Welcome to the SMACM label stable!

There's plenty to be excited about in 2012, including a Martin Scorsese kid's movie, Mass Effect 3 & the world not ending! Over at the SMACM stable it's not too different, especially with the way this year has been kicking off. We've got hopes and dreams of a split release with KRNGY, unveiling Lavaman, launching a killer web site designed by Nanna and seeing full length albums from Vampire9000 and Eye Like Mirrors. While I'm holding thumbs that all these dreams will come to pass, we're gonna have to wait a while to see them happen, but there are three things definitely going down soon and getting us incredibly excited for the imediate future of So Many Animal Calls Music. Over the next while we'll be putting out recordings from 3 very different acts, who all share a common trait of pure, un-brideled awesomeness; may I now present to you the latest additions to the SMACM stable!

PETITE NOIR!

Petite Noir is the solo project of Yannick "Iamwaves" Ilunga, an over-achiving busy body and a perfect fit for SMACM and our "just go out and do shit" attitude. Yannick's distinctive voice should be familiar to most of you as the lovely set of pipes behind Cape Town's Popskarr, easily one the best (if not the best) live dance act the country has to offer. He's also a part of globe-trotting style collective Capital of Cool. Releasing his debut solo EP "Masion Noir", independantly last year, we're super excited to be joining him in spreading the Noir gospel with our release of his second EP "Till we Ghosts"! While still in production, it's safe to say I can't wait for this one, just going on the first single "The Dance". If you're not feeling the same after hearing this then i think you may have misplaced your soul:

GREENISFORTURBO!

Following on with the "catch-up on putting out great unreleased music from 6 years ago" agenda we started with last year's release of Martianmartian, we can't wait to put out Greenisforturbo's "GIFT". They were one of the cornerstones of the incredible creative community that exploded out of pretoria between 2005 and 6, shone with a blinding bright light and then burnt out, with barely a trace left by the end of 08. Greenisforturbo join Mogwai and Los Campesinos as one of the only band that have moved me to tears when seeing them live. I'll write heaps of history and gushing praise for what they were when we do put GIFT out, for now let me say it'll be a little milestone for the label as our first full length release! It'll also be presented in a massive package that will, hopefully, stand up as ridiculously extensive document of just what this lost gem of a band were.

WHITNEY NICOLAAS HERMINGSTEAD ØLOFAN RëENEN!

Whitney Nicolaas Hermingstead Ølofan Rëenen, or Nicolaas van Reenen as his mom calls him, is the latest in this string of wild stallions to join the SMACM stable. Best known for playing half the incredible guitar-lines with Bateleur and all of them for Spoek Mathambo, Nic has also been busy crafting strange little genre-defying ditties of instrumental brilliance. We'll be releasing his debut EP, Wrestlemania shortly (most probably while Nic is touring the states with Spoek and before his return to SA and the release of Bateleur's highly anticipated second EP). Need some proof on that sweeping "brilliance" statement - how's this?

We (don't really) do this all the time! The Pregnant Seabass!

This is Cam, Anja and I. On this night we were called Redseabastard, Girlseabastard and Tallseabastard. Other then eating pizza, we also had some fun, being a one-night-only improvised "noise" band called The Pregnant Seabass. While what we'd do exactly was pretty random, we had a rough idea of what we'd do. This broad outline of what we should do when was dictated by a visual backtrack. We watched the visuals on a little monitor and projected them behind us for people to see. We ran the audio from the visuals into a sound-desk. Each of us had a microphone, Red had a guitar and two electronic drum pads, Girl had a big keyboard and i had a little keyboard running into my guitar rig pedal. The whole thing was a big joke. Martinique asked us to do an improvised noise set, so the idea was we'd start out crazy noisey, but after 30 second get all pretty and chilled and show visuals of baby wales playing with their moms. We tried writing a little pop song that went a little something like this:

"Pregnant seabass is at your party!"x3
"Tearing it apart!!!"
"Pregnant seabass is at your party!"x3
"WHO WANT'S CAVIAR!?!"
Anja wrote this really pretty song. We played a pretty old Green Is For Turbo song. And did a version of a song I wrote last year called Legacy. When it was time to do Legacy my mic broke, so I borrowed Red's. When he joined me on vocals we sung into the same mic and it felt like we were John lennon and Paul McCartney, except neither one of us was a douchebag playing bass. For an encore we put a new DVD on. It was of a 3 minute clip of James Earl Jones flying a plane while dolphins swam on shallow beaches. While it played we packed up.

Surprisingly, after the show, loads of people told us they liked what we did. No-one seemed to think it was as funny as we had, but people actually liked the music, which was pretty crazy.

Then a merry old time was had by one and all. P.S. All these photos were taken by Seabass favourite Patrick Dinneen.

UK.2.4.1.T in the park - Sunday

Last weekend Scotland celebrated in largest music festival. One year and a few days ago, some of my dearest friends and I were at T in the Park, dancing, singing and trying to do handstands.

I did a really really crappy job of blogging about the trip I took to the UK last year. If you wanna catch up, this is how far I got:

1. Vague messages from London
2. Heading through to T
3. Friday - power rangers, Zinners, eyeballs and Os!
4. Saturday - Dead Cities, Nails and Fires!

So that leaves us "now", 11AM, Sunday morning, wondering like cattle into the T arena for the last time.

Surprisingly, we aren't interested in any of the bands that will be opening the last day of the festival. We make our way to the "BBC Introducing" Stage. It's reserved for smaller, emerging acts. Kinda shamefully I haven't even been to the stage all festival. Sometime this evening we'll be watching the much loved Dananananaykroyd on the this stage and now, with time to kill we head there hoping for a nice surprise in the form of whoever is opening.

We're the first souls to show up at the tent. There's no-one on stage, but we already get a pretty nice suprise. Synths! Fuckloads of synths! Vintage synths, modern midi controllers, a guitar, a bass and a drum kit. Someone else shows up, ask for a light. We oblige ask him if he knows the band that'll be up next. "Oh yeah". "Yeah? ". "Yeah, it's my band. Findo Gask".

Fast forward a few minutes of chatting, Gask-guy politely excusing himself to get ready and a small group of people showing up for the band. What goes down next is more than a "nice surprise". Findo Gask are fantastic. 4 part vocal harmonies and maximum rock and roll. With melodies mostly built electronically the sparce use of the guitar and bass sounds like one of the most powerful instruments I've ever heard. The band members are constantly switching between this bass, the array of synths and the drums. Honestly it's one of the best performances I've seen at the festival. As the bands change over on Introducing, we check out another stage I hadn't been to all festival. I don't remember the name, but it was sponsored by some cellphone company or bank or something. I don't recall the name of the band we tried to watch in there either , but they were horrible. Fronted by some leather jacket wearing girl that couldn't possible have looked less interested in playing a rock concert, this band snores their way through some of the most derivative, uninspired music I've ever seen performed live. It makes me think how unfair things can be. How if The Tutus or Us Kids Know or Yesterday's pupil were on this stage how they'd be playing their hearts out. How they'd be surprising this audience with their unique sounds. How they'd be making people smile and move their bodies and feel like they're part of something special. And instead there's just this. We head to the Redbull tent for Hockey. None of us were fans before their set and nothing much they do changes that. After the horror of the previous band they look like rock gods. They're moving! They look like they're having fun! They play their instruments just fine and the music's pleasant enough.

The problem is this time the leather jacket wearing lead singer's whole performance comes across as a kid of act. Like his "party vibez" and head band are gonna take them to the covers of 100 teen girl magazines. And sadly he seems like the most sincere of the band. Again I think of home. How over the past few years I've seen such incredible music made by people that couldn't care less about what they're wearing on stage, never mind the possibility of even being mentioned in a magazine.

Of course there's a place for Hockey, I'm sure a bunch of people love this band and that's totally cool. But the thought that right now they're in the middle of European tour, putting on this forced, fake show, day after day, night after night. And then there were bands like Greenisforturbo and Unit R and 5 Men 3 Missing. Bands who poured their hearts and souls into every set they played. Who created music that broke molds and then broke up and no one on this half of the world even knew they existed. It's really sad.

I should point out I'm not having some kind of bad day, watching these bands, thinking about how they don't hold a candle to what's been happening at the bottom of Africa. I'm having a pretty damn awesome day. The sun's shining, I'm with some of my favourite humans and every 5 minutes we're talking about how much we're looking forward to the later part of the day's entertainment. We head to the main stage to catch Block Party. Massive screens confirm that the tiny specs in the distance are in fact Bloc Party. Like most bands that get to play this stage, they're standing almost motionless, playing their songs exactly the same as how they sound on the thousands of albums they've sold.

We head back to the Redbull stage a good while before the next band starts. Having released an EP that made my top 20 recordings of 2008, I was massively excited when they were announced to be playing T. Since then they released what will be my 4th favourite album of 2009, filled with songs I've been DJing every chance I get and using as soundtracks for videos of dancing robots. To say I'm massively excited to see Passion Pit would be a little bit of an understatement.

What follows are some of my best moments of the festival. Compared to the endless sea of people still watching Bloc Party, the modest group of 2/300 people watching Passion Pit feels like a little house party. An awesome little house party where everyone is celebrating being in on this a fantastic little secret. It's all over way too soon. We catch some of Doves outside at the NME stage. I used to be pretty fond of the band's recordings, and the show's pretty good but I'd hardly say I'm feeling it compared to what I just shared with Passion Pit and the house party. Luckily it won't be too long till I catch another performance that makes my head want to explode in a shower of fiery blue sparks.

To be continued...

Hooray for Humans! So many good recordings on the way!

For me, 2010 has been rather slow so far as good new recordings by local artists go. But it's looking like that's just gonna be the case for the first half of the year. Or considering it is already into August, maybe I should say the first 7 twelfths. From projects that have just been unveiled, to full albums just waiting to break out into the real world, here's my shortlist of reasons to be excited about South African music for the rest of 2010

Us Kids Know:

I've written a bunch about UKK's ambitious and unique 2nd release "Problems". While the important part (the music) has been finished for months, Problems still isn't available because of delays in getting the t-shirts made. But the tapes are all recorded and ready to ship out, it's just a matter of time till you have problems and solutions in your ears. And knowing The Kids' high-energy, DIY work ethic I wouldn't be surprised if they release even more new music before the year's over.

The Plastics:

Maybe this is no longer an upcoming release by this point - it may already be out there, but either way I'm damn excited because I know there's a shark that's gonna get me. "Shark" is the first full length release by Cape Town rock upstarts The Plastics, and judging by the first single Caves, it's gonna be a good one.

Sticky Antlers:

Of everything on this little list, this could be the record I'm most excited to get my hands on. "Tupperware Tombstone" (the band's 4th album in under 3 years!) drops next Friday. While it'll be a happy day for fans of the Pretoria noise terrorist, it'll also be a sad one. The album launch on the 26th will also mark the bands 2nd last live performance. The PTA launch the next night will mark the final show. But while The Antlers will sadly be bringing the project to a close, don't despair because just around the corner there's...

Make-Overs:

From "If you are what you eat I could be you by tomorrow" to "Poodle Piss" to "Sticky Antlers", since 2004, Andreas and Martinique have created 3 fully fledged bands. That's excluding numerous side ventures and solo projects. Now before the Antlers have even played their last show, the dynamic duo are already hard at work cultivating their next band, the aptly titled "Make-Overs". I'm not sure if they'll have an album out so soon after Tupperware Tombstone. But, with a 16 track reel to reel tape machine, their own record label and mountains of enthusiasm I'd be surprised if we don't at least get a 4 track EP out of Make-Overs before the year is up.

The Lottery Tickets:

I raved about The Lottery Tickets after I first saw them this February. A couple weeks back I heard the good news that their debut album is in the bag - it's just a matter of time till it's out there and making all of our lives better.

Ampersand:

Joburg's wildest acoustic anarchist Ampersand has been working all year on the follow up to his debut album, "This is not a Drill". Initially recording and producing the album himself, Warren's since started over from scratch, now collaborating with former Shadow Club bassist, lof-fi enthusiast and general nice guy Alex. Hopefully this album will be out there by the end of the year - it's gonna be pretty damn cool.

Isochronous:

Isochronous recently headed down to Cape Town to record their second electric album. Based on the new songs the band have been performing since their self titled debut came out two years back, I think it's safe to say this sophomore effort is gonna be fantastic.

Vampire 9000:

Of our whole extended family of bands and musicians, if only one person could have been born to create rock and roll it's Chrisitan Henn. How come the 26 year old multi-instrumentalist hasn't officially released anything yet? Because he's been working his fingers to the bone, honing his formidable arsenal of skills. Over the past few months he's been recording demos for the debut album of his math-pop-danceant-garde, Vampire 9000. Now he's headed into the studio with the esteemed Jacob Israel to begin recording the album proper. Expect to be wonderfully horrified.

Popskarr:

At the very least we're sure to see at least another single and a remix or two, but personally I'm holding thumbs that these kids are gonna pull an album out the hat before the year's up.

A Skyline on Fire:

The album is recorded, mixed and mastered. It's a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode out into the world.

Yo! Grapes:

Desmond and The Tutus drummer Craig has recently unveiled a totally dreamy new project called "Yo! Grapes". He's already released this must-download track and word on the street is more awesomeness is on the way! Yay!

Green Is For Turbo:

Hey, a dude's gotta dream right?