BLKJKS Are Still Soldierng On

Publication: Mail & Guardian - Friday Page: 34 Title: BLK JKS are still soldiering on Publish Date: 19 June 2020 AVE: 143293.75 Author: Kwanele Sosibo

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Blistering energy: The long—awaited album from the BLK JKS (pictured above with collaborator Morena Leraba), was recorded in three days at Downtown Studios Photo: Brett Rubin BLKJKS are still soldierng on

Abantu: Bty‘breHumans captures the band’s are well versed in the world of push like this quietly for a long tirrre, right with Downtown Studios as the con- ing through. From Linda taking a up until our hard drives were stolen trol tower. It is an adult relearning strengths, weaknesses and sonic vision walk, to the hard drives being stolen .. It took us a year to recover from how to walk; that huge cipher in the at the Soweto Theatre [in 2018]. We that.“ middle nally being accounted for. part of that resided in that ver'tig'i- had a thing at some point at Market Alter a year of letting the setback You could bear with the dudes as K—wanoleSo norls feeling of the future suddenly Theatre where We were working on sink in, Mcata says he and bandmate they literally nd their voices, grunt- o—ldieringon." That' catching up with you. The sensa» a musical [which was being directed Tshepang Ramoba took a trip to ing, chanting and exchanging long- was the phrase It tiou that perhaps the sound you had by Lindiwe Matshikiza]. We were Mpurnalanga to reflect and conduct winded lyrics for declamatious, but was uttered nrid-set, been searching for your Whole life building this show and suddenly a series of spiritual interventions. at this point, it seems, they have run or perhaps towards may have already been there — in they stopped responding to our This was followed by nrore mouths out of fucks to give. the end, by BLK JKS Balsurni’s talking rhythms, in Black emails, and that‘s how that project of “urban” exile, until the requiem ”We were open to the material guitarist Mpumi Meata, Jack Johnson’s headrnodding riffs, died [in 2016] 7 and that would have was ruptured by playing the Fetish going to where it Wanted to go in It captured everything. Our stunned, in Dr Malombo’s cosmic channel- been our second album. We’ve been Party with King Tha at the Bassline that three-day period,” says Mcatal confused silence. Our unaskcd and ling, in IIR’s calculated madness. All dealing with things in late April 2019‘ “It was an immediate snapshot, qllite unanswered questions about former there. Shot through with imperfec- “Hanging out with FAKA, Sho raw.“ frontman Linda Buthelezi. Our fan» tions and half-formed songs, Corr» Madjozi, and Moonehild [SanellyJ Make What you will of ritual-invok- dom at its precipice. tained in one singularjar and backstage t was kind of electric; ing songs like 1Q(w)im: Machine This was eight, maybe seven released into the atmosphere, the energy of all of rrs being together Learning on! I, with its somnamhu- years ago. Alexander Theatre. live from Johannesburg. that night," says Mcata. “I had one list march and matching guttural Braarnfontein, Friday night. The The past 10 years haven't eons of the greatest hangovers I’ve ever guitar riffs, beefed up with hooks audience was shell-shocked, sure. stitirtcd a demise as much as a had in my life that night and waking and slurs like “latsh’ ingirha” But it was wounded too, on the deconstruction, not only of the up that morning, I was like, ‘I think (“hebamosha beyirnosha!"). band's behalf. It wasn’t so much that band's sound, per Se, blrt of the I know what we are gonna do.’ We The framing device of a prequel the Show was ”bad". or “tentative", idea that it was mlrltiprdnged. The took money from that show and put can also be a way of expelling the unveiling the new brass section for progeny, probably best not listed it together with some other money pall of a false start; like how Saul the rst time; the space in the middle here, seemed only to be picking at it and booked three days at Downtown Williams’ second album is self-titled of the stage empty and unaceounted one head at a time, proving nothing Studios. We went in and knocked because he couldn’t stand the mixing for. Not exactly. more than a provocation, as opposed out the album that you hear in three of his dcbutAmethyst Rack Slur, pro- It was that as fans, we had to to continuity in conversation. days — three songs a day, six-hour duced by the mighty Rick Rubin accept that the joyr'ide we had taken “As a band we have been dealing sessions. After 10 years plus of tr '» After all the tightly managed pro- as a givcn was nally over, We were with things like this from the begin- ing to get this shit together, it came ductions that constituted American being asked to believe iii a new faith. ning,” says guitarist and vocalist down to three days." releases like After Robots, the Thinking about it now, that night Mpurni Mcata of the band's stop- Released on June 16 on limited Mystery and Zol! EPs, in which, in something was buried. In the inter- start Career. edition Vinyl (by Permanent Record some places, the band was swim- ruittent absences, we had already it is late April. South Africa is in in Cape Town, and awaiting larger ming against torrents of effects, been forced to confront what it Iockdown. We are connecting via release with a new label in 2021) Abantu is about as representative meant to believe in a hand. To believe WhatsApp from France, where he Abantu: Before Humzms is being of the band's strengths, weaknesses without question. ”Soldiering on," at is preparing for the birth of his sec- branded by the group as a prequel to and sonic vision as you will get to that moment, seemed more like an ond child. “Some people don’t know Aer Robots. Whereas Aer Robots hear. There is still that blistering ultimatum than spin. We had to face that it took us six to eight years to was a space-age freak, recorded in energy of early classics like SKI, but reality or leave it the fuck alone. get to our debut album After Robots Wilmington, Indiana, as Alejandro there is also the wider palette of It‘s hard to pill down the band‘s [released in 2009], That whole story Jodorowsky‘s unsettling The Holy having travelled the world, rubbed significance in verbal, or even musi- for some people was like an over- Mountain played on a loop.Abantr1: shoulders with the likes of Viuex cal terms, for there was always a night thing, brrt it was also a story of Before Humans is exteniporaneons Farka Touré and come back home to tension in being a 13HK JKS fan. A setbacks and pushing through. We exorcism; a pan~African expedition reect on what it all means.

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