Thursday, October 27 2011
But Is It Art? A Look at Pop Culture in South African Music
Contemporary South African popular music reveals a myriad of artists searching for an identity in a country still recovering from racial hatred; and a youth looking to the past in order to make sense of the present.
Wednesday, November 3 2010
Various: Shangaan Electro
If you thought Konono No. 1 was the ultimate in high-octane African popular music, think again. This mind-altering music manages to be simultaneously hypnotic and hyper-kinetic.
Monday, July 26 2010
Various Artists: South Africa
Framed by Putumayo, the Rainbow Nation sounds unified. South Africa presents, not so much a country, as a massive group hug.
Friday, June 11 2010
‘Invictus’: Remember the Springboks
The 1995 Rugby World Cup victory by hometown team South Africa may not have had the lasting effects on race relations many had hoped for, but it's still a hopeful moment worth revisiting, as Clint Eastwood does with Invictus
Monday, June 7 2010
Various: Next Stop… Soweto Vol.2
The story of each track is the story of the more direct African-American sounds of funk, groove, soul, and so forth coming up against another kind of music that is alien to them.
Sunday, June 6 2010
BLK JKS: ZOL!
South Africa-based BLK JKS release an EP just in time for the World Cup.
Tuesday, April 6 2010
Various Artists: Next Stop… Soweto: Township Sounds from the Golden Age of Mbaqanga
The 20 tracks of this frequently delightful anthology provide further evidence for the importance of the new vinyl archaeology in remembering the African popular past.
Sunday, November 29 2009
Victim’s Gay Hero and Modern Marvels of Social Change
No, gays won’t have to march- there are plenty more ways for heroes to come out to battle. What if lynching had gone viral? Remember that Dr. King had no iPhone, hence the distance between Montgomery and Atlanta was enormous, but dwarfed by now the Internet (not to mention I-85).
