Artist: BLK JKS
Album: After Robots
Year: 2009
My first reaction to opening track "Molalatladi" was as follows: "Holy crap, this is awesome!". South Africa's version of The Mars Volta, BLK JKS create epic soundscapes of progressive, experimental rock. The blaring horns on the opening track call to mind the middle-to-later periods of the Volta themselves (one of my favorite bands for sure), but the band itself has more in like with a lost-in-the-jungle King Crimson than anyone else, with epic guitar solos and crescendos jumping into shifting polyrhythms and dark, unsettling vocals. "Banna Ba Modimo" is a armageddon in a song, "Standby" is a straight-up Moody Blues ballad, while "Skeletons" dives into a brilliant pool of dub and never resurfaces. The instrumental breaks on this album are absolutely wonderful and the songwriting is as refreshing as it is unpredictable. The album is at times completely incoherent and at others startlingly lucid. The album is full of highlights, including all aforementioned, the jumpy "Lakeside", the translucent and morphing "Taxidermy"... There's really nothing I don't like about this band. It's unfocused and raw, but shows a great band with incredible talent showing us what they can do. An absolutely wonderful debut and starting point. Progressive rockers, unite!
Hear it for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNM9_N3VhlE
Wonderful pick, Brian.
I actually have to thank Chris: His obsession with playing FIFA WORLD CUP 2010 introduced me to quite a few bands; "Lakeside" was one of the tracks and I decided to download their stuff on a whim. They've been one of my "chill albums" since... I especially love Tselane!
ReplyDeleteThis week... Headed back to the UK with Dan Black's "Un"