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* MYSTERY EP *

* MYSTERY EP *
RECORDED AT ELECTRIC LADY... AVAILABLE JUST NOW

31 October 2008

WEEKEND REQUIRED READING: THIS IS BJORK


The One has a new single out with Thom Radiohead. That's news you can use, but the big deal is that Bjork is on a mission to help rebuild Iceland's economy by turning away from the heavy industry of aluminum smelting and instead investing in the hearts and minds of her country: proceeds from the sales of "Náttúra" will go to help seed companies—start-ups in the tech sector.

She's a model for the ways in which artists so inclined can affect real change where they are.

"What we are saying is, we've got three aluminum factories, let's work with that, we cannot change that. Why not have the Icelandic people who are educated in high-tech and work already in those factories in the higher paid jobs, why not let them build little companies who are totally Icelandic with the knowledge they have? Then they get the money and it stays in the country. Then we can support the biotech companies and the food companies and all these clusters. I think that if you want to be an environmentalist in Iceland, these are the things you've got to be putting your energy into.

"A lot of investors [are] coming, and I'm hoping they will want to invest in the high-tech cluster. There are money people here that did not lose a lot of money. For example, here is one investment company in Iceland only run by women. They are doing fine. [laughs] They aren't risk junkies. They just made slow moves. The people who are crashing, they took a huge loan and then another huge loan, and so on. And it's all just air. But these women didn't build on air."

NOW READ THIS READ THIS NOW:

Amazing interview with Bjork as she goes in on the Náttúra idea, the politics behind it and how the song came about here and here.

Náttúra info here.

Bjork's Times of London editorial on Iceland's economic "smeltdown" here.

30 October 2008

PLANTS TALK TO EACH OTHER


Over to the Fader blog, Eddie Stats is roping together a new sound he's hearing and calling it 2000Tone, viz. "re-emergence of a sort of punky-reggae, 2-tone aesthetic in the world of DJ-driven music." Not mad, because he's got BLK JKS inna mix, he got honeydips Jovi Rockwell and Santogold along for the ride and he got the a little blend up for free for all yall.

2000Tone Blend
Jovi Rockwell, “Rizzla”
Diplo X Santogold, “Guns of Brooklyn”
BLK JKS, “Lakeside”
Sizzla, “Solid as a Rock” (acoustic version)
De Tropix, “Badname”
Natty, “Badman”
The Magistrates, “Colour Coordination”

Take a listen!

29 October 2008

TOMORROW NIGHT: ACOUSTICA RUSTICA

Heita!!!

If your not in the country when this reaches you pardon us,but we just
had to get it out.

Love and respect fam,hope you are well.

However if you are in the country; the BLKJKS are having a sit down
gig at ROKA on 44 Stanley in Milpark Jhb tomorrow night.

Hope to see you there,and maybe we can after party it out at the
SL magazine thing in the woods.

28 October 2008

L'UOMO VOGUE OCTOBER 2008


Photo by Kai Z Feng.

SA's finest in there—double page spread—as part of a portrait series featuring Slash, the Raconteurs, Placido Domingo, Mark Ronson, Jason Moran, MGMT, Etienne Daho, Flogging Molly, Josh Groban, Lisa Marie Presley, Matt Costa, Sergio Mendes, Maroon 5, Conor Oberst, Ozzy Osbourne, Gnarles Barkley, David Fonseca, The Pretenders, Alanis Morissette, One Republic, The Black Keys, Anton Corbijn (self-portrait!), Marky and Linda Ramone, Ben Harper, Neil Halstead, the Ting Tings, Boogie Balagan plus a bunch of amazing features and Diddy on the cover.

20 October 2008

THIS THURSDAY: ART STAR!


BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.

17 October 2008

BENGT BERGER: BITTER FUNERAL BEER BAND


FOR THE WEEKEND>>>

This dude is raw, here he is with Don Cherry (!!!) and and K Sridhar, Frankfurt 1982.

Check out the eponymous album...plus madd YouTubes!


BLK JKS RAP ATTACK!!!


One of the things that came out of this rando session in London was BLK JKS switching it up and rapping a bit on the track "Salota"(originally Cannibal Ox's "Life's Ill" produced by El-P) for the Esau Mwamwaya And Radioclit Are The Very Best mixtape, out now.

Cob it up: "Salota" Esau Mwamwaya And Radioclit Are The Very Best feat BLK JKS.

And the whole tape is right here.

15 October 2008

NEXT ACTIONS


Today mastering guru Paul Gold (The Social Registry, Secretly Canadian, Sounds Familyre, Telstar, Neurot, Fat Cat, Domino Records, Nublu, Concent, Warp Records, Bastard Jazz, Drag City, Anticon, Record Collection, Omad, Wonder Wheel, Mesh Key, RVNG, ? Your Rupture, Sundazed, Norton, Urbanacity, U Phonic, Juakali, Ghetto Arc, Rude, Broklyn Beats, Espers, Jason Molina, Gang Gang Dance, Psychic Ills, Vietnam, Benjy Ferre, Nicodemus, Danielson, Sufjian Stevens, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Red Sparrowes, Drop the Lime, Criterion, Doily, Love Is All, Long Blondes LCD Soundsystem, The Juan McClean, Eels, Rye Coalition, David Last, Dirty Projectors, Besnard Lakes, Phosphorescence, The Dust Dive, NNCK, Ecstatic Peace, Wooden Wand, Earthless, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, The Warlocks, Robert Pollard, Federale, The IO's, Bing Ji Ling, Still Going, Syclops, Tyvek, Fucked Up) was hard at work hooking up a new master version of the BLK JKS "MYSTERY EP".

A sign big things a gwaan! Maybe a re-release (on 12in vinyl???) in the near future?

09 October 2008

BLK JKS x NME


In which a certain Gavin Haynes travels to his native SA to find that the music scene is alive and well.

BLK JKS even get a mention!

Choice quote: "Meanwhile, an all-black group of childhood friends from Jo'burg's East Rand townships styled themselves as BLK JKS and began mixing the sounds of the psychedelic American underground with the afro-jazz they'd grown up with, forging the sort of enveloping art-rock swirl you'd expect from a back to basics TV On The Radio."

Gavin does double duty, blogging about his trip and his writing here.

Thanks to Peggy Unltd for the tip!


08 October 2008

BIBI TANGA!!!



Killed it last week at PASS.

Consider yourself warned!!

01 October 2008

TRAVELING SPACEWAYS


Sure China debuted its space program last week, but this week South Africa gets pretty far out.

As previously noted BLK JKS will blast off at Cape Town's Pan African Space Station, an unprecedented collection of far-reaching progressive music from around the continent and the diaspora.

On Thursday 2 Oct BLK JKS will be at GUBA S'THEBE with our favorite deck wrecker DJ BlaQ T, beginning at 6pm.

Then on Friday 3 Oct the band will rock The Assembly in District 6 from 9pm...

Send in a report and let us know if minds get blown!