I sit here on a Sunday morning, having ‘woken up’ at the 8.30am mark at which it was immediately obvious when I leapt up to silence my phone alarm (which, as it turns out, is a recording of the same sort of alarm that you get when, in a secret underground lair in a film, someone presses the self-destruct button and all hell breaks loose, red lights flash,people scatter like headless chickens, you get the picture) that it was going to be a long day. I realised once I had turned it off that a similar alarm was going off inside my cranium, there may have even been a sexy female supercomputer voice calmly telling me that I had ‘T-minus 2 minutes til core meltdown’. Point is, a glass of good red early on, followed by a wifebeater, a generous measure of white, one champagne lager (I think that’s what it was), one Guinness, and one Super-Strength did not agree with me 5 measly hours of sleep later.
Luckily, as I logged into facebook to check whether anything of mediocre importance could perchance occupy a few hours of my life and give my brain the illusion that it was actually running on more than 27 brain cells, I found that ‘Dominick Myles Petterson had posted something on my Wall’. Not getting my hopes up I click on the link to my wall, which reads, ‘after robots. spotify. its GOOD!’ emphasis toward the end of the sentence was very necessary, this was reason for celebration!
Now the After Robots which Easy Cheetah was referring to was, of course (or not of course if you don’t know BLK JKS), the eagerly anticipated (proably only by Dom and me and 12 other people globally) debut album recently released by BLK JKS. By way of an overview-in-a-sentence, BLK JKS are probably the most exciting band of the times, they’re fresh, psychedelic, fingerlickingly reverberate, chorally-african drumbeat rock. And their ‘Mystery EP’ was shit hot. Recorded in Electric Lady Studios (note the massive Jimi Hendrix reference here) in New York, these guys clearly aren’t messing about, and it’s safe to say that they’re one of the few bands of late to make such a big noise without an LP.
So in order to fully appreciate the album I’m going to assume that you’ve heard the EP, this is not some kind of imperative education but it doesn’t hurt to know where these guys are coming from to see where they’re going. In fact it doesn’t hurt at all, it’s possibly the best entrée on the menu to compliment your main course, Madam.
Before I opened this can of worms, Easy Cheetah had another monkey to let out of the bottle when he said that he’d already read a review that said the album was average, determined not to let the rain ruin my white t-shirt competition I duly read it, only to discover that the underliying tone was one of frustration, or disappointment. This was good news, the album apparently was not an accurate expression of how good these guys actually are. In case you didn’t get that, and just to illustrate a point, I’m going to write that again. THE ALBUM IS NOT AN ACCURATE EXPRESSION OF HOW GOOD THESE GUYS REALLY ARE. You cats best believe that.
Having not been able to get the album without paying for it, Spotify and its Take That Singstar adverts was not going to make this a good experience, so I bought the album off iTunes, and sat through it the way it should be enjoyed, in its all-encompassing THX-certified 5.1 surround sound glory.
Ok, enough of this fat-free cotton-wool pillow-talk, let’s get to the fudge.
‘Molalatladi’ jumps straight into the thick of things, with a pulsing rythm it is a great introduction to the album (something which I maintain as very important in an LP’s opening track). I swear theres a solo-break very similar to the one in ‘Mystery’, potentially paying homage to the title track from the old EP which did not make it to the new album. Pitchfork accuse the track of building for too long then petering out, threatening to explode into something but never doing so. But they’ve been compared with TV On The Radio whose last album (which lots of people said was very good) contained an opening title track which did exactly the same thing. It is only a taster of what’s to come, don’t spoil the party before you get there.
‘Banna Ba Modimo’ begins with a guitar riff that primes you for the all the brass, prog-rock glory to follow. It is here that the references to The Mars Volta shall start, the devilish guitar and latin horns juxtapose brilliantly with Lindani Buthlezi’s voice. Here I began to think that whoever is writing the music has been listening to a lot of Mars Volta lately, or not, maybe I’ve been listening to them too much. Either way the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble plays brilliantly to make the track rise and fall like the tide and the technical climax at the end of the track seals the deal.
Now will also be a good time to start talking about the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, it’s funny how all the cool people in ‘the business’ seem to hang out or collaborate with each other, I was introduced to this group by my cousin some time ago and it pleased me very much to find out that they’d been involved with this album. Definitely a band to check out on the side, more references and ‘bigging-up’ will be made of them later.
‘Standby’ could be a Wishbone Ash jam track, the acoustic guitar recording work is spot on, and the reverberated vocals contain passion and pain. Criticisms have been made of not being able to hear much being sung, that is not the way of the BLK JKS, what you do hear come out of the fray in snippets sticks steadfast in your mind, often it is something nonchalantly philosophical such as “Hello, do you know what you’re searching for?” in this track. It hints at a potential to emerge into a massive jam, but doesn’t ever jump into it working in and out of a climax intermittently while keeping with the initial mood of the song.
‘Lakeside’ on this album is a notably more chillaxed version than its previous incarnations, maybe because they’ve played it a lot, or because it suits the song better, though still they do bring the upbeat when it is needed in the songs signature climactic build. The bass kick signals entry into the solo, which lets loose a lot more than it used to. Here wonders how reviews can say that they’re too controlled, they climax the shit out of the end of this song.
And jump straight into ‘Taxidermy’, (another Mars Volta heads up here with the references to death, but again maybe not) “At the top of the hill he lay barren with his insides out”, Buthlezi then sings an African word which I don’t want to attempt to spell but it will suffice to say that I know that I cannot even begin to comprehend the imagery that he lays down with one word. Again with the general philosopical ramblings “if we all survive”, building to a climax (yes another one for those who say there’s not enough) which ends abruptly “you better dry your eyes now or otherwise”.
‘Kwa Nqingetje’ is a beautifully experimental track (more Mars Volta) with the reverse-delayed samples and a deep rolling bass. A lead guitar looms in the background as Lindani sings, fading in and out not in a threatening way. They never labour music, this dreamy song is weaved over the best part of 8 minutes and by the end I can almost hear Cicatriz Esp in there and now it’s time to lay the Mars Volta references bed. As far as a debut album goes After Robots is no De-Loused In The Comatorium, but the people who worked on that album had already made albums as At The Drive-In, they already were a band as such. After Robots is a very respectable effort by BLK JKS who are and entirely different species of psychedelic progressive outfit.
‘Skeleton’ brings a dubby skanking bassline with dirty delayed guitar. The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble cut a tune that reminds me of Fat Freddy’s Drop when played with the keyboard jah-ing before going into a rock-y chorus. Some great lyrics in this one lead into a mean spanish break which turns into, if you haven’t already guessed, a climax jam. By now I realise that every song has the potential to ignite an explosion in a way that only can be described as ’scary good’.
‘Cursor’ is a return to the slow bassy song with a wild lead guitar and reverberated Buthelezi vocals. Reverb in this case is a GOOD thing, you concentrate less on the lyrics (which are actually beautiful once you decipher them) and more on the intonation. Let’s not forget either that The Strokes’ debut album was pretty much Julian Casablancas singing through a megaphone and cool kids still sang to that.
A xylophone or something of the sort then penetrates the silence before a strangely mainstream acoustic chord progression starts on rythm guitar, lowered expectations of the track are then blown away by the fatherly African (I have no idea of the specific language used) lullaby that ensues, you think you can pick out words but its safer to let the voice take over as the guitar becomes secondary, you could totally sway to this for hours, or just the entire duration of the song.
Then comes ‘Ghost’, scary from the outset, reverberated drums and a simple but imposing two chord mood. I’m reminded a little by this of Led Zeppelin’s ‘When The Levee Breaks’, but darker. The intertwining English and African narratives keep you on edge and feeling sinister, though I didn’t stop enjoying it for one moment. A mini-climax leads to a animalistic dub breakdown which takes you out of the album. Dancing to this, I imagine, would be quite primally satisfying.
Basically, the reason why I have spent so many sentences defending these guys is that as I have said before, they’re ‘Scary Good’. The reviews which I have read seem to echo this sentiment, while being perhaps a little more critical, saying they just need to let loose a bit more, which is encouraging. One factor which always should be taken into account more than it already is can be summed up in one word, Africa. Or more correctly, South Africa. It runs thick through their music and for this reason cannot be compared to closely to contemporary musical structure or direction. Even I am not in a position to fully understand how well these guys lay it down because I’m missing that very piece of the puzzle. Then again did anyone ever change music by conforming to norms? I think not.
As we all get more musically aware we’re able to comprehend more complex amalgamations of sounds, genres and instruments. This is demonstrated intricately in ‘It’s In Everything You See’, another brilliant Mystery EP track that didn’t make it to album. It’s reassuring that both Pitchfor and Line Of Best Fit think that they can do better, Pitchfork even appreciating that they need time to refine, and to be given a bigger budget. I for one am very excited and what would emerge if you gave these guys that kind of freedom to produce something spectacular.
It’s very tempting to jump the gun and go straight to anticipating a second album. But for now, why don’t you just appreciate some of the chaos After Robots brings?
This is a long one, so bear with me.
I sit here on a Sunday morning, having ‘woken up’ at the 8.30am mark at which it was immediately obvious when I leapt up to silence my phone alarm (which, as it turns out, is a recording of the same sort of alarm that you get when, in a secret underground lair in a film, someone presses the self-destruct button and all hell breaks loose, red lights flash,people scatter like headless chickens, you get the picture) that it was going to be a long day. I realised once I had turned it off that a similar alarm was going off inside my cranium, there may have even been a sexy female supercomputer voice calmly telling me that I had ‘T-minus 2 minutes til core meltdown’. Point is, a glass of good red early on, followed by a wifebeater, a generous measure of white, one champagne lager (I think that’s what it was), one Guinness, and one Super-Strength did not agree with me 5 measly hours of sleep later.
Continue reading…
