wot i did on my holidayz

Mix n BlendFoto: Press kit

I'm back from South Africa - and, in proper primary school tradition, this is a show is about "wot i did on my holidayz". On my holidays, dear listener, I was thinking of you - and gathering up loads of fresh South African electro, ska-punk, alt-country, kwaito, hip hop, R'n'B, jazz, post-rock, industrial, noise rock, dub poetry and conscious house. There's a selection here for your enjoyment.

I also got talking to some of the country's most exciting contemporary alternative musicans, and this week's show has the first of the interviews: electro crew Mix n Blend, singer-songwriter Jay Bones, and post-rock/jazz guitarist Jonathan Crossley. 

There's more text than usual on this week's web page - because there's a lot of fresh stuff on here, and in the show I mostly let the music and the musicians do the talking. 

Mix n Blend: next generation Dope 

Electronic trio Mix n Blend are the latest signing to Cape Town's African Dope Records, long established as one of the Friday Ripple's favourite independent labels. 

True to their name, Mix n Blend's debut album Look Mom No Hands mixes and blends electronics, live instrumentation, dancehall, breakbeat, dubstep, funk and swing. The result is a sound which is entirely their own, but which at the same is clearly in the lineage of their most readily-acknowledged influence - their Cape Town forebearers Krushed and Sorted. There are plenty of well-known Dope family names on the album; you might already know their collaboration with Krushed and Sorted's Fletcher, Shall we Swing, from 2009's Cape of Good Dope 2 compilation. Elsewhere on their debut full-length, Mix n Blend's guests include dancehall MC Crosby and rapper EJ von Lyrik. 

On the show, Mix n Blend's Kevin Ribban and Jonathon Arnold talk about their transition from teenage Dope fans to production wizards, the Cape Town alternative scene, and why it's so damn difficult for South African bands to tour Europe. 

Rambling Bones: coming soon to SXSW 

Singer-songwriter Rambling Bones is a relatively new phenomenon, having released his debut album Watching and Waiting only last year. But the man also known as Jay Bones has a well-established cult following in South Africa as the frontman and principal songwriter of Fuzigish, Johannesburg's biggest ska-punk outfit. 

On the face of it, there's a huge gulf between the sensitive acoustic folk-country melodies of Rambling Bones and the beer-sprayed moshpits of Fuzigish gigs. But as Bones explains on this show, "a lot of the songs with Fuzigish are written that way, and we just fuzz them up." 

Bones is the hotly-tipped South African entry to this year's South By Southwest (SXSW), the huge annual alternative music industry showcase in Texas, US of A. After the buzz surrounding art-rockers BLKJKS at last year's SXSW, the world has started to notice that there's guitar music in South Africa, and Bones has the potential to be the country's next breakout act. 

Before next month's SXSW, you can catch Jay Bones on here in his various incarnations, and hear the Fuzigish wildman talking about his late-in-life musical epiphany: that it's also possible to "have a great time without having to run around in a pit and throw beer on yourself." It's a realisation which is producing some beautiful acoustic songs. 

Waddy Jones & co are messing with your interwebs even more than you think 

Die AntwoordFoto: Press kit

In the last few weeks, Cape Town electro-hip hop crew Die Antwoord have become something of an internet phenomenon. Suddenly they've got a lot of unlikely high-profile fans, from Fred Durst of execrable American rap-metallers Limp Bizkit and pretend-lesbian pop starlet Katy Perry to the hipster tastemakers of Pitchfork. 

Die Antwoord ("The Answer" in Afrikaans) is the latest project of multi-aliased Cape Town rapper Waddy Jones. Like Kool Keith, Jones develops complex characters for his different projects, and he is a man who truly lives his roles. In Die Antwoord he is "Ninja": a naive, egotistical Afrikaans-speaking working-class white rapper obsessed with mixed-race gangsta culture. Those tattoos of his are 100% real - and they're copies of prison tattoos signifying membership of several different criminal gangs from the Cape Flats slums. They're the most socially-unacceptable tattoos possible, and they're a symbol of the whole Die Antwoord assault. 

In a country where racial politics is a particularly sensitive issue, Ninja boldly claims to represent "blacks, whites, coloureds, English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu... all these different people, f***ed into one person." Meanwhile, the Afrikaans chorus of his latest single translates as "Your mother's c*** in a fish paste jar." It's an approach that tries to ensure no-one is left unoffended. 

Die Antwoord have completely polarised opinion in South Africa's alternative music community. For some, it's the ultimate in conceptual hip hop: a brutal trashing of both hip hop's mythology of "realness" and South Africa's own history of fixating upon racial identity. For others, this time Jones is cynically hijacking other people's cultures for amusement value. The only thing that everyone agrees on: he's an incredibly talented rapper. 

He's joined on the mic by Yo-Landi Vi$$er, Ninja's best friend and foulmouthed white trash sexbomb. Yolandi is one of the recurring players in Jones's conceptual hip hop universe: her vocals first appeared on the Jones/Sibot/Wormstorm/Laband dystopian oddity of 2002's Constructus Corporation, but she's more easily recognisable as the enthusiastic intern who learns to rap using Powerpoint in Jones's Max Normal incarnation. Also, since no-one seems to have mentioned this on teh interweb yet: Waddy and Yolandi are married, old-school White Stripes style. 

But let's add another twist to the speculation about Die Antwoord: just who is third member "DJ Hi-tek"? He's not the progeria survivor DJ in the Enter The Ninja video - that, in fact, is respected South African visual artist Leon Botha. Is he the fat guy in the Zef Side video? Maybe, but nobody seems to have seen that guy anywhere in South African music before. Why is "Ninja" so explicitly dissing several of Waddy's past collaborators and producers on record? Who's really producing Die Antwoord's music? There's a comments box at the bottom of the page for your conspiracy theories. 

Jonathan Crossley goes post-rock 

The Jonathan Crossley Band: a part-South African, part-Czech jazz crew who draw on some deeply untraditional influences, most notably funk and post-rock. They're returning to the Czech Republic next month. 

Jonathan CrossleyFoto:  Český rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha

Meanwhile in Johannesburg, Jonathan Crossley's latest side-project is called The Aike Project - and this one's firmly in the post-rock camp. The sound is akin to a saxophone-driven Slint or a stripped-down, jazzier Godspeed You Black Emperor, the album's out later this year, and you can get a first taste of here. In the show, Jonathan gives us a bit of background to The Aike Project, and tells us what to expect from his upcoming Czech tour. 

See the full list of upcoming Jonathan Crossley Band Czech tour dates on their MySpace; and for the story of how this international group came together, check out the feature by Rosie Johnston in the archive of our sister station Český Rozhlas 7 - Radio Prague. 

Coming up later this season... 

I've got too much new South African material to fit into a single show, so I'm including a few trailers for upcoming specials. 

First of all, watch out for next week's special on Ghetto Ruff: the kwaito scene's biggest independent label. Ghetto Ruff has launched most of kwaito's biggest stars, including Zola, Mapaputsi and Skeem. Don't miss the definitive story of Ghetto Ruff - as told by label founder/CEO Lance Stehr, and resident kwaito/hip hop/R'n'B superstar Ishmael (of Jozi, Skeem and Prophets Of Da City) - next week. 

Kalahari SurfersFoto: Press kit

Also coming up soon is an extensive interview and retrospective with legendary multi-instrumentalist/producer/troublemaker Warrick Sony, otherwise known as Kalahari Surfers. He's been pushing boundaries both sonic and political since the late 70s, and his latest album One Party State makes clear that he hasn't mellowed with age. Hear one of his new tracks with long-time collaborator Lesego Rampolokeng in this week's mix, and look out for more soon. 

You can also look forward to an upcoming look at Johannesburg's industrial music scene, in the company of Paul Riekert and Clair Cantrell from independent label One F Music. There's a taster on this week's mix from Riekert's Battery 9, as well as a massive track from their female-fronted noise-rock labelmates Sticky Antlers. 

All World Cup venues are guaranteed 100% Prawn-freeFoto: Tristar pictures

Tourist information
Thinking about going to South Africa for the World Cup this year? Do it! There's been a lot of scary stuff in the media about how utterly dangerous the whole country is, particularly from people who think that South Africa is in Angola. Is it dangerous down there? Well, it's certainly more dangerous than the Czech Republic, but if you're sensible and careful you should be fine; start off by paying attention to the safety tips on the official South Africa tourism website. 

Dedication
This show is dedicated to everyone down there who made my holiday brilliant, especially the following terrific people in South Africa's alternative culture scenes: Deon Maas of Meerkat Media/SABC Radio Sonder Grense; Lee Thompson of Silent Revolution Productions/Closet Snare/ Hog Hoggidy Hog; Rus Nerwich of Tones Of Note/The Collective Imagination; Jonathan Crossley of The Jonathan Crossley Band/The Aike Project; Bill Botes and Kelly Kropman of Flag Music; Dave Chislett; Lance Stehr of Ghetto Ruff; Paul Riekert and Clair Cantrell of One F Music; Warrick Sony of Kalahari Surfers /Milestone Studios; Heather "Honey B" of African Dope Records; George, Timmy and the rest of Hog Hoggidy Hog; Markus, Adam and the rest of Half Price. You all rock, thanks a million! 

Playlist
It's all streaming right now on the Radio Wave Jukebox under Friday Ripple > 19.2.2010, and it goes like this: 

Half Price - Soccer 2010 (Drunk Punk)
Mix n Blend - Morphed Code (African Dope)
Mix n Blend feat. Crosby - Outta Town (African Dope)
Mix n Blend feat. Fletcher - Shall We Swing (African Dope)
Jozi - Da One (Hiyo Le) (Ghetto Ruff)
Ishmael & Bongz - C.R.A.Z.Y. (Ghetto Ruff)
Rambling Bones - Watching and Waiting (Flag Music)
Fuzigish - Maximum (Red Ambulance)
Rambling Jay Bones & Gordy Laws feat. Khanyi Mbau - High Maintenance (FHM)
Hog Hoggidy Hog - Opium For The Masses (Hogmosh Music)
Big Nuz - Africa Shine (Afrotainment)
Skomplazi - Zulu Love Letter (Ghetto Ruff)
Die Antwoord - Jou Ma Se Poes in a Fish Paste Jar (self-released)
Terror MC - Liberate Yourself (Aevenger)
Jonathan Crossley Band - Big Fan Desk Fan (Got Funk)
The Aike Project - Wrestling the Crust (demo)
Battery 9 - Trust Your Instincts, Never Trust Your Feet (One F Music)
Sticky Antlers - Blind Horse (One F Music)
Kalahari Surfers feat. Lesego Rampolokeng - Child Soldier (MicroDot Music)
DJ Sbu - Black Child It's Possible (TS Records)
The Collective Imagination feat. Kanyi - Yillibaleni (Russ Nerwich mix) (Tones of Note)
Bongo Maffin - Re Boela Back To (Reverse) (Universal Music Group)
Zuluboy - Mbombela - a Twist of Bayete (Native Rhythms)
Zola - Impepho (remix) (Guluva Entertainment)