Drift Prism debut EP is out!

I'll keep this short; (in my books) this EP is the best collection of new songs that has come out of South Africa in ages. It's available on a "pay what you want" model, so even if you're totally broke, you can brighten up your life with this sonic magic.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD DRIFT PRISM EP NOW!

TBT: the golden age of dance punk.

Tonight Hi5 is hosting a family reunion. We're re-assembling a gang of DJs and dancefloor-enthusiast that used to get together every Thursday night between 2005 and 2007 (maybe into 08?). I, for one, can't wait to have the family back together. In preparation, I trawled through some old photos, and found a bunch of us, doing what we did best during those days. This is only 9-7 years ago, but it feels like a very distant age...

If you wanna relive this magic, join us tonight!

Dune Rats at Hi5 - episode 2!

 
With Hi5's nostalgia-fueled next episode going down in two days, I figured it could be a good chance to share some snaps from our last party.

For Hi5 13, we were really stoked to have Australia's Dune Rats make their return to our sweaty little dance party. Joburg band The Moths got things started. Awesome times ensued. Shot by Hi5's own Plaat Japie, here's what we have to show for all the carnage...

Drift Prism EP on it's way.

Drift Prism is (in my books) the most exciting new face in South African electronic music. I've been lucky enough to see this fantastic monster growing for the past few months and now, a debut 5 track EP is being released next week. A teaser video's been put together to give you a taste of what you can look forward to:

I, for one, am incredibly excited! You should be too!

Hi5 present "An Indie Thursday Throwback"

 
Next month will mark Sassquatch's 9th birthday. Almost a decade ago, Ri and I teamed up to play our first set as Sassquatch and Data Takashi at "The Secret Pirate Party".

We quickly found ourselves very happily involved in the musical adventures of the phenomenal little scene that The Secret spawned. Most notably, we landed a weekly residency playing Tokyo Star on Thursday nights.

Playing alongside The Klassikist and King of Town, Ri and I had the best possible time on these Thursday nights. Fueled by adoration for the wave of new bands (LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, !!!) re-inventing dance music, classic bands who'd created the blueprints (Gang of Four, Talking Heads, A Certain Ratio) and cheap alcoholic frozen-ice beverages, these nights were, week after week, pure magic. Alongside the music and slush that made these times so great, the final ingredient was the people involved. Wits students that wouldn't miss a night, young professionals in business wear turning into sweaty messes, Pretoria kids that would drive all the way to Melville to dance with us; week after week, the people that packed out that tiny venue made us the happiest guys in Joburg.

The scene would inspire a whole generation of new DJs (Brother Grimm, Nathan Scott Phillips, Kodiak and so many more joining our ranks) and surely had a heavy hand in how night-life changed in the years since. But, like all good things, the nights would come to an end. Tokyo Star would leave Melville, along with it's lack of dress-code, alternative spirit and our ragged gang of DJs and dancers. I focused more on throwing parties in cities beyond Joburg. Ri would land up creating multiple alter-egos (Data Takashi, Plaat Japie, Danger Ingozi) for his expanding musical tastes. Kids grew up and time moved on.

Now, we're casting our gaze back to this golden era. Ri, Cam and I are throwing one of our Hi5 nights next Thursday, with a classic lineup and cheap alchoholic frozen-ice beverages in tow. We're mega excited to put on "An Indie Thursday Throwback" and can't wait to get slushed with all our old friends!

RSVP and request songs here!

Good Weekend: Star-crossed Lovers was born.

It's been more than a year since the last time I got one of these "Good Weekend" posts out. In the time since then I've had some pretty dam righteous times, all un-blogged about. So many excellent shows and DJ sets and out-of-town adventures and chill-sessions and moments I've loved and surely should have written about but didn't. So what did I do this past weekend that's got me amped enough to do another one of these? I made alien planets smooch.

Yeah, I've started making games now. There's a long winded life-chaning-event catch-up blog post somewhere in there (it can get in line alongside other fine installments like "I turned 30" and "I moved to Cape Town" and "I adopted tiny kittens").

To quickly summarize as best I can:

1) Matt and I simultaneously realised we should be making games and set up Token Games as an interactive sister-company to Cool Your Jets.
2) There's an amazing community of people making games in this country.
3) I've met some members of the Cape Town contingent of said community. They proved to be welcoming and excellent beyond my wildest expectations and I've enjoyed some grand adventures hanging out with them and (here and there) making things together.

This swiftly bring us up to last Friday, where Ryan (one of my excellent new game-making friends) asked if I had plans for the weekend and if I'd like to join him in creating something for the Ludum Dare 72 game jam. Considering my plans included just staying home and teaching myself Game Salad, this sounded like a far better option so I said "Uh. Yes!" I roped Jason in on music and sound duties and Team Perfect Match was born!

Ludum Dare is an international game Jam, primarily focused on individuals making games in 48 hours or teams doing the same in 72. The theme for this past one went live at 3AM on Saturday morning. It was "Connected Worlds" which made us think of a planet-hopping space imigrants, inter-stellar delivery men and dimension-shifting paper-boys. Ultimately we went with the concept that made us laugh the most - a dating show for lonely planets.

Star-crossed Lovers surely won't go down as one of the greatest games created during Ludum Dare 30, but we had mountains of fun making this thing. Reactions from the LD and MGSA communities have also been super encouraging and we're toying with the idea of taking this concept a bit further than the jam. But enough talking about it, let me rather just say;

CLICK HERE TO PLAY STAR-CROSSED LOVERS!

CLICK HERE TO RATE US ON LUDUM DARE!

CLICK HERE AND HERE FOR MORE WORDS ABOUT MAKING THIS BABY!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SOUNDTRACK!

CAP'N CAPS LOCK OVER AND OUT!