You are invited: The River.

I'm very excited to be down in Cape Town for this!

Two of my very favourite Pretorian artists, Maaike Bakker and Louis Minnaar are down to host what promises to be one seriously next-level exhibition. It opens tonight and I can't wait to see what these two have magicked-up!

RSVP here!

Rebel Alliance 5 in videos!

Two weekend's back we hosted Rebel Alliance 5. Over the past few years, when putting together events, my main focus has heavily been in creating spaces where people team-up to create awesome stuff. In conjunction with Cam's efforts through Turn Your Lights Up High, we've done a bunch of events that I've been very proud of. From the mass cardboard-robot building sessions of Dynamo, to the more recent horror army that brought Monster Hospital to life, I think we've started little sparks that turned into blazing fires, far more massive than anything I'd hoped for. But as awesome as those past nights were, they don't hold a candle to the completely over-the-top super collaboration that was Rebel Alliance 5.

Today I'm very happy to share with you the full visual program of the night. This fifth episode marked the first of the nights where all material screened was made from scratch for Rebel Alliance. These three video represent the combined efforts of no less than 47 different people. Thanks to the collected creative powers of these animators, illustrators, photographers and musicians, I am now very happy to share with you the visual program of Rebel Alliance 5!

P.S. Visit these clips on vimeo for full credits on all projects!

2011 in lists: SMACM releases!

Are you excited? You should be! Prepare your eyes and ears for a post that tries to catch up on my so over-due list making of things from last year, multiplied by the power of a Free Music Friday!

I'm still in the process of making a list of my favourite local recordings from this past year. While doing this I realised a large chunk of those recordings are actually things that we landed up releasing through SMACM, the label I launched last February. It seemed a little biased putting all those EPs in my SA Music list, so instead I'm giving them their own list. May I introduce to you

THE 2011 SMACM DISCOGRAPHY!
***

SMAC001

EYES LIKE MIRRORS

CRUSADES

Art by Franci Lawlor

Design by Ben Rausch

Download Crusades here!

SMAC002

VAMPIRE 9000

COLOURS

Art by Maaike Bakker

Download Colours here!

SMAC003

JAYSYNTH

ST

Art by Jason Sutherland

Download Jaysynth here!

SMAC004

MARTIANMARTIAN

ST

Art by Jean de Wet

Download Martianmartian here!

That's it for now; I hope that by this time next year I'll have been able to share even more lovely sounds coming out of our little country!

You are invited! Breinmasjien exhibition!

SMAC Fav, super-artist and all around awesome-girl Maaike Bakker is having an exhibition of the wonderful stuff her brain tells her hands to make. It's going down on Thursday at the lovely +27 Cafe and the night will also feature an acoustic show by the oh-so-amazing "A Skyline on Fire".

RSVP here!

vampire9000 - Colours EP is out!

Of any free music I've posted up on this blog, nothing has made me quite as happy as what I'm about to share with you now;

For your listening pleasure, I'm proud to link you to the 2nd release by my little record label SMACM, "Colours EP" by vampire9000!

As SMACM's next release after my own band's "Crusades EP", I'm obviously pretty damn enthusiastic about the three songs that make up V9K's "Colours", but I'd like to take a moment to explain why "pretty damn enthusiastic" doesn't even explain how excited I am to be releasing this EP.

Vampire9000 is the solo project of man caled Christian Henn. I first met Christian in the streets of Pretoria back in 2002. Christian and I immediately became super-friends and with our other new-best-friend Maaike Bakker a little gang was born that, almost a decade later, I still hold close to my heart as some of my dearest friends. Right from when I first met him, Christian was hands down the most dedicated and passionate musician I had ever met. And while Chrisitian's talent and commitment to music should have seen him blowing people's minds ever since then, he was always his harshest critic and his ridiculously high standards meant none of his musical creations ever left the front door of his home.

All that changed back in 2009 when Maaike threw a little illustration exhibition called City Slickers. She invited Christian to play some music on the night and, opting to try make simplified pop music, vampire9000 was born. Recruiting Hanre Malherbe on drums and myself on visuals, vampire9000 made it's debut on the 13th of August 2009. The band made it's return at our Dynamo Halloween party. And while Hanre departed for asian adventure Christian kept The Vampire alive, heading into Benjamin Studio to record with Pretorian electronic legend Jacob Israel. It's been a long ride, over the past year and a bit full of adventures, from banjo-related injuries, to vamp putting finishing touches on the EP to Maaike blowing us all away with the artwork she created for it to now, the 9th day of the 9th month where you can click here download this three song labour of love.

But with all the personal back-stories aside, when it comes down to it Colours is just a fantastic creature. Three songs that go so far beyond what we've come to expect from South African music. Songs that are overflowing with creativity, enthusiasm and joy. And what's most exciting of all, this is just the start; we've got great plans for where this project will be going and I couldn't be happier to have all of you along for the ride!

So if you haven't done it yet:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

VAMPIRE9000'S

COLOURS EP

Vampire 9000 Colours EP: Artwork revealed!

Christian Henn has spent more than a year bringing it to life, but we're very excited to announce that the debut Vampire 9000 three track EP "Colours" is a mere 3 days away from being released! Produced by Jacob Israel and featuring art by Maaike Bakker, V9K's first recordings are a hurricane of fresh air, and in my eyes some of the most exciting new sounds to emerge out of South Africa in ages. I'm so enthusastic about these three songs that Colours will be released on none other than So Many Animal Calls Music. And, because we love you guys, we're putting this out as a "free-P"! A highly limited edition run in a physical format will be made available on the 9th of October, but till then you'll be able to download a full quality version of the entire EP (plus artwork) as of the 9th day of the 9th month of this year!

Good Weekend: Skim Grot en die Deurskeinende Stede

Gauteng is on a roll with hooking Anja and I up with really good weekends. We don't do much on Friday night, but Saturday starts off with us heading through to Pretoria for Chinese with Maaike & Werner. Om nom nom, then head through to this month's instalment of the Doktrine's amazing Skim Grot.

We drink Kapowerade, buy lovely Mikado stickers for Seafox's case and I have the great pleasure of DJing through sunset over an awesome view of my hometown and the cool kids that have come to this very special event.

After my set we need to race through to Joburg for Kick out the Jams. before tha party starts, I need to give The KRNGY DJs a crash course in DJing. I'm pleasantly surprised to discover Jaco is joining Andreas and Martinique, meaning we're now lucky enough to have 3 of the 4 Sticky Antlers opening our garage rock party up. The kids play a totally awesome set; the boys each grab a CDJ while Martinique uses her laptop to trigger old movie samples between tracks.

It's just perfect. A totally swell crowd show up to rock out with us and by the time we head home at 4ish the night has surely earned the name "High Five".

It's a little tough dragging ourselves out of bed on Sunday, but we do. Head through to the burgeoning Maboneng district of the CBD. Last weekend we were here for the awesome Fete De La Musique, today it's Invisible Cities that has dragged us into the heart of Jozi.

It's totally awesome what Skeleton Crew are doing with these events. Throwing Sunday afternoon gigs, combining musical-polar-opposites, presenting people with something new and different and celebrating just how lucky we all are to live in a city like Johannesburg.

Bless you Skeleton Crew.

Blew.

You are invited! The Ocean doesn't want eyes like scenery.

This Friday (as this spooky flyer by the awesome Maaike Bakker is about to inform you) we Mirrors will be playing in Centurion with The Ocean doesn't want me and Scenery. Personally I can not wait.

RSVP here!