Lifestyle FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2014 The Soil, new wave of South African trio a capella hythmic and perfectly harmonized, South Africa’s up-and-com- ing vocal trio The Soil promise to be the 21st century’s answer Rto their countrymen Ladysmith Black Mambazo, though none of them can read a note of music. Running fast in the tracks of their forerunners, this next generation of township a capella bring their laid-back fusion of hip-hop, soul, jazz and afropop for the first time to the 15th Cape Town International Jazz Festival, which starts today. No instruments, no music lessons, just three voices and local jazz inspiration, because that’s all these 20-somethings had during their childhood in Soweto, Johannesburg’s world-famous former blacks- only suburb. “Growing up in Soweto, you can’t just find a house with a piano, it’s very rare to find a home with a set of drums sitting there,” said Buhle Mda, 26, the group’s only woman member. “You just use what you have,” she added, sporting vivacious bright red lipstick and black thick-rimmed glasses. Luphindo “Master P” Ngxanga, 27, is the human beatbox, pumping out the rhythms with his mouth while playing air guitar-bass guitar, to be exact. His ‘Frozen’ sales hit 25-year-old brother, Ntsika, joins Buhle on vocals to complete the trio. Their sound is modern with traditional influences, their look high note, holds cheeky and confidently urbane, reaching far beyond their native Soweto. They write the lyrics together-”Majority rules!” said Buhle-in English and Xhosa, and tell the story of life in a country where most throne on according to figures from Nielsen record “Supermodel” at No. 3, electronic people are under 25 years old and many don’t have work. SoundScan, its biggest sales week since music DJ Skrillex came in at No. 4 with its November 25 release. “Recess” and grunge rockers The Pretty ‘People relate’ to their music top of Billboard “Frozen,” the Oscar-winning animat- Reckless notched No. 5 with “Going to “One percent fantasy and 99 percent reality”, they touch on love, ed tale of two Nordic princess sisters Hell.” family, and community. “We sing about daily occurrences, and living who must save their kingdom from an Latin pop crooner Enrique Iglesias’ in South Africa. You get exposed to politics, to whatever, to love and eternal winter, has grossed more than latest studio album “Sex and Love” things like that,” said Buhle. “Maybe we sing about poverty and how he soundtrack to Disney’s “Frozen” $1 billion worldwide at the film box clocked in at No. 8 in its opening week, it has struck our communities, and we bring hope from those sad sto- showed no signs of slowing down office. The spike in sales of its sound- while rockers Taking Back Sunday ries.” “And when it comes to those love songs we joke about things,” Tfour months after its release, as track was spurred by the release of the rounded out the top ten with explained Ntsika. sales for the album hit a high note and film on DVD. Six new debuts entered the “Happiness Is.” For the week ending “And we take from experiences that maybe Buhle went through held the top spot on the Billboard 200 top ten of the Billboard 200 chart this March 23, overall album sales totaled 4.7 and Master P over there, or myself and we just make the song of album chart on Wednesday. “Frozen,” week, led by rapper YG’s “My Krazy Life” million, Billboard said, down 22 percent that.” “And people relate to that kind of music.” They have gone a far which features the Oscar-winning song at No. 2 with sales of 61,000. Alt-rockers from the comparable sales week in way in a short time, received with fanfare at New York’s Apollo “Let It Go,” sold 202,000 copies last week Foster the People debuted its latest 2013. — Reuters Theatre and last year’s Edinburgh International Festival. But it all started 10 years ago, at their high school music group. “We would have musical sessions that looked more like poetry sessions at times. Review At times it also looked like rap sessions, but those sessions became more musical” remembered Ntsika.

Double platinum By 2005 they started taking music more seriously and soon built Body count out of control in ‘Raid 2’ up a repertoire of 10 songs. Almost a decade later they sport a dou- ble platinum album-more than 100,000 sales-hundreds of thousands eaving behind the original’s grungy tenement setting of fans, and a prime spot at one of Africa’s largest jazz festivals. “From for the luxurious hangouts of Indonesia’s organized crime the moment we started singing, forming this group, we had a list of Loverlords, “” pumps up its production values several places we would like to perform at, and that the Cape Town Jazz notches. Even so, it’s easy to imagine that one of the biggest items Festival has always been in that top five,” said an upbeat Ntsika. on the budget might be the orthopedics bill, since this orgy of bro- “So we are geared up and ready for it, we cannot even contain our ken bones and vicious badassery makes its cult predecessor look excitement!” Stretching over two days, the festival will host over 40 like a peevish bitch-slap. Lining up bloody showdowns like the acts from around the world, including America’s acclaimed Erykah dizzying acts of a hyper-violent ballet, Gareth Evans’ sequel invites Badu. A remaining dream is to perform with Joseph Shabalala, the accusations of, ahem, overkill. But the fanboys will eat it up. 73-year-old founder of mult-Grammy winners Ladysmith Black There’s more of pretty much everything in this sequel. That Mambazo, and emulate his achievements. “His music and the rest of means it sacrifices some of the purity of the first movie, which had the Mambazo has been a very big influence on our music as well as its share of weaponry but was rendered exciting and distinctive pri- music from different artists in South Africa,” said Buhle. —AFP marily by its virtuoso assaults of lethal fists and feet on flesh. Visceral in the extreme, the bravura mayhem still takes pride of place, choreographed again by lead actor and Yayan Ruhian, who also appears, though as a different character from last time. But Evans expands the hardware beyond the usual guns and knives, giving some of his assassins their own special This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Iko tools. Uwais returns as police officer Rama, but his bad-seed broth- Uwais, left, and Cecep Arif Rahman in a scene from ‘The er, Andi (Donny Alamsyah), isn’t so lucky. He gets iced in the open- Raid 2.’ —AP ing minutes in a sugarcane field by Bejo (Alex Abbad), a half-Arab gangster looking to grow his territory. Bejo tells Andi that ambition patching the welcome committee with little more than a steel bath- and limitation don’t mix well in the underworld. That unfortunate room door. While the cop initially refuses overtures to join the mob combination applies to more than one criminal upstart here, Bejo scion’s gang, he steps in when Ucok’s life is threatened. included. The gritty squalor of the prison is the chief visual link with the grubby aesthetic of the first movie. It’s also the setting for a massive Undercover cop smackdown when all hell breaks loose in the muddy courtyard after Demonstrating that the cops are almost as ruthless as the a downpour. Rama shows his resourcefulness by making creative crooks, Rama is forced to go undercover in an anti-corruption task use of a broom handle, earning Ucok’s respect and loyalty. Cut to force, with the understanding that the safety of his wife and child two years later, when Rama is ushered upon his release into depend on it. He’s cornered into doing prison time to get close to Bangun’s employ. Nervous about keeping his identity under wraps, Ucok (Arifin Putra), the cocky son of old-school crime boss Bangun he receives little help or reassurance from his police supervisor. He (Tio Pakusodewo), whose syndicate co-exists peacefully with that of proves his worth to Bangun, but the cop’s safety is jeopardized his Japanese counterpart, Goto (Kenichi Endo). In a great kickoff to when Ucok starts rocking the boat, looking for advancement from the fight action, Rama gets Ucok’s attention by single-handedly dis- his reluctant father. —AP The Soil