flour), cabbage and sweet potatoes has been laid out. The talking doesn’t stop as we chow down on Sheila’s home-cooked delights. I find out that Blackie has been playing since 1977, having left school after the Soweto student uprisings of 1976. Largely self-taught, he has toured South Africa and beyond for a couple of decades, since 2000 with his five-piece band called Brotherhood. As we chat, he mentions in passing that a music school just opened down the road earlier that day, where he’ll be teaching part-time. It turns out the school was built by the Playing for Change Foundation. I had heard about Playing for Change a year ago, when a video of a Stand by Me rendition by various musicians around the world went viral online. Described as “a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music” which “arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people”, this video made such waves around the world that it gave birth to a non-profit foundation which builds music and art schools “in communities that are in need of inspiration and hope”. My hosts suggest

we head over to catch the last of the celebrations. The next thing you know, I’m in the backyard of the Playing for Change school, listening to a jam session with a band of local musicians. Half the neighbourhood seems to be there, including hordes of children running around as their parents boogie away. After saying goodbye to Blackie and Sheila, Michael, my guide, drives us to our next destination – the living room of the legendary Cape jazz cat Mac McKenzie. This master musician – a virtuoso guitar player and Cape Town’s composer laureate – lives in Bridgetown, Cape Town’s first ‘coloured’ township that he calls the “frontier township”. We are running late, so Mac gives us a hard time, jokingly, with his signature toothless smile, and then introduces us to his girlfriend Renata visiting from Basel. Sitting down with a glass of red wine, Mac’s story slowly unfolds together with the evening, as I learn of his strong musical heritage. “I was born into it,” reminisces Mac. “In the 1950s and early 1960s, my parents ran open-house jazz parties in our lounge, with a full-on band, dancing and ma’s cooking.” His father was the great banjo player and carnival leader Mr Mac who kick-started a goema (music of Cape Town’s carnival) revolution back in the mid-1950s. Mac’s mother, Ma Mac, lives in the house in the front and Mac himself is – to my surprise at a look of this strong youthful man – a grandfather! Mac, widely known as The Goema Captain, also gives me some historical insight into goema, his “traditional music” that arose as the sound of carnival. Every year on the 2nd of January, for Cape Town Minstrel Carnival, the minstrels march through the streets in colourfully dressed troupes, featuring lots of music, dancing and singing. A mix of Brazil-style Carnaval, with a sound reminiscent of New Orleans, and musical influences that sailed into the port from around the globe, this music is Cape Town’s unique signature. The name refers to a wooden barrel-shaped drum (known as a goma), which is played by the revellers. But this event is not just for fun; it’s political in nature, marking a movement of the oppressed people who took to the streets and, instead of protesting, showed their resilience by singing and dancing. The custom was started in the mid-19th century by Afrikaans-speaking ‘coloured’ families from the working class, who were celebrating their one day off per year, when the slave owners released them from labour. “Goema is the music of the people,” Mac explains. I learn that he brought goema back into vogue with his pop quartet The Genuines in the late 1980s and later his band, The Goema Captains of Cape Town. As we’re talking, he spontaneously starts playing guitar, and I melt to the sounds of his incredibly soulful songs and skillful strumming. In an evening interspersed with this ear-candy he also tells

“There are twenty guitar players per square kilometer and saxophonists behind every bush.”

me about Cape jazz, which was inspired by the folk songs sung by descendants of former slave communities in the Western Cape, known as the Cape Malay people. This fusion of African music and jazz was born in the 1970s and flourished during the late apartheid era. Stories from that dark time come to the surface as we chat, about the great divides that apartheid created such as this one: A renowned black musician had to play from behind a curtain once, as black and white musicians weren’t allowed to perform on the same stage.

“There are twenty guitar players per square kilometre, joke some people, and saxophonists behind every bush,” writes Iain Harris, a music producer, journalist and founder of Coffee Beans Routes. “Cape Town is not one thing: it is many things in one. And so is our music.” So it felt special to meet someone like Mac, who comes from a long line of musicians and remains active on the music scene. The next morning I meet up with Ronel, a friend of a friend and a Capetonian in-the-know. A down-to-earth hipster who grew up in a Cape Flats ‘coloured’ township, Ronel seems to know half of Cape Town, greeting everyone wherever we go. After a wander around boho Long Street, where she points out The African Music Store (134 Long Street) – a record shop with a great selection of South African music, where I later put a pretty serious dent in my wallet – Ronel’s friends pick us up en route to her crowd’s favourite Sunday outing. Before I know it, I’m back in Gugs (as Gugulethu is also known), just a few streets away from Blackie and Sheila’s house. A word about the township… The name is a contraction of igugu lethu, which in Xhosa (the township’s predominant language) means our pride. It was established in the 1960s when Langa, the only black residential area for Cape Town at that time, became overcrowded (during the apartheid era, black South Africans were not permitted to live in the city of Cape Town). Many people were removed from neighbourhoods such as the fabled District Six, a now desolate area from which the Group Areas Act of 1957 forcibly removed many families to various areas on the Cape Flats, set out for ‘coloured’ and black townships, such as Gugulethu. These days, this vibrant black community is one of South Africa’s fastest developing townships. We arrive that Sunday afternoon to find the party at Mzoli’s at full speed – chaotic, fun and crazy, with beautiful people sporting funky outfits and some of the most stylish looks and hairstyles I’ve seen in Africa. Known as Mzoli’s Place, Mzoli’s Meat, Mzoli’s Butchery or Kwa-Mzoli, this unique butcher shop is widely known as just Mzoli’s. Opened in 2003 by a local entrepreneur who saw a gap in the market for serving typical food in a traditional setting, the butchery was brought to life with a start-up fund from the Development Bank of South Africa. It’s far from your regular butcher’s though, although the meat sold here is of top quality. Mzoli’s has turned into one of Cape Town’s coolest hangouts for both locals and (a must stop) for visitors, with great down-home food, local DJs, and a diverse crowd. Located just off Klipfontein Road, it’s

open every day of the week but weekends are the prime time.

Things are pretty chaotic at Mzoli’s. Without my insider friends, I’d have no clue how to get my food and have my fun. So for newcomers I can report that the procedure goes something like this: First stop is the liquor store across the street (it’s BYOB). Next up is the wait in line for the meat. After choosing your meat take it in a big bowl to the backyard and have it braai-ed (barbecued). During the rather long wait for the meat, distract yourself with the sound of the DJ spinning house tunes and the sight of a 200-strong crowd jamming in the afternoon heat. When the braai is done, pick up the big bowls of barbecued meat and pap and tuck communal-style, digging in with your hands. There’s no crockery or cutlery given out at Mzoli’s, but no matter – this is an eating extravaganza best enjoyed hands-on! I’m not sure whether it’s the deliciously juicy meat, or an old house tune that I love pumping in the background, or the sunshine beating down, but at that moment I know I’ve cracked the surface of Cape Town.

Playing for Change is online at WWW.PLAYINGFORCHANGE.COM.

Coffee Beans Routes organizes evening outings that take curious music enthusiasts into the heart of Cape Town’s music scene, inside the homes of Cape Town musicians. WWW.COFFEEBEANSROUTES.COM

Mac McKenzie runs the Cape Town Composers’ Workshop out of his studio (which doubles as his home). WWW.COFFEEBEANSROUTES.COM/

CAPE-TOWN-COMPOSERS-WORKSHOP

Goema discography Nights with the Cape Gypsies by The Genuines Healing Destination by The Goema Captains of Cape Town Goema Music From Cape Town by Barry Van Zyl & The Bo Kaap Collective

IMAGE RIKKI BURNS WWW.RIKKIB.NET

HEAR THIS Why New Zealand takes to reggae and dub like ducks to water? “The herb does grow abundantly in our part of the world”, Michael Hodgson from Pitch Black suggests. “JAPAN! Fucking hell! It felt like we were going to Mars to play… for all I knew people cruised around on hoverboards.” Kevin Parker from Tame Impala relives the music moment in Japan that still blows his mind.

BAA RASTAFARI

Thought New Zealand’s music scene started with Split Enz and ended with the latest Flight Of The Conchords album? Think again. Paul Sullivan sparks up a doobie and explores the country’s pervasive dub reggae scene… TEXT PAUL SULLIVAN ILLUSTRATION DÖRTE LANGE

Just because a country only has four million souls, is tucked away at the far end of the Southern Hemisphere and has more sheep than people (fact) doesn’t mean it can’t do “urban”. Just look at the phenomenal rise of New Zealand’s native rap scene, whose multitude of crotch-grabbing, bird-flipping homeboys (and girls) have given the lie to the country’s “100% pure” tourist image while garnering major radio play, multi-platinum sales and global recognition in the process (yes, that’s global in the “beyond Australia” sense). And hip hop’s not the only music form breathing inner city oomph into this Southern Hemisphere Shangri-La. Within the nation’s impressive collection of coruscating beaches, undulating green hills, picturesque glaciers and lush rainforest lurks a bass-heavy beast of another kind – a relative of hip hop with a slower creep and an even deeper growl. Its name? Dub. Dub washed up on New Zealand’s pristine shoreline around the same time as rap. In ’79, while influential b-boy movie The Warriors and Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” sent b-boy shaped ripples across the land, a prominent concert took place at Western Springs Stadium. The singer was a chap called Robert Nesta Marley, otherwise known as Bob. It’s not a huge surprise that the biggest reverence for the Jamaican don was shown by NZ’s Maori and Pacific Islander population, who staged an elaborate welcoming ceremony (Powhiri) for his arrival. It was enough to leave an impression: Marley’s manager at the time, Don Taylor, described the scene as “one of my most treasured memories of the impact of Bob and reggae music on the world.” No doubt the majority of Kiwis appreciated Bob’s show, but the politically conscious messages inherent in Marley’s music appealed especially to an indigenous population battling for land and rights (the Waitangi Tribunal began in ’75); and it wasn’t just the messages that took hold either. Rastafarianism became popular and is still fairly widespread today – even a member of parliament, the Green Party’s Nandor Tanczos, is a committed Rasta. And, of course, the music stayed too. While Dalvanius Prime and 3 The Hard Way were making novelty rap records (‘Poi E’ and the 10CC-sampling ‘Hip Hop Holiday’, respectively) and more serious groups like the Upper Hutt Posse, and Moana and the Moahunters were laying down foundations for the future rap scene, the country’s dub reggae movement was also getting underway.

Tigilau Ness, an activist imprisoned for nine months for opposing the New Zealand tour of the white-only South African rugby team, founded influential Rasta groups the Twelve Tribes of Israel and Unity. Along with early bands like Herbs (whom Ness also played with) and Dread Beat and Blood, they built a nascent grassroots scene. Throughout the nineties and noughties, bands like Kora, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Katchafire, Trinity Roots, The Black Seeds, Salmonella Dub and Che Fu (the son of Tigilau Ness), Cornerstone Roots, House of Shem carried the reggae flame, many of them shifting increasingly away from traditional Jamaican blueprints and incorporating jazz, electronica and soul into their sets and recordings. This broad range of influences characterises today’s Kiwi dub scene (sometimes called Pacific or Aotearoa dub). The scene has traditionally (but not exclusively) come out of South Island centres like Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch, and is generally a multiracial affair. Bands seem ever keen to swell their numbers with musicians and singers, and it’s not uncommon to see a 7-10 strong band featuring percussionists, saxophonists, trumpeters, log drummers, guitarists and more storming a stage. And it really is varied too. From the hip hop/soul stylings of Che Fu and Fat Freddy’s Drop, through the drum & bass underpinnings Shapeshifter and the genre-blending activities of Fly My Pretties – a collaborative project inaugurated by Black Seeds frontman Barnaby Weir that features almost 20 musicians who record albums live in various locations in New Zealand – the dub virus seems to have wormed its way into pretty much every musical genre on the island. Take the eight-strong Black Seeds, who have managed to drum up two double-platinum selling albums at home, have enjoyed successful European releases (through the German-based Sonar Kollektiv label) and can proudly count Bret McKenzie, one half of awardwinning comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, as a former member. “We don’t try to be a reggae band,” says bassist RayRay, whose own reggae influences include Lee Scratch Perry, Massive Attack and the Mad Professor – all of whom toured NZ in the nineties. “It’s music that we love but I see no reason to limit ourselves. I love funk, Ethiopian music, highlife from Ghana, and we add touches of all that into our own stew pot. I guess we take the rhythms that we love and add our own sound to them. The Black Seeds definitely opened

the genre out to people who liked to party to something that wasn’t rock. Rock was the predominant music here through the nineties and we tapped a vein of reggae lovers, party animals and funkateers.”

Fat Freddy’s Drop are similarly influenced by a span of genres, enjoying maybe the closest ties to the formidable Kiwi hip hop scene. Their drums are programmed (or triggered live) on an MPC 2000XL and they often have guest MCs like Slave and Ladi6 contributing rhymes to tracks and as part of their live sets. “We like reggae and dub, but we also like blues, soul, house, funk…” says the band’s saxophonist Chopper Reeds. “I guess our approach on the genre is to not try to replicate anything too faithfully; we like to mix all those styles up together. That’s possibly been our ‘role’ in the development of the scene here too, to show that it’s not necessary to try and copy a sound that is someone else’s. “The main influence for us has been from producers who were intrigued by that early Marley sound and then wanted to dig deeper into it,” he continues.“People who have been uncovering people like Sly & Robbie, King Tubby, Coxsone Dodd, Lee Perry, Alton Ellis as a result of Marley’s initial influence. In Wellington, the sound was partially brought to the underground club scene by The Roots Foundation DJs, which featured Mu from Fat Freddy’s Drop.” New Zealand’s electronic artists haven’t shied from employing dub’s lugubrious pace and sonic boom in their tunes. Christchurch ambient dub-techno duo Pitch Black (Michael Hodgson and Paddy Free) and drum & bass outfit Shapeshifter are just two acts who incorporate reggae acoustics and dub’s throbbing low end into their drum & bass, techno and ambient structures on a regular basis. “Because NZ is such a small a country with such a small population, we tend not to have such highly-defined scenes around a particular style of music,” comments Hodgson. “Musicians and audiences often take in a wide range of influences rather than being immersed in one particular scene. This leads to some useful hybrids. Although we both love dub as a genre, we also see it as a set of studio techniques that can be utilised in any style of music. We’re a dub band, but not just dub reggae. We use dub techniques over a whole range of styles, from ambient to reggae, downbeat, breaks, house, trance, to jungle and drum & bass. We utilise influences from all these styles and glue them all together with the dub mixing. As a mostly instrumental band, the dub is usually the equivalent of out lead vocal – it’s the thread that runs through the song, that you can follow as it rises and falls.”

While Shapeshifter aren’t as intrinsically connected to the dub scene as some, they can often be found jamming to reggae tunes, remixing them live and even playing them in one of their famously perky live sets (Night Nurse used to be a favourite). “Bands have been playing dub and reggae here in NZ for a long time while,” states Nick Robinson, “and they do have real significant followings. They’re often the biggest acts in the country. It’s odd seeing the top charted tunes in the bigger nations, which are usually awful, hideous Simon Cowell-style creations. We’ve got our own flavour, which might attract listeners from overseas or they might not give a shit. But at least the musicians in Aotearoa aren’t overly worried about world trends and are being true to themselves.” There’s no denying the potency of the scene in terms of domestic visibility. Albums routinely hit platinum, sometimes more. 2008’s soulful reggae single ‘Always On My Mind’ by former Salmonella Dub frontman Tiki Taane was certified twice platinum and spent 19 non-consecutive weeks in the top ten, including two weeks at no. 1. It’s now officially the most successful single of all time in New Zealand, holding down the top spot on the Best of All Time singles chart. Several factors have aided this growth. Throughout the nineties and early noughties many point to a supportive record buying, concertattending public. Then the minimum NZ music quota on radio and TV legislated in the nineties helped, as have funding bodies like NZ on Air and Creative NZ. There’s also been a lot of continued word of mouth and community support from organisations like NiceUp, a collaborative group dedicated to the “promotion and forward movement of the New Zealand reggae and dancehall community”. Radio and club DJs like Auckland’s ‘Stinky Jim’ Pinckney, ‘Big Matt’ Watson, Dubhead, and others have also been active in plugging the scene on stations like bFM, Radio Active, RDU and Contact FM. Stinky Jim believes that, despite the help from NZ’s ‘official’ infrastructure, the main propulsion has come from independent networks. “I think the scene has developed despite any major infrastructure developments,” he says, “and possibly because of a wide range of sounds from the ‘bro reggae’ end [House Of Shem, Cornerstone Roots, Three Houses Down], the ‘Welli Dub’ phenomenon [FFD, Black Seeds, Rhombus] to dancehall and sound system vibes from High Stakes and Dubwise, etc.” “At the commercial end, video grants and album funding grants from government organisation New Zealand On Air, have undoubtedly played a part. However, since the awarding of them is based on commercial radio airplay (or potential for) I think most in the reggae community wouldn’t consider them too much of a factor. Kiwis are fond of quoting that more people buy reggae here per capita, but I suspect that may be a myth based on some outstanding Marley sales and the huge impact of his visit here. What is undeniable is that reggae is one of the default music settings for a wide range of New Zealanders, but that isn’t really reflected in airplay, especially on the commercial stations – apart from for those few who are getting the funding. The first FFD album sold 10,000 copies and was firmly

ensconced at no. 1 before they got any commercial radio play.” Bands have had plenty of live exposure not only through constant touring but annual reggae festivals like Soundsplash (which stopped in 2008, but was highly influential), Kaikoura Roots, Raggamuffin (which simultaneously celebrates Bob Marley’s birthday and Waitangi Day) and Coromandel Gold, an annual New Year event started when Shapeshifter were seeking a gig one New Year’s Eve “The overall dub, roots and reggae scene has grown in recent years to dominate NZ music and in particular the live market on the back of bands like Shapeshifter, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Kora, The Black Seeds and Katchafire, not to mention originators like Salmonella Dub,” says Coromandel Gold organiser Marc Wright. “There is also a new breed of bands starting to come through which is great for the punters, though some of them are riding the wave of the more successful acts and it feels like they need to find their own way rather than pump out sounds that are too familiar.” So what is it about New Zealand that makes it so amenable to reggae and dub in the first place? “I would say it has much to do with our physical location – being so far away from the rest of the world – and by the influence of Pacific cultures on our daily lives,” says Black Seeds RayRay. “The ‘laid back’ nature of a lot of our music could be seen to come out of the ‘island time’ idea – the unhurried nature of island life. Things take time and evolve organically rather than the faster pace of city life. Even in the relatively big cities here, the Pacific island culture has a huge impact on our lives.” “Weed,” says Shapeshifter’s Nick Robinson. “Good weed, too �� –�� outdoor grown, sticky icky, filled with sunshine and love. And lots of indoor hydro sticky icky too, lots of eerie individuals smoking lots of weed, and pretty much everyone in NZ learns to play a skank on a guitar. You get your passport confiscated if you don’t know how to play Redemption song.” “The herb does grow abundantly in our part of the world,” admits Pitch Black’s Michael Hodgson. “Also, like Jamaica, we are an island nation so part of our national identity is a relaxed, laid-back lifestyle. Compared to other parts of the world, we have a very low population and that leads to a sense of space, and a strong connection with nature. Since dub is all about the sense of space in the mix and the expansiveness between objects, it’s a perfect fit. The heavy bass is powerful and uplifting, but not oppressive. There are so many outdoor festivals here, and dub just fits our landscape. It’s all about the earthiness of the bass and the expansiveness of the delays and reverbs.”

“It’s odd seeing the top charted tunes in the bigger nations, which are usually awful, hideous Simon Cowell-style creations. We’ve got our own flavour, which might attract listeners from overseas or they might not give a shit. But at least the musicians in Aotearoa aren’t overly worried about world trends and are being true to themselves.” NICK ROBINSON / SHAPSHIFTER

DIE ANTWOORD

THE NEW SOUND OF SOUTHERN ROCK

BLK JKS

TEXT WYNDHAM WALLACE PHOTOS SEAN METELERKAMP (DIE ANTWOORD) JASON NOCITO (BLK JKS) GERALD VON FORIS (DEAR READER)

DEAR READER

All eyes are on South Africa as it hosts the World Cup, but you’d be well advised to look beyond the football. Wyndham Wallace examines the growing international reputation of the country’s alternative music scene… It took three days for internet traffic to crash Die Antwoord’s website after US blog Boing Boing posted a link to their website and a selection of videos as confusing as they were exciting. The South African ‘zef ’ act – ‘zef ’ being a style that may or may not have existed before – leapt from internet phenomenon to Interscope signing in a couple of months, performing their first ever show outside South Africa at US festival Coachella this spring to thousands of fans before their album had even been released. The very tool that was supposedly bringing the music industry to its knees had ironically delivered its latest cash cow, and Die Antwoord are merely the latest in a slowly growing stream of acts emerging from South Africa that have, for the first time, shed light on the fact that this vast country has more to offer than what has become known, somewhat patronisingly, as ‘world music’. First, testing the waters in early 2009, though their origins were hard to spot, came Dear Reader, a City Slang signed act whose debut album, Replace Why With Funny, was refined and subtle, faring well with critics and those of a sensitive nature alike. Next came BLK JKS, signed to cult US label Secretly Canadian,

their mix of traditional and modern South African sounds blending effortlessly on After Robots with contemporary American alt. rock production and prog-rock jam-band techniques. And then, his dick swinging freely on camera within a pair of Dark Side Of The Moon boxer shorts, came Ninja – aka Watkin Tudor Jones – and Die Antwoord. “What does Die Antwoord mean?” their faceless interviewer asked in the original viral video. “The answer,” Ninja replied. “The answer to what?” the interviewer persisted. “Whatever, man,” shrugged Ninja. “Fuck.” It’s a good question, and one that deserves a better answer. Interest in South Africa’s ‘alternative’ musical scene hasn’t just been absent the last few years: it never even existed. Naming bands from Australia to Iceland is little challenge, but coming up with even one from South Africa whose roots lie in what we recognise as ‘alternative’ music was, until now, next to impossible. The reasons are complex, but they tell us a great deal about the mechanics of the music industry and media, as well as the ways our world has changed over recent years. For starters, there’s the ‘New Seattle’ syndrome, the media’s

insistence on discovering scenes based around specific locations. Manchester and Glasgow in Britain, Portland and Chapel Hill in America, Bergen in Norway, Paris in France… all these cities and more have seen their music communities placed under the microscope by a media that seems geographically fixated. South Africa, however, previously remained ignored. This, City Slang’s Christof Ellinghaus admits, “actually added to Dear Reader’s appeal once I had fallen in love with their music.” For years South Africa had been isolated, both by its politics and its location. With a maximum of four significant markets – Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and, to a lesser degree, Bloemfontein – it was hard for international artists who were anything less than Top 40 mainstays to justify the finances involved with touring a country in which lack of exposure limited potential audiences. When Dear Reader opened for million-selling Jose Gonzales in Johannesburg, there were only 500 people in attendance, and even that shocked their singer Cheri MacNeil. “It was because of that advertisement with the bouncing balls,” she laughs, “and he only came because one of the guys in his band was getting married to a Capetonian and they were coming for the wedding. Bands only usually come through when their careers are over. Counting Crows, and Live: a lot!” South African music has therefore been largely sheltered from the influence of underground culture elsewhere. “To be honest,” MacNeil continues, “most of the stuff in South Africa was really, really, really sub-par! If you listened to the radio it would be completely obvious when they were playing a South African song because it sounded so bad. Everything was really Nickelback-y. Everything was copied, basically.” “There are a lot of very well recorded and thoroughly dismissible radio rock ballad bands,” Ellinghaus agrees. “Grunge à la Stained or Creed, or whatever these kinds of bands are called. There are also the usual domestic versions of international success stories. I went to a festival down there and saw the South African Rapture – Desmond and the TuTus! - and the South African crossover rock version of Limp Bizkit. The lack of originality was striking. And the amount of terrible band names is simply overwhelming...” The country’s political history also provided obstacles, with international sanctions imposed due to the apartheid system keeping foreign acts away. Today, the shadow of its past still contributes to subconscious inverse racism towards South African culture, as though a collective worldwide inherent guilt has prevented people from exploring anything other than ‘native’ offerings. It is, after all, less than 25 years since British charts were topped by a song called ‘I’ve Never Met A Nice South African’. Even the growth of the internet has been held back by the country’s technology. In fact, according to a BBC report in September 2009, a Durban IT company recently fitted a pigeon with a 4GB USB stick and sent it 60 miles to see if it was faster than sending the equivalent data down the wires. By the time the pigeon arrived, Telekom’s ADSL had sent 4% of the data. “You can barely stream a movie,” MacNeil elaborates. “You pay 30 Euros for 1GB of internet, so when I’m at home I’m not watching a lot of videos or downloading albums because then I have to buy more internet. But at least you can in principle, and that’s played a huge part in the fact that South African bands are now, like,

maybe not ten years behind. Maybe like three!” However, as Secretly Canadian’s Kevin Duneman points out, the internet is a two-way stream. Asked why South African acts are receiving more attention, he attributes it “mostly to the speed and spread of knowledge and information these days. Hearing a band from South Africa used to be difficult, when now anyone can make a MySpace page and post their songs. We first saw BLK JKS on the cover of The Fader, so I went to their MySpace page and was just absolutely floored.” The band were soon wowing audiences in the US and Europe, receiving an invitation to perform at FIFA’s World Cup Kickoff Celebration Concert in Soweto. But working with them, as with Dear Reader, is considerably more complicated than with your average indie signing. For starters, there are the higher costs associated with bringing them over for promotion and tours, and there is also the fact that such activities are initially unfamiliar to those involved. MacNeil recalls her first appearance at industry shindig South By South West as being “super eye-opening! I realised more what the industry was about, what being a band was supposed to be about.” “The logistics of running a smooth campaign were initially pretty intimidating,” Duneman confirms. “Even scheduling an interview was going to prove more difficult than we were accustomed to. But that was all way more exciting than it was intimidating. Perhaps the biggest thing before the fact was wanting to understand where BLK JKS are from, culturally and spiritually. It’s pretty easy, comparatively, to understand what a band from our neck of the woods is going for. With BLK JKS, you can’t take anything for granted. Music is music, but there are some pretty big differences in perspective that have taken some ramping up to.” Now, however, the gates are open. The idea that South Africa can provide us with music that suits contemporary cosmopolitan tastes is no longer alien, and Die Antwoord’s inevitable success with their forthcoming $O$ album, as well as further releases – like a compilation of the emergent Shangaan Electro scene put together by BLK JKS’ Tshepang Ramoba – will no doubt bring further acts to ‘western’ attention, given the industry’s obsession with mining newly discovered seams. “What was the one thing that was different about Dear Reader?” Cheri comments wryly. “The fact that we come from South Africa. The people who are trying to sell things and make money have to play the card they have, their marketing card.” Whether the next wave will be any good remains to be seen, and whether this interest will endure is questionable. The novelty, after all, cannot last forever. But at least people are aware that the music exists. “Up ’til now,” MacNeil concludes, “no one even knew there was indie music coming out of South Africa. A lot of people were shocked, as far as I could gather in Europe, to hear that we were white and came from South Africa and made music like ours. But people now know that there’s ironic white trash rap and indie rock ‘n’ roll and whatever else in South Africa. If it’s good music, then people are going to be more willing to listen to it than they were before.” The South may rise at last…

SOUNDS FROM THE OTHER SIDE TEXTS GARETH OWEN ILLUSTRATION LEONA LIST

There’s more to Antipodean music than Kylie & Jason, though the former does appear on this list. From speed fuelled punk to stoner rock and socio-political dub, our cousins in the summer hemisphere have produced some of the more interesting music of the last 30 years. Here is a selection of some overlooked and ignored songs from ‘down under’ (no, Men at Work are not on this list) and other oddities that you won’t be reading about elsewhere in this issue. LET THERE BE ROCK

NEED YOU TONIGHT INXS

Die Antwoord

Anyone with even a passing interest in music made with guitars should know this song. From an earlier point in AC/DC’s career before the radio-friendly hits (that still rule, man), this is striped back garagerock that has the force of a freight train. The bass-line should come with a health warning. It’s so good they pretty much just play the song twice over.

Pop gypsies INXS tried their hand at everything – each of their albums sounds as if Michael Hutchence is the only constant, so keen are the band to flirt with a multitude of styles. However, they really hit the jackpot here – the moment Need you Tonight starts, someone will start dancing.

Die Antwoord means the answer in Afrikaans. “The answer to what?” “Whatever man. Fuck”

AC/DC

CONFIDE IN ME Kylie Minogue

Well, ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ would have been just too obvious. I remember when this song first came out; way ways before Ms Minogue’s pop-tastic re-invention, and the general consensus amongst my friends was “Kylie Minogue has gone mad and weird”. Viewed in retrospect it is (obviously) the best thing she has ever done. Watch the video then remind yourself that this came out in 1994.

SHOULDN’T LET HIM OUT

THE BROMLEY EAST ROLLER Salmonella Dub

Bass so low you need a nappy. Even their name makes me feel queasy. Active since 1992, Salmonella Dub are godfathers of the dub/bass and reggae scene in their native New Zealand. Touching on all styles of bass music, they have toured the world extensively but remain little more than a cult band outside of the Southern Hemisphere. Fans of Fat Freddy’s Drop should be getting on YouTube right about.......now. A bit too cheesy for my tastes, though all the same you know they “are for real”. Which probably just means they smoke a shit load of weed.

ZEF SIDE

RELEASE THE BATS The Birthday Party

Perhaps Seth Troxler should check this song out and take note – drugs and bats are old news. The breakthrough hit of Nick Cave’s first band, Release the Bats is 150 seconds of amphetamine fuelled vaudeville punk aggression.

DEAD EYES OPENED Severed Heads

Oh, THIS is Severed Heads? Dead Eyes Opened will be familiar to anyone that has ever listened to Sasha & Digweed, and sounds like so much that came after it and very little before. Minimalist beauty that gets wedged inside your head.

The Polo Club

JETSETTER’S BALL

HARMONIC GENERATOR

Glitchy ghetto rap, made by clean-cut white boys. Turning the notion that you have to come from the projects to make authentic rap music on its head, The Polo Club have enough nous to laugh at themselves whilst being deadly serious about the music they make. Digital grime, computer funk. “Whatever man. Fuck”

Big in Europe, massive in their native Australia, Flash & The Pan was a studio band formed by George Young, brother of AC/DC guitarist Angus, and Harry Vanda. Flirting with new wave and pop, they were a miss as often as they were a hit. ‘Jetsetter’s Ball’ is a definite hit. Sleazy.

My girlfriend wanted me to put ‘Motherfucker From Hell’ on this list, but I reckon Harmonic Generator is better. Naming yourself after a brand of Japanese car is probably the least rock‘n’roll way to identify your band. It’s not even original (see the Suzukis). However, the Datsuns do rock. Like motherfuckers from hell, funnily enough.

Flash & The Pan

Datsuns

Jamie Lloyd

A SINGLE MAN

Putting Sydney on the musical map with his non-linear approach to dance music, Jamie Lloyd has with Trouble Within and Beware Of The Light proven he’s a man made for writing albums. With a gift for intricate melodic soundscapes, his sound is at turns moody and angular while possessing an element of intimacy not often found in electronic music. Presumably it’s these qualities that have provoked comparisons to experimental dance music producer Matthew Herbert, who – quite suitably – contributed to Jamie’s recently released remix album. A born and bred Sydneysider, Jamie recently relocated to Berlin where we caught up with him in his newly set up studio to hear about the sounds on his horizon. TEXT VIKTORIA PELLES PHOTO KATIE PASHLEY

Where does the inspiration for your music start? Do you have a standard way of putting things together? Just being a bit moody all the time helps! Otherwise, I can start with anything… watching a film, listening to other music, meeting people or having something happen that’s not that great. Or having something happen that is great! More specifically, it usually starts with me playing around with something – my voice, the synthesizer or guitar – and recording a thing that I can loop up, something that’s pleasing for me to listen to. I rarely have a big picture in my head before I start, but just react to the last sound and build on that, and that just keeps going until it’s done. Having recently relocated – at least for a time – to Berlin, what kind of influence can you foresee this city having on your music? It’s given me an isolation, which I think is good for me and hopefully for the music. Maybe I’ll be able to get a bit more focused here in a way that I wasn’t able to in Sydney, where the influence was very much the other people around me. Also, the people from all parts of the world here in Berlin, the weather… that all has an influence. You’ve taken on a rather ambitious project: the completion of three albums before November. What’s the inspiration for this and what can you say about the direction of these projects? I wanted to set myself some big goals for this year. I’ve actually pretty much completed one album and am starting work on the second, so I’m on track. The first one is a really broken, song-based thing. The next one is still guitar-based but maybe a little more loopy and a bit more instrumentation, so not just guitar and voice. And with the third one I want to do a strange electronic thing of some sort. Waiting to see what will happen with that! Is it a huge departure from what you’ve been doing? Yeah, these first two albums are, for sure. Previously I’ve mainly worked with synthesizers and electronic equipment, creating more up-tempo things. Some of it was always song based but a lot more up-tempo, and so these last two creations have been a total flip on that. The third album I have planned might be something where the two styles can meet in the middle. What about the process of taking your music in a new direction? Is it a conscious act? Or more a natural move? A few things influenced me to want to express myself in that way and this was how I felt I could most easily communicate strongly – using voice and the guitar. It’s less complicated and a bit more human, y’know? You’re playing with your hands and using your mouth. It’s a more organic way of expressing yourself that I was feeling for at the time. As JJ Top (in partnership with Sydney musician Jimmi James) you recently did a remix for Matthew Herbert’s Leipzig EP. Herbert remixed ‘Wolf ’s Sun’ for the Beware Of The Remixes album. How did you come to link up with him? When the opportunity arose and I was looking for people to do remixes, I got Jimmi to ask Matthew – they’re very good friends – he agreed and the mix was great so… I was really happy with that. A little later, Matthew asked Jimmi and me to do a mix, he gave us

two days to do it, but we managed and I think it turned out pretty cool. It was a positive experience. He gave us really great parts to work, all the stems and that. It was fun to work on something with such a strong structure. Any other partnerships on the horizon? Right now I’m not heaps into the remix thing and collaborating with this and that. I’m much more into developing my own thing at the moment. What’s been a standout moment in your musical career? Just doing good shows really. For the Beware Of The Light tour, I got to see some places I hadn’t been before and meet some nice people. It was also really great being part of the Asia Pacific programme that was part of the C/O Pop two years ago. It was a highlight meeting these really great musicians from Asia. And being involved in a programme that was really diverse like that and bringing people together. Can you name five albums most influential to you at the moment? Arthur Russell – World Of Echo Liquid Liquid – Slip In And Out Of Phenomenon Micachu – Jewellery Rodriguez – Cold Fact Boom & Birds – Confetti What about your favourite bit of sound-generating equipment at the moment? My guitar and my mandolin at the moment. For things that manipulate things I really like the 612, which is an early AKAI sample that does cool sample things! The Monome is also cool to sample things and redirect them and cool stuff like that. I had to leave my synthesizers at home but my minimoog and those things are really nice… What do you miss most about Sydney? The beach! And, y’know, my friends and family. And finally, what are you enjoying most about your new home? I guess maybe the solitude. I can feel it’s doing some things to my mind, which is good. And as I said before, there are a lot more people from all around the place here to get influenced by. Even if it’s just food or people talking… even though I don’t understand what they’re saying, these types of things influence me in a good way. And also with Australia being so far away, the chance to travel around in Europe feels good. LOOK OUT FOR JAMIE LLOYD PERFORMING AT THE C/O POP IN COLOGNE ON 25-26 JUNE

MUSIC REVIEWS REVIEWS GARETH OWEN / NEALE LYTOLLIS

SEED RECORDS

NICE NICE

JAMIE LIDELL

CHROME HOOF

(Seed)

(Warp)

(Southern)

Compilations 1-2-3

I wish there were more record labels like Seed. From the stylised Italo of Antoni Maiovvi to Sleeps In Oysters’ wind-up pop charm, there is no logic to the direction of the label, just the impeccable taste of label boss ‘Bruce’. This three CD retrospective celebrates 10 years in the game for a label that knows nothing in terms of genre. Unit Black Flight, the ridiculous and amazing Dagger Brothers and Company Fuck all appear with starkly different but equally brilliant songs. Form the lowest to the highest brow; every interesting musical angle is covered. GO

Extra Wow

It’s a little known fact that more or less as soon as he took to office, one of the first pieces of legislation Barack Obama passed was to make it law that all the cool bands from the United States have to come from Portland, Oregon. Nice Nice, as decent law-abiding citizens, come from there too but mercifully aren’t one of those typical drippy Portland folk-rock bands who think it’s still 1968. This is manic, shambolic, aggressive electronica of the highest order and blows all those wet hippies out of the water with one heavy dose of distorted guitar feedback. NL

Compass

The blue-eyed boy of digital soul can do no wrong round these parts, and whilst I would usually disagree with that on principle, from about two minutes into Compass I know that I have to doff my proverbial cap. As much as I loved Dam Funk’s album, I realise now that it was just the filler until Lidell’s latest effort arrived. It’s soul Jim, but not as we know it. Cranking up everything to 11 and adding an extra dollop of weird to the music, this has not left my side for days. GO

Crush Depth

Since Chrome Hoof burst into a life a few years ago, they have had plenty of people trying to emulate their stage persona (PTR...), but few have had the balls to follow the musical lead offered by the brothers Smee. Crush Depth is certainly more accessible to the casual listener, but it doesn’t compromise any of their ideals of chucking pretty much everything into the mix and forcing it to work. There is quite literally not another band like the Hoof, and Crush Depth is an album everyone should have. Total madness, I can’t say enough good things about this record. GO

GEORGE DEMURE

WOLF + LAMB

JAMES HOLDEN

(Mahuta Recridings)

(Wolf + Lamb)

(!K7)

The Drifter

Bonkers pop from one of Scotland’s finest. Sounding at times like Nick Cave has been locked in a room with a drum machine and some synths, Demure wraps beautifully warped lyrical vignettes around a variety of musical poles. From dreamy pop to acid tinged monologues (‘Parasol Drive’ – amazing), each song works as a smaller chapter in a bigger narrative. If you want it to. Otherwise just skip through at random and find yourself in any number of strange rooms. Truly astonishing. Some of The Drifter doesn’t work for me, but when it does, it affirms my belief that there is still plenty of amazing pop music left to be made that doesn’t fall into any number of tired clichés. GO

Love Someone

Whenever I read of the “Marcy Hotel” and the whole Wolf + Lamb music gang, I am tempted to turn the page. I am not a huge fan of the music – it’s nice, but it’s not timeless, too caught up in a concept I cannot connect with. I have to let a colleague sift through the stuff he likes to leave me the crumbs that remain, which I do enjoy. Wolf + Lamb’s debut album is, in essence, quality house music with a few nice twists – that’s all. Sure to please house fans and hipsters alike by giving them exactly what they would expect. GO

TODD TERJE

(Permanent Vacation)

SHOUT OUT OUT (Normals Welcome Records)

Karmageddon

(Last Gang Records)

On the surface of it, this album doesn’t have a thing going for it. The cover art is apalling, the pun of the record’s title is abysmal and as if to rub more salt into an already gaping wound, we discover that Let’s Go to War co-wrote some fluffy nonsense for Queen of Irrelevance, Britney Spears. With the odds stacked up against it to such a tremendous extent it is somewhat miraculous that this MSTRKFT-esque album is actually so listenable. Never judge a book bla bla bla. NL

I am not sure that there has ever been a ‘bad’ DJ Kicks – after all, DJs that are paid a lorra lorra money to entertain you in the club must have pretty solid musical tastes outside the confines of the DJ booth. And so in some ways it’s business as usual for James Holden’s contribution to the series. Choc full of amazing music that I have never heard before, and some I have. Terrible cover tho’. GO

Remaster of the Universe

Out Out Reintegration Time

LET’S GO TO WAR

DJ Kicks

At first glance you may (as I did) confuse this record with the similarly-monikered Swedish dross merchants, Shout Out Louds which may result in a mini breakdown, a slight fever and an insatiable revulsion for anything vaguely connected with Stockholm. Fear not, this record is a far cry from turgid Scandinavian pseudo-intellectual musings. It’s actually bouncy, bleepy Canadian electronic dance music with nods to disco and enough experimental clicks and pops to keep it on the right side of credible. NL

Listening to Remaster of the Universe, I am struck by an odd feeling. There was a time when disco, edits, and Todd Terje were just names and phrases at the edge of a wider contemporary musical landscape. However, so ubiquitous has Terje become, and so associated with the genre of edits, that nothing on here feels fresh or new. Sure, there are some amazing reworks here – Simon Baker’s ‘Plastik’ for example, but I just get the feeling that I am listening to a Hype Machine playlist. Unsurprisingly, what I consider to be his best effort – his edit of ‘Superstition’ – doesn’t even make the cut. No pun intended. GO

OPTIMO FABRIC 52

MOCK & TOOF

(Fabric Recordings)

(Tiny Sticks)

It could only be a matter of time before the stalwarts of Glasgow’s club scene were asked to step up to Fabric’s overflowing plate of musical treats. Firing on all cylinders, Optimo’s effort showcases the duo’s future-disco/ retro-funk sound to perfection. From Fad Gadget’s ‘Lady Shave’ to more contemporary selections from Spencer Parker and Lenon Vincent, this is an assured mix, that perhaps only disappoints in its adherence to being a fairly club-focused set. Which is no bad thing when you have the likes of Ronnie Griffith and Locussolus filling in the digital gaps with some odd-ball disco putty. He even manages to squeeze in some UK Funky with Roska’s ‘Feeline’. GO

Tuning Echoes

Wow. I wasn’t sure what to think about the debut album of Mock & Toof. Rumoured to be fairly removed from their dance floor output, I expected a selfindulged album for disco nerds. What I actually got was a psychedelic journey through a beautiful musical landscape of friendly faces and forgotten loves. As soon as the title track started, it was clear that this was going to be a serious album crafted with love. If you know Mock & Toof from their earlier 12”s, I suggest you put those aside and seek out Tuning Echoes now. Seriously good music. GO

THE TIVOLI VS CABARET VOLTAIRE LE LE

Le Classics (Gomma)

Multi-lingual electro-pop from camp Gomma. Sounding at first listen like something relatively disposable, further listens reveal a deceptively complex album. The vocals don’t work for me – an annoying diversion to their sonic underpinnings, which comprise soft-edged techno funk, bitter synth-pop and old skool house jams and all adorned with analogue, squeaks and burps. Will please fans of both TTC and Paul Kalkbrenner. Which is unusual. GO

National Service Rewind (Shiva)

Cabaret Voltaire return to the fray, like practically every other band that has existed in the last 50 years, but admittedly with a twist none of their contemporaries have tried by teaming up with (young, new) Sheffield rock band The Tivoli (I hope not named after Tivoli Gardens). Imagine one of your favourite bands re-form, and they are not totally shit, they actually deliver something that is a continuation of what they were doing in their prime and it’s… see where this is going? Check it out. Musically affirming. GO

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

HEADMAN

(DFA)

(Relish)

The final LCD Soundsystem that ends a trajectory which began ten years ago in a scuzzy New York loft party, and ends in 2010 with James Murphy recording This Is Happening in LA and insisting that everyone involved in the production wear white. Apparently. It sounds familiar and yet doesn’t sound like anything Murphy has done before. Perhaps more introspective, more obtuse in his choice of musical angles, album opener ‘Dance Yourself Clean’ bears a remarkable resemblance to Neil Young, and there is perhaps a reversion to more guitars. ‘Drunk Girls’, ‘Pow Wow’, ‘Someone is Following Me’ – this is still (just about) happening for me. GO

Headman has been rather a busy chap in his relatively brief time blipping on the musical radar; he started his own imprint, Relish, remixed the likes of Franz Ferdinand and The Gossip, released his debut album on respected German label Gomma and has collaborated with musical muscle like Soulwax and The Rapture. So why do so many people still not know who he is? This could of course all change once the world clicks on to just how good the disco-electro tracks on 1923 are. The other advantage being of course that this is one Swiss export that isn’t Bonaparte. NL

This Is Happening

1923

LORN

Nothing Else (Brainfeeder)

BLACK DOG

Music For Real Airports (Soma)

A canny play on Eno’s ambient opus, Music for Real Airports is a diversion into gentler climates for the Black Dog. Low tonal droning, washes of scratched out digital colour, field-samples and emotive strings – their latest effort is cinematic in its beauty and breadth within a fairly limited genre. Probably not one for everybody, but if you want to get lost in swathes of soothing sounds and elastic beats then this is well worth checking. GO

Funnily enough, sounding like Nothing Else in this issue’s reviews, Lorn’s debut album is an assured step into a murky world of glitch bass and dark musings. Quite difficult to believe that this was made by a 23 year old relative unknown from somewhere in Illinois, Lorn’s sound is perfectly Brainfeeder. Fans of the label probably don’t need to be told just how good this is – however if you are a fan of Fly Lo and want to immerse yourself in something from a similar astral plane, then I can highly recommend this. In fact, you might even like it more. GO

Kevin Parker / Tame Impala

BIG IN JAPAN So you know Modular first and foremost as the home of some of Australia’s hottest electronic music, but that’s not all they do. Tame Impala are a prime example of the label venturing into other territories. The psychedelic rock threepiece, originally from Perth, have recently been taking their first tentative steps outside their native Australia, and lead singer Kevin Parker recounts their appearance at the 2009 Summersonic festival in Japan. We were the first band on our stage and suddenly the crowd had gone from a few people to about 10,000. It was a new country so I felt like we had nothing to lose. We had to wait till the stage lights went dark before walking out. We were waiting by the side of the stage and I remember wondering if any of the hordes of people we were about to walk out to even knew who were. Anyway, the lights went dark and there was a roar of applause and we walked out. During the songs it felt like any other show except the sound was immaculate; our sound guy told us no one in Japan ever fucks up. It was between songs that was special. I was stoked because I was the singer, and between songs I got to be the one who says “Arigato” and “Tame Impala desu”. Japanese audiences have this thing where they give thunderous applause after each song for about two seconds and then there’s silence until you start again. In Australia you’ll get a moderate cheer followed by chatting and glasses clinking until you start the next song. In Japan they have so much more respect for the performer. I think we were a bit tense during the Osaka show, but Tokyo felt like the best show we’d ever played. Our manager cried! We were about to play overtime, which is bad. If you play overtime at Summersonic you get fined $5000 dollars per minute. We had to somehow cut the last song short, but I didn’t have a clue how we’d do it. Magically, we all started playing the last chorus at the same time and we wrapped up the set just under 45 minutes. I felt great!

After an awesome show you always feel on top of the world, and after Tokyo I felt like I’d had sex with all the other guys in the band. JAPAN! Fucking hell! It felt like we were going to Mars to play. I didn’t even know how daily life operated… for all I knew, people cruised around on hover boards. It felt like a career milestone before we even got there. Everyone working at Summersonic makes you feel like a demi-god. I was setting up my guitar pedals and there were about seven guys standing around me waiting to assist me in some way. In Australia there’ll be some old guy standing at the back of the venue smoking a fag telling you to hurry up. Fans kept stopping us for photos. Some of them had Tame Impala shirts and CDs and yelled Tame Impara! There was one really excited fan and when Dom touched her on the shoulder, I swear she almost exploded. We bought a couple of synthesizers because everything there is really cheap, and we use synths frequently now. In fact we’re obsessed with them. I think that any time you see something where the scale of it blows your mind, like Japan’s city structure, it’s always inspiring. TEXT NEALE LYTOLLIS PHOTO SAV