A- for Ashtray, A++ for aKING...

One of the benefits of living in South Africa is that I get to see SA music nearly every weekend, and sometimes twice in a weekend and even during the week if I'm up to it!

So it was with disappointment that since being back in Cape Town for two and a half months (and going to quite a few gigs), I have had my first 'bad' SA band experience...

But maybe its a good thing. If everything shone brightly, we wouldn't really notice - or appreciate - those who truly stand out! For this reason I give Ashtray Electric's album launch this weekend past an A- and aKING's video launch the weekend before, an A++!

Ashtray Electric have all the elements to be amazing, yet for an album launch it was a massive let down... On opening, Ashtray filled The Assembly with an incredible intro of lights and sound that surrounded you with synthed pre-recorded keyboard sounds. We were in for something good. Or so we thought. And then the opening track lost my interest not even half way through. Followed by a second track which didn't hold my attention at all. They then bantered between themselves a bit, after which they played an old track off their debut album titled Bonjour.

Well, hello and goodbye it is for me and Ashtray alas. We spent more of the night in the bar area, and in fact left the venue earlier than normal because the atmosphere was flat. The Assembly's heightened magic of my past three gigs there had been deflated. And it wasn't only us. The crowds were scarce and scattered, and standing very still. No one was rocking out. Well, besides the one guy behind me, but there is always one! I feel for Ashtray Electric, as part of the recent Bellville scene, its like they are the once-removed second cousins who didn't quite make it to the party.

I couldn't help but feel that their second album name might just be a self-fulfilling prophecy too - 'Measured in Falls'. Hmmm.

As we stopped at the obligatory 'Party Engen' on Orange Street on the way home, we spotted an advert for their album launch. It had been painted onto a wall just opposite the Engen. Painted. How much does one pay for such an advert? Hmmm.

In contrast, the weekend before had blown me away as I've come to expect from gigs at The Assembly. It was aKING's video launch for 'Catch Alight' off their recent third album release, The Red Blooded Years! Watching the video felt like history in the making as a bunch of band members literally just f*cked each other up - punches, hair pulling, proper caught-on-camera-up-close nose breaking as it skewed in slow motion into a shape that noses shouldn't ever experience. It was kind of like Jackass SA style, but made for MK!

It was an excellent gig all round, and the crowds and hands-in-the-air were testament to that!

The only other thing I can say for Saturday past was that luckily I didn't actually pay the steep R60 entry. I had entered a competition on a really cool site called Social Contract and had won a pair of tickets! Social Contract collates all the gig posters for shows going down in that particular week.

And it reminded me just how many different aspects of the music industry there are, including these talented designers who output all manner of artwork for the gig posters we too often only see in postage stamp size on a Facebook event page! 

And this reminded me too of Cape Town's World Design Capital 2014 bid (of which the three shortlisted cities will be announced in the next week or so) - and the fact that design is so very alive in the Mother City!

Social Contract is doing a great service in collating such designs, and creating a platform to increase awareness for SA's talented designers, in an area of art that is way too under-appreciated in SA! I think gig posters might just be the next big collector's item in fact, especially after speaking to Stephan who started the site! People just need to open their eyes to this incredible artwork right in front of them! And who doesn't love a poster eh! This is just the more grown up version of those Pulp Fiction and YOU posters you had on your walls as a kid! Social Contract is a site worth bookmarking...

From the SA music poster emergence to A++ for aKING, SA music was also proudly flying the flag in London this weekend - from DJ Fresh at Egg on Friday to Just Jinjer and Goldfish kicking it on Clapham Common alongside INXS at Southern Sounds!

Rock on SA music that really shines above the rest,
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