Sock it to me

illustration by >>FURTHER>> (http://www.flyschooldesign.net/)

um. not since the real estate agents became a term for good, deep homegrown Electronica (rather than some flakey, fakely cheerful grey-blonde salesperson showing strangers your stuff ) have i heard a DIY guy who can fiddle the decks as well as he can diddle sets of instruments(and actually, come to think of it, they didn't really, they just made decks sound LIKE instruments). High time for a first time, then. Enter Sean Ou Tim - best known for his beat keeping with the buried (and annually resurrected) lustrous Lark.

Sean is more than a drummer. But then, drummers usually are. He's a DJ, a multi-dextrous muso, and a man with a vision. I was going to ask him what exactly that vision is, one night in the pit at Klein Lib a few weeks back, but the beats were so bad, and the energy so good, i danced the night away and forgot all about it. Not very professional of me. But then, this is no longer my profession.

Not sure why the man hasn't entered the scene with more of a bang. Maybe we're disillusioned by the braindrain of Electronica's brainchildren that seems to afflict our most manically talented men (case in point, paul ressel - Humanizer, relocated to the UK, and REA who only seem to play far away. REA's triple decker CD sold them successfully to the ad industry, and despite the occaisional show as REA, they've since morphed with cuzz Mathambo into some sweaty X's and a lot of Playdoe. dough. doh. both latter acts get lots more love from beyond our borders, and the former Humanizer seems to have dematerialised)

(ja, ja, sorry luca, for the lingual gymnastics and making you think an ol, but it won't hurt to bend your brain a bit now that you've got to be witty first thing in the morning on a breakfast show that helps earlybirds reach for their first cigarette, or coffee, or breast or.. not).

Anyhow, beside the point. Sean Ou Tim is not going to disappoint you, and if we're lucky, he's not going to desert you, either. He's as solid as they come, happily married, humble, quirky and one of the nicest guys on the scene. I say so because i know so, and you don't know the things i know. so. so he'll deliver. He'll play to his initially modest sect of underground fans one of which i am. He'll grow in stature (does it take longer for those straddling roles to be recognised than for those sticking to the poles of instrument or electronic, i wonder?). eventually he'll suddenly be the IT boy of let's call it local live DJing, and everyone will think they own him because they recognise the delicate syncopations in his sound moving under their skin.

his sound? it's a blend. but, ja, yawn, so is everything in a post post mod blob of electric earth, innit? nod, come on; you know you have to - you're a village kid - global village, i mean. no? villager? true, too. after all you're reading about music on a web page. (music : aural) + (web page : digital)= (you are : global.)

but but but. i'm getting ahead of myself and leaving you behind. Sean. sounds like... hrm. like himself and his identical twin. He mixes jazz riffs and rock beats and bits of funk and psy and soul and ooh some sounds i wouldn't put on a dance floor, but they work so well together under his light touch, and he even moves around the stage like that, like two twins, swiftly and gracefully from drums to decks, picking up and playing all manner of instruments along the way. He's always smiling, and enjoying it every bit as much as the people in the pit. whom he probably couldn't see the night i saw him because it is a well named hole in the wall.

we were smiling too, Mr Sakitumi...

ear to ear.

Mahala Surf fest and film premier with Fletcher on the Decks

music, multimedia and moerse surf

There has been a slew of recent benefit gigs in response to headlines and horrors across SA.

Kudos to the music community for caring, it’s not like the kind musos are rolling in moolah in the first place. They give of their time so that you can party and give something back at the same time. Easy peasy. The Mahala initiative is further proof of musical philanthropy and local integration through fun.

Mahala is a developmental surf company, empowering underprivileged groms through surfing. They’re hosting a benefit party Thursday, July 31, “a night of well-coordinated mayhem featuring the premier of a locally made surf flick about development surfing in South Africa (researched and scripted by Mahala) as well as some serious footage from that last monu-Mental Sunset swell.” Fletcher will be spinning the decks, and no one does it quite like the African Dopemeister.

If you donate an old surfboard, wetsuit or other surf equipment to the cause, you get in free. Others pay R50. Facebook has more details:

Even if you don’t know a surf case from a board bag, and you just think naturally bleached hair and buff bods are cool and you like the Dopester’s beats, you’ll be doing it for mankind.

The bottom line is whether we have diamond on the soles of our shoes or or rags from the rubbish bin, we all want and deserve a sense of achievement and human dignity. Most of the time, this involves work and positive interaction with others. That’s why Mahala makes a difference.

For more on mahala go to : www.mahala.co.za

(p.s. don’t be duped. Those who are doing what they claim will be endorsed by the beneficiary bodies. Ask organisers about their ‘benefit’ gigs or ‘charity’ gigs and then get confirmation from the beneficiaries themselves that they’re actually getting cash or help.)

real agents of mercy

it's 007. here's to magic and madness, undercover or over the top...

real estate agents

Sexy. Swift. A great build up, reminiscent of the olden days of house and e and all night crescendos building to a sunrise climax. But tempered.

Glitches and snaps and flicks and crunches. Hi pitch and deep and low.

Like Paul, only… more playful. And they sample old hits that make you realise they’ve been around for a while. Hits like short dick man and others I’m too tired to remember.

Tomorrow I’m filling a bottle with jelly babies, another with jelly beans, another with liquorice allsorts, another with whatsisnames – man, the fruity round ones – rascals, and another with.. um.. obviously, smarties (which have always always been utterly overrated and almost inedible). And… whatever happened to Fruity Tokens? They were my best. But like all my bests, they were not popular, and got discontinued. As if discontinued is an active verb! Were discontinued.

Satisfied?

Now go sleep.

caught in the closet?

One more secret is out. Closet Snare is cutting the edge of Cape Town’s fusion fashion.

Splicing contemporary jazz and unclassified Electronica that trips synapses and flips heartflows, these lads climb out the box, beyond whitespace, and throw all your expectations neatly out the window. it's tangibly sublime. their “consciously melodic”, effusive mix of melancholy and madness, held together by an implicit understanding. these boys don't rock; they break boundaries.

Closet Snare is
Kesivan Naidoo (drums)
Mark Buchanan (guitar)
Lee Thomson (trumpet and fluggel horn)
Sean ou Tim (bass)
Sibot (machines)


Though they’re pretty to look and magically more attractive in action(funny, that), it always helps to lay it on thick when it comes to aesthetic. Inka’s VJing adds is an excellent accompaniment to their musical brilliance and of live music’s second home, she mixes stilted motion shots and abstracted stills against warped club walls to underline your dreams…

For an earful and an eyeful, keep your nose sharp to snare the next leap out of the closet. (the fever returns in March.)