Justice: Audio, Video, Disco
Justice big return to the music scene brought with it 70’s rock influence to French disco-house.
My Mother Named Me Zanymede: Part 1
This is a brief introduction to a brief story of my life that I wrote for MySpace at at the tender age of 18 year’s old, grammar and spelling mistakes included…Its a four-part series that I’ve written two parts to it already, let me know what you think and I’ll publish the rest if there’s interest!
“It just so happens that I got this little idea to write a couple of notes about my crazy life from my friends and god-parents so I thought Id give it a try on MySpace and see what you think. Contrary to what you may think, this is all true.
My mother named me Raiven Zanymede Hansmann…actually she named me Raiven Dracson Zanymede Maximillian Hansmann but thats unofficial i.e its not on my birthday cirtificate, and im thankful that she called me that as opposed to what she was originally going to call me, Ozone. Hrm. Ive lived an extraordinary life so far and to be frank, not Robert or John, I enjoy it a fucking lot.
I guess that you can kinda decipher what type of person my mother is just by looking at my name. Anthea (Ishtar) Stylianou is mother to myself and my sister Yeshe Inxibelle Ishtar. Her occupation is very interesting. After leading careers in fashion design, modelling and millinery she’s settled onto something that she enjoys thoroughly, walking around on stilts as a giant fairy. For those of you who were at Earth Dance a couple of weeks ago you may be familiar with her antics as the women who was walking around on all fours with stilts and as high as a kite on mushrooms or acid. Take your pick. I had no idea that my mother had become a “performing artist” until, one year, i went to the Long Street Festival. I was walking through all the fanfare when my friends and I noticed a lady on stage. She was wearing a metal g-string and tight stockings and boots etc. She was grinding an angle-grinder against her metal g-string. My friends laughed and pointed, i stared…it was my mother. I havent been the same since. Anyway, she lives in a run-down mental institut in Pinelands called Oude Moulen. Frequently she gets the lightbulbs stolen from her carlights by drug addicts so that they can smoke tic. Needless to say i can be seen driving around often in a run-down ,midnight blue Opel Kadett without lights. Its dangerous!
The first couple of years living with my mother were quite crazy. having had me at the tender age of 17 wasnt a good idea. Ive never really had the true story about my father and mothers relationship but from I can decipher my mother was a band groupie who slept with my Goth father who was the bass player in the huge 80’s goth band No Friends of Harry. From there my mother lost the rtust of her parents, had to drop out of school and finance herself. SOoo, we moved into warehouse somewhere in long street. From there on the house was frequented by punks and goths and many people you wouldnt normally associate with on a night out. My hair was cut into a mo-hawk and died pink. My mother also thought that independence was a good thing to instill into a child so she let me walk around town and the waterfront by myself at age four. A normal day consisted of stealing/asking my hungover mother for R5 so i could walk to the Pick n Pay in Gardens and get a packet of Bakers Lemony Creams biscuits. Then i would go back home, get fetched by my gran on her way to work at the waterfront. there I would ask strangers for money and buy ice-creams. I have a vague memory of exploring the docks with a friend imade there. For some reason i can also remember a conversation where we were talking about the monster clown “IT” and how freaky he was. haha. From there i would make it home to Long Street at about 6. My mom and i generally would then go to the Spur, order some drinks, take some food from the Salad Valley and then leave without paying. Luckily my mom had many interesting boyfriends who took an interest in me. I can clearly remember two.
First of all there was Jamie. I dont know what he did, all i know was that he gave me my first taste of alcohol and taught me to read and do maths. Living in a wearhouse with nothing but a bunk bed and some kitchen utensils often bored me and when I wasnt walking around town i would be reading or asking my mom to write out some simple maths equations for me to do. I sort of cultivated a love for reading magazines that my mother often left around and to this day still love to browse magazine and look at all the exciting pictures. Jamie also had a motorbike and he would take me for rides through and town and occasionally on the highway which was a real treat.haha. He was the first thing to a father figure i can ever recall having and I really liked him. Needless to say i was disappointed when my mother called 2 years ago and told me that he had hung himself. The next guy was a twit, Raphael. At this stage we were living in JoBurg and Raphael was a crook. It was pleasant having a TV, washing machine and cool TV games in the house, unfortunately all of it was stolen. He didnt like me at all and would often abuse me by hitting and other disgusting things. Luckily my mom had taught me to swear and I can remember shouting “FUCK OFF YOU CUNT!” to him as my mom kicked him out of the house. that was probably my first moment of triumph!haha.
All else that I can remember from my early childhood was some of my moms friends and the parties that they had. these would often be crazy trance-like parties on farms in the middle of nowhere. I grew up thinking that adults were just as weird as children, but I reliazed later that it was the drugs that made them like that. It entertained me to watch them dance and sing around bonfires until the early hours of the morning. I think it was then that I first cultivated my love for music and the euphoria that it brings about in people. I remember sitting and observing these people for a while before joining with singing or playing djembe drums. haha, i remember showing off my drumming talents to my first crush Tuani. I suppose she found it quite impressive because as far as i can recall she was my first kiss! haha. My mom also used to love to watch me join with all the activities and, bless her soul, she would boast to her friends about how clever and talented i was.
After a couple of years of a nomadic existence travelling between Cape Town and JoBurg my mom fell in love with a Greek guy called Sasha. they got married and had a daughter, my beautiful sister Yeshe. I was 8 years-old at the time and was in Grade 2 and Melpark Primary School in Melville. We were living in a commune right next to the SABC buildings and i had to walk through them to get to school every morning. I clearly remember walking past the 5fm studio one morning and watching Alex Jay, who at the time was the morning show DJ. He saw me and gestured for me to come and say hi. I did and he even asked me for a song request on live air. I asked for the kwaito version of “The Final Countdown” by TKZee. Needless to say, years later I met him at an art auction at SACS Junior School where his son attended and he even remembered me!haha. Anyways, the marriage to Sasha didnt last very long and my mother wasnt coping with moving around Joburg all the time and sending me to different schools. All in all i attended 7 different school from Grade 1-3! She decided then that i should go and stay with grandmother in Cape Town. That decision probably changed my life forever…”
The Three Boo!dists are Back!
Mercury Live received a blast from the past last night with the re-arrival of South African ‘munkipunkers’ Boo!. Having graced the upstairs stage at Mercury last in December 2004, Chris Chameleon (bass, vocals), Ampi Omo (trumpet, trombone, keyboards, percussion) and new addition Riann van Rensburg (drums) returned with old classics as well as from their new album due for release in South Africa next from next week (Monday 28th May 2010).
Having last played for a Capetonian audience at their triumphant turn at Ramfest in February, the Mercury gig provided a chance for a more intimate and tailor-made set to be enjoyed by a mixed audience – the ‘older generation’ familiar with the waves Boo! created in the music scene from 1997-2004 back when Mercury was still ‘The Jam’ and a newer posse spawned from the industry explosion of the last five years. Needless to say, both mingled quite effortlessly under the rock-operesque spectacle of a Boo! gig.
Opening up for Boo! were ‘To Our Devine’, comprising the duo of Matthew Mole and Ash Stephenson on guitars backed by electronically programmed drums, synths and bass from a laptop. They did well to assert themselves in a situation that they are obviously not familiar with playing to a large, unfamiliar crowd. Youthful naiveity might just have saved them any possible embarrassment, the lyrical themes and arrangements of all the songs seemed very similar and out of context to an older crowd, coming across as a Jonas Brothers-cum-electro guitar bandits. The mix between the live guitars/vocals and the backing tracks had different textures and, although mixed well by the live engineer, produced a lack of unity in the bands sound. These two guys could take a leaf out of bands such as Miike Snow or The XX who also incorporate backings tracks to substitute for lack of live drums. However, these are elements that need to be addressed over time, but for now I must give these guys kudos for playing their original tracks to an uninitiated audience without disdain – they are merely following the footsteps of every other band in existence by doing that!
It took 20 minutes of waiting, many chants of “BOOO!” and the band manager’s plea against smoking as it “effects Chris’ vocal chords” to draw Boo! onstage, and when they started they started with much aplomb – Chameleon kicking a young photgrapher offstage within the first minute or so and a close-up look of Riaan van Rensburg, the new drummer with the great drummer’s sex face…chipmunk rock ‘n roll. From there on it was all plain sailing as Boo! belted through familiar favourites as well as new tracks ranging from fast paced skankers to slow sublime ballads – all the while showcasing Chameleon’s very universal songwriting talent and amazing four-octave vocal range with complimenting physical vocal effects – something which I have only noticed Inge Beckman from Lark also do in South Africa.
Chameleon’s bass playing is also very accomplished, maintaining a full-bodied woody tone throughout weighted by slaps and pops in the more funkier sections of songs. This coupled with the precision drumming of van Rensburg made for a very tight rhythm section sound. Ampie, filling the right of the stage with his long blonde hair dreadlocked with colorful ribbons and Kanye West vizer sunglassed, was all to content between changing his duties between playing trumpet, trombone, keyboards, tambourine, TRIANGLE and also backing vocals!
The sound mix was very subtle and didn’t over-extend Mercury’s JBL system at all – in fact, the lack of distortion in any of the instruments allowed for each instrument to have its own place within the mix, the drums in particular sounded very crisp and to-the-point. My only concern was the changes of level for Ampie’s mics. Sometimes he would come in and his trumpet or trombone mic, or keyboard line wouldn’t be on and thus the beginnings of his phrases would be lost…sure Ampie was bouncing around between instruments a lot, but I think the sound engineer should have been informed of the songs structures so that he could be prepared in time.
Boo! jammed for an hour-and-a-half, they were Boo-ed a helluva lot (which is a good thing), the lighting was awesome, the sound great, the charcters of the individual band members dramatic and interesting to watch at all times – all in all leaving anyone who was watching with the impression that they have recounted the past in nostalgia, discovered something old that is amazing and overall enjoyed a gig that was well worth the R50 or R60 that was required to enter.
http://www.facebook.com/booband#!/booband?v=info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo!_%28band%29
Movie: ‘9’ and an Introduction to the Bunsen
Two nights ago I went to the movies with the Bunsen and her girl-gimp Luna Liv. Happy to have successfully completed the days activities (raucous saxophone exam, Bunsen’s backing-track and Bunsen’s saxophone repair…on Bunsen’s tab) I returned home to enjoy the pleasures of a ‘bifta’ before embarking a roadshow to Cavendish Square where we planned to watch ‘Robin Hood’ starring RUSSEL CROWE…even the name makes me think of birds.
But we didn’t…we were late and had to take a second option!
9 little figurines possessed by the human soul of a scientist who invented the machine that would destroy the world.
9 hackie sacks that have their own personalities and superpowers, which are pitted against the black enemy RoboCat and Cyclops-Spidermachine!
9 is the movie that we watched and it was pretty cool! Created in an animated style and produced by Tim Burton, Bunsen sums it up nicely:
Lord of the Rings meets War of the Worlds meets Harry Potter. With hessian sack lead characters and a cheesy script… Hrmph.
Bunsen didn’t like it. All this mention of a central character in the story and I haven’t introduced her!
Profile: Bunsen Burner
Bunsen was born in Rhodesia in the early times (pre-1994). There she cultivated a love for farm-raids and turkeys, eventually taking her trade down to Cape Town where she regularly plunders Constantia. In her free time she is a master of Web 2.0 and making lemon meringue pies. Other skills include back-scratching and liftage in cars. I met Bunsen while still at school, we both happen to play the saxophone. Common loves for school and saxophone led us to starting our own black market opium trade and we haven’t parted ways since!
Thats enough squabble for now…really. I will write prose more meaningful and less abstract in the future.
Later on today – a review of last nights show at Mercury Live (Boo!)
For a more comprehensive look at the movie ‘9’ check out: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472033/
Random Introduction
Alright, and so the social networking circle is complete! First MySpace, then Facebook and Twitter and now I’ve signed up for WordPress so that my extended thoughts can be published to the world!
Unfortunately however, I have no idea how to do this. Two years in a failed attempt to study Media at the University of Cape Town hasn’t even equipped me to understand the prose of blogging! And so, even though my posts will probably be updated at infrequent times and I may suck at first, I’ll use this new beginning as a way to practice!
I’ll start off by introducing myself! My name is Raiven and I’m a 22 year-old guy from Cape Town, South Africa. I study the saxophone at the University of Cape Town and play in a couple of bands. Mostly, I spend my time doing things that are music related. Playing, watching, teaching, producing, studying, listening etc. etc. I enjoy reading a little bit and go out more often that not, although I probably enjoy the outdoors and chilling by myself most. I have also written a short story of my life entitled ‘My Mother Named Me Zanymede” which I’ll post just now…should be interesting.
I have no idea what to say next as probably no one will read this or care so yeah…why did I sign up for a blog? Well, I’ll probably have some noteworthy contributions to make in the future. Which I’ll think about before I put them up!
Until then…
Free Jazz 