BLK JKS - first UK tour in April
 

Having made a string of triumphant appearances at SXSW last week, Secretly Canadian recording artists BLK JKS will embark on their first UK tour in April, including dates with Errors, HEALTH and Squarepusher.


April 9 London, Adventures In The Beetroot Field @ Fabric 9pm-late, £13 adv
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?reg... &event=311666
April 14 Colchester, Arts Centre w/Errors 8pm, £8, £7 adv
Colchester Arts Centre :: Event Details - ERRORS
April 15 London, The Lexington 8pm, £6 adv; box office: 08700 600 100
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?reg... &event=310497
April 16 London, ICA w/Errors 7.30pm, £8.50 adv
Institute of Contemporary Arts : Music : Errors + BLK JKS + DJs
April 18 Newcastle, The End 8pm, £5 adv
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?reg...l&event=311590
April 19 Glasgow, Captains Rest 7.30pm, £6 adv
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?reg...l&event=311318
April 20 Leeds, Brudenell Social Club 8pm, £6 adv
https://www.lunatickets.co.uk/event_...?event=BLK+JKS
April 21 Bristol, Club NME @ The Lanes 9pm (onstage midnight), £4 adv; box office: 0870 44 44 400
bristolticketshop
April 22 Manchester, The Deaf Institute w/HEALTH 8pm, £7adv
https://secure.ticketline.co.uk/even...ute/2009-04-22
April 23 Reading, South Street
Reading Borough Council
April 24 London, Ether @ South Bank Centre w/Squarepusher 8pm, £20 adv
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/mus...repusher-45333
April 25 London, Camden Crawl
Home - Gaymers Camden Crawl - Friday 24th & Saturday 25th April 2009









Produced by Brandon Curtis of Secret Machines, the South African quartet's Mystery EP is out now on CD/12"/Digital formats.



Sample mp3 (feel free to repost):
http://www.scjag.com/mp3/sc/lakeside.mp3


Lakeside video:



Summertime (live in Brooklyn) video:



Watch a short film about BLK JKS here:
http://www.digforfire.tv/#home/playlist/featured/video/100


Links, press quotes and one sheet text below. Please let me know if you'd like to hear the EP and I'll email over a download code.


manish
x


BLK JKS

Mystery EP
(Secretly Canadian; released 09/03/09)

http://blkjks.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/blkjks
http://www.secretlycanadian.com/artist.php?name=blkjks


Hi-res artwork and press photos:http://www.secretlycanadian.com/pres...lkjkspress.php


"A strong introduction to a band with unlimited potential." - All Music Guide

"Of the dozens of new bands this year, BLK JKS may be the leading candidates for greatness." - Drowned in Sound

"Electric Ladyland? If Jimi Hendrix were alive today..." - Guardian.co.uk


"With bands like Vampire Weekend so keen on appropriating the polyrhythmic thunder of their African peers, it's only fitting that these childhood friends should often sound like art rock sensations from Brooklyn." - Observer Music Monthly

"The EP brindles dub, psych-rock, ska and mbaqanga - South Africa's Zulu blues tradition - in complex variegation... a joyful, densely abstruse sound." - Plan B

"Unquestionably stylish but strictly singular of superstructure, it's a great introduction." - Rock Sound


"Pleasingly hard to pin down, there's skittish percussion, womblike vocals and Cure bass, forming their own world." - Teletext Planet Sound

"A mesmeric fusion of dub, classic rock and tribal beats." - The Fly


"A unique, haunted post-rock sound with spectral flashes of an Africa that Vampire Weekend only dream of." - The Skinny





"South African indie kids illuminate their dense, Afro-punk grunge with township mbaqanga." - Time Out London






BLK JKS defy description. With a wrecking crew rhythm section, debonair vocals, and guitar concoction of one part shred and two parts soul, BLK JKS shoot an African music sensibility through the tenets of rock. On one hand it is easy to politicize BLK JKS; as seen on the cover of Fader, here is a band that is instantly young, black and fly even as they reclaim styles that have been stolen, watered down, and regurgitated for generations. And yet to get caught up in anything but their sound is to sell this phenomenon short, because as musicians--as artists--BLK JKS simply cook.

The band's fresh, forward rhythm, layered harmony and elliptical guitar vernacular reveal the urban Zulu blues of mbaqanga that is the center of BLK JKS songwriting. Teaching themselves guitar on the same block where they both grew up, childhood friends Linda and Mpumi formed the band in 2000, and early BLK JKS shows garnered attention for their stacks of guitar drone and head-nodding beats. After the band's current lineup took shape with the addition of bassist Molefi and drummer Tshepang, both of Soweto, they embarked on a heavy touring schedule throughout South Africa that earned them a national following.

At the Electric Lady studio lock-in with producer Brandon Curtis of the Secret Machines that resulted in the Mystery EP, they started by considering specific tones, which they played nonstop for hours before recording. As songs began to take shape, material was saved and added to the cauldron of coolness and confusion that defines the EP. It opens with a retooled version of "Lakeside." From the opening cardiac pulse its music goes further into enigmatic visions. In one telling, the song wonders what would happen if a UFO crashed in your town and no one believed what you witnessed. The eerie flashes in Linda's lyrics and Tshepang's refrain flow on into "Mystery", a song originally inspired by a Carlos Garnett spiritual jazz classic. Linda ponders plainspoken about the meaning of existence before his bandmates usher in cyclones of sound and tribal voices decrying the state of affairs for a generation devoid of opportunity. The polyrhythmic beat in "Summertime" has the spirit of that season--but again something is not quite right as birds have fangs and the sun brings cancer, not suntans. As "Summertime" rises to the EP's emotional apex, Linda cries out "whenshaleyi!", pleading in Zulu for his taxi driver to stop. The Mystery EP simmers to a close with the township blues of "It's In Every Thing You'll See", an intimate solo performance from Linda that leaves the listener unsettled, craving more vibrations from the first African music story of the 21st centur