Making use of our digital magazine features, we have been able to breathe new life to previous print content – and everything has truly come together, just how we always envisioned! Please take your time to go through this magazine (all at once or a little bit each day) as a lot of work went into producing every edition and every page, since we first launched in 2005. This issue is a superlative balance of content, comprising of traditional and contemporary art, photography, fashion editorials, exclusive interviews, videos, feature articles, music, and the best of one small seed TV.
 
So, without further ado…
 

 
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Okmalumkoolkat, image: Chris Saunders

‘Siyasebenza, afta five we come alive’ (Dirty Paraffin – ‘Download Part 2′)

It’s now 17:17 on my clock. Will you be getting alive tonight?
I do not work a nine to five anymore. I work around the clock but I am focused on my passions so I’m always alive. You pass time until you knock off if you are doing something you’re not really interested in as your day job.

Where does your moniker come from?
The moniker, Okmalumkoolkat, was inspired by DJ Cool Cat on UKhozi FM. From as far back as I can remember, this guy had a kid’s request show on Saturday mornings. Kids would call in and sing their favourite songs and give shout-outs. I thought this was a really cool concept for a radio show. I have never come across any other DJ with a show similar to this. The man was also heavily involved in Ukhozi FM radio drama, which is also a big inspiration in my storytelling.

 
Dirty Paraffin – ‘Papap! Papap!’

For someone who’s never listened to, or had the chance to get familiar with Dirty Paraffin or Okmalumkoolkat, how would you describe your craft?
It’s music that should be made in the now but be inspired by the future and the past.

We aim to trigger a new world mindset in those who dare to listen and understand.

What would you say is the biggest difference when it comes to Okmalumkoolkat performing as part of Dirty Paraffin vs. personal projects?
When I play Dirty Paraffin shows I play Dirty Paraffin tracks only. When I play Okmalumkoolkat shows I can perform tracks from Dirty Paraffin, tracks from Sebenza and tracks from my unreleased projects. I am a mixtape.

 
LV and Okmalumkoolkat – ‘Sebenza’ ( Hyperdub July 2012)

 

In an interview with Dazed & Confused, LV describe you as ‘a unique and amazing artist who makes us laugh and bowls us over.’ Any words for them?
Yebo. LV is one of the freshest production teams to come knocking at my door and I guess we met [so that we could] dent a little of ourselves into music history.

For the album, Sebenza, you didn’t get to meet Will & Simon of LV, but only Gerv. What was the process like, any major hiccups?
I had met Gerv way back in 2010 when we did ‘Boomslang‘ and I had started communicating with Will and Simon around about that time. So by the time we started on this project I was comfortable with the guys.

There were no hiccups at all. We were sending tracks back and forth like we had planned. They respect my song writing skills and my music direction and I trust them with the projects we put out so there were no major misunderstandings.

behind the scenes of 'Sebenza', image: Frances van Jaarsveldt

What did you and Gerv get up to in your spare time (if there was any)?
Whenever Gerv is in South Africa (he usually comes down because he has family out here). We meet up, rehearse, play shows and record tracks. It’s been like that since day one.

I met Will and Simon in Amsterdam a couple of months back and we did exactly the same thing. We met for the first time at round 14h00 at a festival and played their show around 17h00. We went for a young rehearsal afterwards and played my show at 22h00 that same night. We recorded a couple of tracks at their hotel room the very next day.

Some of your lyrics for ‘Sebenza’ are: ‘Since a way back they’ve been trying to silence us…/ Rubber bullets.’ Do you think people are still being silenced?

I guess there are other ‘rubber bullets’ used today. It’s always a struggle with ‘the powers that be’ to adhere to the ‘freedom of speech’ stipulation that comes with democracy.

You mentioned that the first time you saw street racing go down was in Umlazi early ’90s. Have you been back there and what are people doing now to pass time? Is it still car racing?
I was in Umlazi [just over] a week ago. People are really in party mode in Durban, they are very involved in the Durban kwaito movement. It’s a lifestyle. There are a thousand beat producers and there’s a new dance move every two months or so. People also look good in Durban, it must be the tropical climate.

So I saw you busting the ‘Taxi Driver’ in a video – Have you ever done any train surfing?
I was an only child till I was 11, so train missions with my friends were a no-go. Hell, I wasn’t allowed to go to the beach without my mother’s supervision up until I was a teen. Some of my friends did train surf but we all ended up in dance groups in the ’90s. It was a good exercise and the girls loved it.

Your track – ‘Download This Part II’ (listen above!) – has the lyrics ‘VIRGIN EARDRUMS GET DEFLOWERED’ – What deflowered your eardrums?
I’d say listening to a guy named Johnny Dimba when I was young. He would take instrumentals from Motown and recite Zulu poetry/ stories over them. Mind blowing stuff. Also the first time I heard Kraftwerk I was taken aback, especially because I had just read about them in that book ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: History of the DJ’.

What do you think of kwaito today, and the fact that it has more house influences now than back in the days of artists such as Arthur Mafokate, Zola and TKZee, where it had influences of hip-hop?
Kwaito was really house music slowed down to like a 100 BPM when it hit in the early ‘90s. Kwaito is influenced by what the world has been feeding us, so all these artists making kwaito will make it the best way they see fit. There is no one formula.

On LinkedIn you describe yourself as ‘A student in packaging and selling ideas’. What is the biggest idea you’ve ever been sold?
Biggest idea they sold to me at college was ‘ think outside the box’. I bought it so much that when they organized an internship for me I turned it down because it was contradictory.

Okmalumkoolkat Koolhunting Klub , image: Thanda Kunene

You’ve said that “Okmalumkoolkat’s Koolhunting Klub” is not a fashion label or a brand. So what differentiates a project from a label?
Well, it’s an on-going project because it’s developing still. I started the club as a side project where I could source and sell lifestyle products to my friends more than four years ago. Then I got really interested in remixing clothing so we started on denim jackets last year. This year, I went crazy and collaborated with people to make products for the club. What I have also realized is that I get to improve my design language with every collection we work on – it’s more exciting than a gallery exhibition in my opinion.

My label will come in the future. I am just gathering tools for now.

Also you mentioned that it’s a project you’ve been working on for as long as you can remember. Is there perhaps a certain memory/time that you do remember that could have led to this project?
The remixing was triggered by Dr. Romanelli and Taz Arnold in America. Then I remembered how I used to customize my gear. The fascination with denim really stems from the fact that I couldn’t afford it for a long time back in the ‘90s. Check out my blog for a more in-depth story on that (go HERE).

The OKMKK Kool Hvnting Klvb MMXII Kollezioni 2012 Part II

The parrot is a take on how people have different personalities online compared to their real life ones.–> Does this apply to you as well? What’s the main difference between your persona online vs. real-life?
There’s a big difference. Online, I can reTweet something you tweeted because I know I wouldn’t necessarily put it out there but I am still backing you up. There are many ways of saying something online. You can put up an image to show your mood and feelings. You can do the same with your daily outfits but only a couple of people catch those messages. I am also pretty shy in real life but I can come off as a loud-mouth on my blog and my music.

As an avid observer of everyday life – anything you’ve come across in the last few days that the general observer might have missed?
The climate and weather patterns have really changed, it’s not a joke. Stores need to stock jackets in summer and vice versa.

Is there anyone you would like to interview and what would you like to ask?
I’d like to interview Shaka Zulu and ask him if he knew his influence was going to last this long and also what inspired the empire concept.

What are you listening to right now? What’s your “go-to” track/artist?
‘Manage Expectations‘ by Cid Rim.

Dirty Paraffin X Paul Shiakallis, image: Paul Shiakallis

Apparently Pioneer Unit’s Damien Stevens considers you one of SA hip hop’s best rappers. Do you consider yourself a rapper?
I don’t know if I am a rapper. My style is more poetry, I play electronic gadgets and I tend to sing a lot so I consider myself a musician.

You worked with Spoek on his new album, Future Sound of Mzansi, with the track – ‘Skorokoro’. Have you owned one?
I am actually looking for a cheap cheap skorokoro next year. A Honda Civic would be ideal but I would settle for a station wagon Toyota Cressida any day.

What made you decide (along with Spoek Mathambo, Bra Solomon & Ayobah) to do a rendition of Brenda Fassie’s classic ’80s hit ‘Weekend Special‘?
‘Weekend Special’ had to be done. It’s a classic. It was Spoek’s project though so maybe he would satisfy that question.

What’s your favourite slang word/phrase?
Shambeez ( crazy ).

Ultimately, when it comes to Okmalumkoolkat (Smiso Zwane) there are no words better to describe him than his own:

‘I am the one. The 8bit champ! The member, the compadre, The Bigbootyholic, Booty Inspector, Duke of Casio. FutureMfana MfanaFuture. Zulu Compura. Smart Mompara. Super Tsatsatsa. International Pansula. Bhuti Yang’chaza. Bhuti Yang’ Washa. Boomslang. The Sjambok Ambu. okmalumkoolkat. Okmalumkillacombo. Holy Oxygen. Smiso’

LINKS:

Blog

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YouTube

Twitter

SoundCloud

interview by: Sarah Claire Picton, November 2012
images by: Chris Saunders, Frances van Jaarsveldt, Jamal Nxedlana, Paul Shiakallis, Thanda Kunene

© Malcolm Mc Neill

Iconic Beat writer and poet William S. Burroughs met Malcolm Mc Neill in London in 1970 while working on the comic The Unspeakable Mr. Hart for the short-lived Cyclops. At 23, Mc Neill was still a student in his final year of art school while Burroughs had already lived a life as chemically and sexually experimental as his writing.

Mc Neill’s imagery captures the fecund destruction within modern society and Burroughs’ head through dense and complex images. Cannibalism, rape and blackened icons under vanilla skies… the world in its most primitive and raw state. After Cyclops folded, the duo began work on what they called a ‘Word/Image Novel’. Ah Pook is Here was developed into a 120-page book and was accepted by San Francisco publishers Straight Arrow books in 1971. But the project was abandoned in 1974 when the publishers closed down, seeing light in a ‘text only’ form in 1979 by Calder publishing.

Burroughs’ ‘cut-up technique’ helped create parallels and crossing paths between issues of politics, mysticism, drugs, sexuality and common human emotion. The story of Ah Pook is Here follows billionaire newspaper tycoon John Stanley Hart as he tries to build a Media Control Machine and achieve immortality. His quest leads him to ancient Mayan books and the accidental summoning of Ah Pook, the Mayan God of Death, and hot pursuit by assorted mutants. The idea of time is made fluid and initiates battles between the ideals of ancient and modern society. Many critics have hailed it as one of the world’s ‘lost masterpieces’. Almost 15 years since Burroughs’ death and 40 since the book’s inception, Mc Neill has attempted to gain access to the text of Ah Pook is Here from the Burroughs estate – to no avail. He has recently released The Lost Art of Ah Pook is Here, which is a collection of all original and updated imagery.

© Malcolm Mc Neill

Ah Pook has been called a failure as a book but a success as a literary experiment or graphic novel. How does this affect the balance between words and images?

Its appeared to demonstrate Bill’s contention that the purpose of writing was to make it happen – happen in a literal sense… to realise fictional ideas as fact. The collaboration began as the result of a coincidence and the ongoing coincidence of fact and fiction was what made it unusual.

Some of these occurred after Bill’s death and were the impetus for the project being revived.

Those particular events realised the first two sentences of the book.

© Malcolm Mc Neill

© Malcolm Mc Neill

What are the first two sentences?

‘The Mayan codices are undoubtedly books of the dead; that is to say, directions for time travel. If you see reincarnation as a fact, then the question arises: how does one orient oneself with regard to future lives?’

Regardless of implications or meaning, Ah Pook was brought back to life by a dead man.

The correspondence between his life trajectory and my own, and its relevance to the collaboration and premise of the book, were significant enough to make me reconsider the whole experience. As with the coincidence that initiated the project, it was a case of seeing where the idea might lead.

Ah Pook was a book about time and death.

Coincidences: you can choose to acknowledge them or ignore them. With Ah Pook, it was the former. Bill didn’t take coincidences lightly. The term ‘graphic novel’ didn’t exist back then and the book wasn’t planned as such. It was a case of simply combining words and images in whatever form seemed to work best.

The fact that there was no market for it at that time and no real financial incentive was what led to its ‘failure’ as a book.

I think it’s odd that the Burroughs Estate would miss out on what – today – is a potential financial opportunity…

It‘s often less a case of the power of words themselves than the power – and the need for power – of those who control them. The way they are used and allowed to be used.
 
To read the full feature, go buy your copy of the latest issue now!

© Malcolm Mc Neill

© Malcolm Mc Neill

 
interview by: bianca budricks and sarah claire picton
images: © Malcolm Mc Neill, lostartofahpook.com

 

 
Relevant links:

64 Cannes International Film Festival reviews

What’s Your Story? – Porselynnkas

UNKLE feat. Nick Cave – ‘Money and Run’

Dripped – a tribute to Jackson Pollock

“Balkanology – Greek Mythology”

Win with Religion Clothing South Africa

Southern Comfort South Africa – “Creative Exchange”

This week we feature an interview with Member of the Week Shaun Liddle, check out Groove Armada’s ‘single’ performance at super-club Trinity on Saturday 14 May and then head to The Labia on Tuesday 17 May for RVCA’s ANP Launch, with the screening of the doccie Beautiful Losers. On onesmallseed.TV we feature our controversial What’s Your Story with filmmaker Aryan Kaganof, and also release the behind-the-scenes of Ryan Kruger’s still-unreleased music video of The Parlotones’ – Should We Fight Back.

Competition-wise, make sure you have entered the Feiyue competition to win a pair of funky trainers. Then, for some evening entertainment, we have Seamus Murphey’s 12 short films that he created for each song on PJ Harvey’s new album Let England Shake and an animation short called Chick, which is an ironic take on the everyday male-female interaction.

Relevant links:

Member of the Week – Shaun Liddle

What’s Your Story? – Aryan Kaganof

The Parlotones’ – Should We Fight Back

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake ( 12 songs/12 films )

Chick

Feiyue Competition

Our underground world is a composition of wandering vagabonds, who destroy to create, challenge to learn. Aesthetic transformations from day to night. And we all have a place of refuge, where, together, we disseminate information through creative expression. We free up information to break down existing thought patterns in mainstream culture. It’s about being experimental and explosive, tapping into a collective energy, which has force, passion and an ability to revolutionize.

So, if they’re out there – the so-called ‘Goths’ that is – where are they hiding? Turns out, they’re not really hiding. Not in Obs, at least. In fact, they pretty much own Lower Main Road. Gandalfs is the sanctuary for the Emos, Gotham… well, more for the Goths.

The ‘Emo’ generation embraces, and pays tribute to, their youthful angst. What started as a musical movement, Emo is now, for many, a way of life. A melancholy subculture; emotionally charged, passionately existing through self-expression. At times wondered about my own Emo familiarities, although not quite sure what that means, I venture to Gandalfs. Somehow, having a group to compare the Goths with made me feel more comfortable. God, me and my insecurities. I’m definitely Emo.

Call Me by Jessica Jones

It’s good to have a plan. Straight to the bar. Avoid the gloomy stares piercing me from behind dyed-black, over-priced cut fringes.

“How much is a jack and lime?”

“R11.”

My habitual hesitation to hand over R20-something was overcome, and resisting the urge to do my renowned “little happy dance”, I ordered a double and left a R5 tip. Gandalfs had potential. At least for those who need a cheap plan.

Well, as I expected, and like me, skinny jeans and dirty converse decorate the sticky floor. Grungey and melancholy; Bitter-sweet symphonies. It didn’t seem like much of a party here, but it was still early. Perhaps being fashionably late is an Emo thing too?

The Tragic Clown by Sarah Danielle Mitchell

Flashbacks of those painful school PE lessons, I felt both marginalised, and in need for another jack. Luring a young frightened looking Emo boy to an empty table, I was hoping to get to the nitty gritty of this subculture, questioning if this Emo thing was bigger than just a passing trend. I was about to delve into the world, that is apparently my own.

“Well, you have to be HOT and play in a band” giggles Emo Boy’s Emily-lovin’ entourage. He exuded an air of grandiose. Emo Boy seems to pick on my irritation and suddenly and vigorously leads me hastily to the bathroom corridor. Expecting some kind of drug-fuelled interlude, he instead lifts up his sleeve bearing white, vein covered, scarred arms.

“So, it’s about pain, this Emo thing?”

“No, it’s about self-exploration and self-awareness”

“Why did you cut your arms?”

“It made me realize my fragility”

Longing for Something by Zelda Lichtenstein

I learn that Emo Boy is not yet 18, but reads Nietzsche and feels that life is ultimately meaningless. He’s a nihilist that aspires to be a conservationist and human rights activist…hmmm. Filled with an aged sorrow, Emo Boy is determined to make the most of the life, the one he finds so meaningless.

He’s on a reckless voyage of self-realisation. But, as with many, he is part of a subculture of contradictions…Nelly Furtado comes on, and I can’t help but laugh at the thought of Emo Boy listening to candy pop whilst reading Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground.

Cherchez La Femme by JP Hanekom

Tequila time.

Gotham. How did I not know about this place? I’m brought back to my days in North London; a surreal myriad of punks, goths, emos and god knows who/what else… all surprising me with their exchanges of kind words and child-like smiles.

A structured world of black, white and red. Indulgent textures and ‘80s bass lines. I gaze at painted faces resembling vengeful felines, their delicate lines creating silhouettes of ethereal beings. These women are beautiful, femme fatales of the night.

With my gran’s vintage checked dress (the one with red lollypop buttons) tucked into my grey skinnies, I felt like an aesthetic intruder.

I discover shadowy echoes of 18th Century Victorian era mystery. Gotham is a place of first loves and sweet revenge. It is a place that begs to tell a story.

Caitlin Caged by Clare Foxcroft Williams

A musical movement emerging from the Punk scene in the late ‘70s, the Goth culture seemed to be rooted much further back. In literature, cold stone walls, capes and supernatural night invaders. And then, rediscovered in music. Siouxsie & the Banshees, Bauhaus… melodies that are audacious, crude, honest and fuelled with passion. An introspective movement, music and literature became daily conversation. With an enduring self-awareness, Goth became a script for life – or at least a blue print.

“White on white, translucent black capes.
Bats have left the tower, the victims have bled.
Red velvet lines the black box.
Bela Lugosi’s dead. Undead. Undead. Undead.”
– ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ – Bauhaus (1979)

Goth was reborn. Narcissistic and academic, introspective and passionate. Doc Martins, pencilled eyebrows, garters and crushed velvet. A complex bouquet… dressing up just to go and hide in the corner. Buying a round of drinks I caught up with one of the long-haired creatures who seemed to know everyone inside.

A Rose by Rene Bohnen

“So what is Goth?”

“Well, I’m very feminine. Not gay at all. In fact, I think I am a lesbian”.

Okay. Was that an answer? My confusion is interrupted by a monotone moving spectacle; I looked around the room and was absorbed into a wraithlike realm. The Damned flowed through the crowd and each person embraced the lyrics with a type of raw passion that created a surreal atmosphere where time and space never once seemed to matter.

Caitlin & Georgia by Clare Foxcroft Williams

“We’re not a depressed crowd”.

I’m brought back to the subject. I sensed he had seen the unexpected, but welcomed, intrigue I had felt… I have also always wanted to move to my own tune.

“Okay, so if you are not depressed, what are you?”

“It’s about being sad. Western Culture places so much emphasis on the constant ‘pursuit of happiness’ – if you are always trying to pursue this, you never reach it. You’ll be pursuing your whole fucking life and never get anywhere, so you just end up more pissed off than you think we are. It is not reality. Happiness is not all what life is about.”

Needle Play by Clare Foxcroft Williams

Instead of a subculture that prays on pessimism, it seems to be more about reaching a state of purity, achieved only by searching all avenues of one’s mind. It’s about using sadness as a self-empowering tool, to reach a state of clarity so to say. It’s not about the drugs, or the sex – although sex is an exploration and can be as dark as it can be light.

“Yeah, I have no problem with sex at all.”

Suspension, self-mutilation, bondage and black leather. Pain and Pleasure.  Passion and Revenge. None are considered mutually exclusive.

“I mean when you see blood, you see yourself. Blood is what keeps you alive. And that is truly beautiful.”

Suspension with Lilies by Clare Foxcroft Williams

Once again I see the value placed on life, being alive. Not death. To truly understand yourself, to see the colours of life, and find the beauty in tragedy, you need to embrace each sphere of your psyche, with an unrelentless raging passion.

“So, why do you wear black”

“Not to sound lame, but black absorbs all colours, so we are actually embracing all colours.”

I’m taken back to high school science class, and have a vivid image of the rainbow of colours filtering through the glass prism. I feel uplifted and we end off on a smile.

SGRAVE RENDER1AZZFIN by Dave Nemeth

Putting on some bright red lipstick, I immerse into this other-worldly group of visual contrasts. I am filled with energy, and I even request a song. Jane’s Addiction ‘Summertime Rolls’… “Cut me a piece with some fine wine, bringing peace back to my mind, in the summertime.” It’s my wedding song.

Oh, and whilst trying to compose myself over a Halaal hot dog outside, I chat to a friendly Goth. Tragically, poetically dressed in black ruffles and wearing a quirky but kind face, he hands me a sharpened knife as a relic of my time at Gotham. Then he gives me a lift home,

So, the difference between Emo and Goth? A so-called Goth told me something that says it pretty damn well: “I think the best way of answering this question would be to cage an Emo and see how it reacts to not having hair styling products for a week.”

This Institution by Kian Vegas

I still don’t know what Goth really is. But I do know it’s about a group of people who find comfort amongst one another, in this confusing world we are all a part of. And the scene will be kept alive in Cape Town, perhaps underground, but that’s what it’s about, after all.

Anyway, who really gives a fuck what Goth means? It means whatever you want it to. Dress it up in silver jewellery and black capes, skinny jeans or painted skin, it’s just another group of fun-loving criminals. Go say hi.

words by: Sarah Claire Picton, featured image: Tarryn & Andreia by Clare Foxcroft Williams

Caitlin's Roses by Clare Foxcroft Williams

I always knew it would be a riot. Let’s be honest, there’s no room for good intentions when a public holiday is there to back you up the next day. Thursday night’s sequence of now-hazy incidents led to a fast-food ‘refuel, re-think and repress’ two days inside. But all was redeemed by Sunday morning; it was Easter after all. No egg hunts or tedious family lunches this   year, just one pale pair of idle hands, shitty TV and even shittier weather. Only one certainty remained: a fucking good reason to get out the flat, now. It was time to get Turkeyed. It was time to cause a riot.

Cold Turkey is a fortnightly dubstep event at the District 6 Café – an awesome little spot that hides a rustic multi-level outdoor space that’s wonderfully dirty even before the bass begins. It was my second Cold Turkey – somehow I’d blanked my entire way through the summer parties – so no looking forward to lazy, warm afternoons to ease my way into Monday’s glory. Thing is, like Cold Turkey, with some parties you realise it’s not about the promise of clear blue skies and rising temperatures; it’s simply about the music. About the beats that bring smiles, over-priced hangovers and, if you’re lucky, an innocent, intoxicated youth-like kiss. Amongst a bunch of wide-eyed new faces all stoked to be out in the rain, here I was, just another wet turkey about to get fried.

The feeling of summer was still around and amplified by the wub-wub behind the decks, the taste of some sweet, sweet green, and the steady flow of sometimes-cold Black Label quarts. Yep, this was the type of party where even though I never drink beer I found myself wondering why the hell not. You half expect the vodka and tequila to run out by nine, so when it does you’re not worried… I mean, there’s always Suitcases, and more beer.

Before long, after-hour phonecalls and new friends are being made, time speeds up and suddenly no one has smokes. What a goddamn scene. One all-too familiar, one I can’t seem to get enough of. The energy feels different though. I have an unusual appreciation to be amongst the unfamiliar. No fronts or agendas and no lingering, hostile expectations here. And no reason to sit on the edge. Inside the concrete graffiti walls I have discovered a ‘cassette culture’ – no boomboxes but the authenticity and collected excitement was raw and rolling in all directions, and then past curfew.

Maybe it was more than simply the music, there was something building that night that felt bigger than the beats. A feeling for sure, a movement even? Shit, who knows, maybe it was just the drugs? Or Easter weepings from above? Whatever the reason that made this party a special one, ultimately Cold Turkey represented what dubstep is really all about – letting go of your bullshit, feeling alive, and yes, causing a bit of a riot on the dancefloor.

words: sarah claire picton

images: cold turkey

Article featured in Issue 18 – The Original Fake Issue – of one small seed.

With hip-hop MCs People under the Stairs rhyming in my ears and change for a loose kept safe, the street is the place I catch myself smiling off-guard.  There’s a feeling of wonder. Dialogues I hope one day to understand hustle past in rising tones, and I find rhythm to gooey electro beats that resonate around me. Visual indulgence and sensory delight.

I fucking hate the word trend. I never have enough cash to buy them or the magazines that tell me what they are. In a society that finds solace in forecasts and structure, there’ll always be definitions and commodities of contemporary ‘cool’. But out on the streets, aside from high-end mass production, there’s something magical happening. People are starting to think for themselves again. The street is celebrating the carnivalesque, liberation and pleasure.

The youth, brazen and unpredictable, strut the new catwalk — the street. A reservoir of stimulation, the street is a show we’re all part of, you and I all part of the revolution of Concrete Couture. Before you cool kids start freaking out, this isn’t a piece about what we’re seeing on the streets. It’s about what the street represents. And who’s representing it.

I found four individuals, four friends, all collaborators who epitomise the liberation of raw aesthetic self-expression. Meet Jamal, Jade, Illana and JR.  Spreading their vision throughout the arts, they collaborate with various mediums, with each other, and with you. They’re a quartet that orchestrates controversy. Fun controversy that’s full of texture and form. Forgotten items are given second chances, and the Salvation Army skank to the wub wub wub of the underground.

Jamal

Jamal, Jade, Illana and JR are designing and styling, capturing and documenting fashion in ways that represent what, to me at least, the street is all about. Energy, colour, motion, surprise, shock and raw beauty. All these elements find form and integrity in their creative rendezvous.

Jade

Association, intertextuality and colour-coding, Jamal Nxedlana’s designs are lyrics of the city — construction sites, cultural strife, the illusion of the high life.  His concepts are bold, vibrant and visually enthralling. Think the beautiful flamboyant frenzy of Durban’s Warwick Junction turned wearable.

Jamal

Sarah Claire Picton:  Is there much androgyny in local fashion these days?

Jamal: There’s a fair share of it. Like the androgynous vagrants in Cape Town.

SCP: You’ve collaborated extensively with the other three, such as in the fashion/art website The Beard and on various London shoots. What’s your plan for 2010?

Jamal: I’m preparing for a trip to the Congo with Justin McGee and JR… we’ll be undertaking a few creative projects that side.

Early Kwaito and bad taste pulled off, condom beanies and 2010 forecasts of sleaze: time with Jamal is all pins and needles. And for his lady, Jade, it’s all needles through noses and brightly coloured hair. Bring back PVC, Buddha print tees and “those plastic chokers that look like tattoos” and they’ll both be smiling diamantés.

Jade

A Swiss at birth but Cape Town girl at heart, Jade’s been spending time abroad, assisting SA artist Mustafa Maluka in Berlin and collaborating with Jamal in London.

SCP: Where do you stand on the ideology of ‘trend’?

Jade: The pendulum always swings and the current liberal attitudes in our cultures look to daring individuals who break the rules.

SCP: Complete this sentence: ‘Out on the streets, we call it…’

Jade: Out on the streets, we call it shante! Or sashay away!

Another prolific girl shouting a big fuck you to fabrication and buying individualism from an over-priced boutique is Illana Welman. Forty pairs of sunnies, a 14 full-piece cossie collection, one pink fur coat and a girl named Illana. Coming from the Zulu Kingdom’s poison city, Illana moves gallantly through the realm of fashion, all teethy smiles in her cherry-smelling black-and-white Melissa brogues. A fallen angel, charmed and armed, she’s a femme fatale of fashion and has lots to say.

Illana

SCP: So, aside from your professional time spent with Jamal on shoots in London, talk to me about your time with our dear friend JR.

Illana: JR… well, we lived together along with Justin McGee, ‘the photographer’ (ha ha), and we all created creations (ha ha) every day. All the time. We had so many clothes it was easy just to have fun and create like that. I can’t even remember if we did anything professional together. It was great, it was fun. It kept us inspired.

Like me, she’s inspired by the street’s everyday heroes: “Like the local African at the shisa nyama shop. African brothers bust some crazy styles, and old grannies never fail me.”

And an African brother that really needs no introduction, and comes with no warnings, is Jene Rene Onayngunga. Born in Kinshasa DRC, JR aka Pacha aka DR Pachanga is possibly the only other person I know who is louder than me. I can’t keep track of him, and hope he can’t keep track of me. Except in summer, and on weekends.

JR

SCP: What you doing now, Kid?

JR: At the moment I’m pushing street photography and journalism. It’s basically a little memo of DR Pachanga on the streets of SA. (Check out elementofsuprize.blogspot.com)

He’ll come to my house, eat my cheese and trade a pair of sunnies for two Black Label quarts or a bottle of Tassies. And then we’ll both end up so wasted we’ll hustle off his other 12 pairs to a German on Long Street and spend the profit on tequila. Jozi’s red skies, Cape Town’s blue waters and Durban’s green poison — he’s all over the country, having fun testing people’s patience and pissing off all the original fake fucks.

SCP: The word ‘fashion’ — what does it mean to you?

JR: Fashion means the power to manipulate, dictate many floors by disguising and dominating the norm.

Street ‘style’ doesn’t exist for JR. Or for me. Trends and seasonal cools are fading as we begin to see the street as a space for free creative dynamism. “There is no such thing as High Street, Street Street or even Hippie Street. Street Fashion is what we see every day on the street, the outfit someone puts on the minute they walk out.”

Spaza Shop Boyz

Functionality and accessibility have taken over; it’s now about finding ways to implement expression in these two variables. And that’s what these kids are helping us with. Thank god.

A little bit of JR’s faultiness revealed…

SCP: What do you miss that isn’t seen much in today’s designs?

JR: Zoot suits!

SCP: Your favourite street to walk down?

JR: Grey Street

SCP: Do you sleep naked?

JR: Only when Justin and creepy Steve are not around.

Jamal

High-spirited and high-dressed, Jamal, Jade, Illana and JR are fresh, rough deviants of fashion. They’re part of the Concrete Couture subculture, crucifying the fake and resurrecting the new. B-boys & bergies, emos & pigs, a blur of kinetic energy… out on the street somebody is always somebody else’s muse.

“We’re taking it back to the concrete streets, [us original freaks, all fashion MCs]” Or maybe we’re not? What do I really know? I’m just another undignified street renegade you’ll pass on your way to buy a loose tomorrow. Just another everyday hero trying to find what she’s looking for.

“Out on the streets… I call it life”.

Photography: Justin McGee, styling and photography: Jamal Nxedlana, Illana Welman, Jene Rene Onayngunga, Jade Paton

words: Sarah Claire Picton

‘This crazy life
This crazy world
We’re living in is magical’

(Goldfrapp – ‘Fly Me Away’)

Hanging Pig (2001) - Shadow Chamber

After completing his third photographic volume, Platteland (created 1986–1994; published 1996), Roger Ballen changed direction. A new aesthetic emerged from his new interaction, as an artist, with his subject matter in the construction of each image. A team of two, Roger Ballen and the world, embarked on a voyage to find the obscure in the most banal or surprising of objects. His experiences during these years would ultimately culminate in his latest project: Boarding House (2009).

Talking Heads nailed it in their debut hit ‘Psycho Killer’: ‘You’re talkin’ a lot, but you’re not sayin’ anything.’ There does seem to be a lot of loose talk along these lines nowadays: recycled broken-line bullshit that sounds so damn sweet to say out loud. But sometimes one is lucky enough to encounter an individual whose words and images are so powerful, so transcendent, that they leave you just a little less jaded… and a little more real.

Meeting Roger Ballen at the Iziko Museum in Cape Town was a surreal and humbling experience… a rare lunchtime interlude that warranted no refined plastic questions. The photographs that make up Boarding House stole all concentration and left me lost in memories of experiences I’m not quite sure were ever real. I was cast into an internal dialogue of uncertainty, lingering with that bitter aftertaste of spending too much time in one’s own head. With Roger Ballen’s distant eyes lost in memories, and mine in my thoughts, a raw and unfamiliar dialogue unravelled.

Bite (2007) - Boarding House

Pathos (2005) - Boarding House

Mimicry (2005) - Boarding House

one small seed: Could you describe the atmosphere of The Boarding House?

Roger Ballen: The Boarding House is a strange and surrealistic place, certainly a place where the human condition exposed itself on all different levels. The photographs taken in the series are in many ways very abstract. Complex or not, what most people experienced from the images in Boarding House are that they take you into another zone, another place… almost a place of the psyche.

When people look at the pictures, they shouldn’t worry about ‘Where is this place, how do they get to this place or what is this place?’ And this, and that… It’s really about finding a place that reveals something about [yourself], rather than necessarily worrying how I took the picture.

oss: When I look at the images in Boarding House, I feel saturated with questions that have nothing to do with your subject matter, with questions that I stopped asking a long time ago.

RB: Well, then the art has done what it was supposed to do. Unfortunately, we live in a world where art is just about reinforcing what we know already, everybody likes to be reinforced. And that’s not what art is about. It should make people question the world around them and help to understand themselves a bit better.

oss: Speaking of questions, so many are rather about finding the answer. It’s comforting to us to know there is a solution to things.

RB: People have become scared of asking the proper questions, scared of the proper answers… We want everything packaged so we can put it under the bed and sleep at night. And unless this problem is solved, we don’t have a future as a race. All the problems come from our psyche. It’s not necessarily about ‘this’ or ‘that’, it’s about what’s going in inside our own psyche, and we have to solve that problem first. That’s the hardest issue.
There are plenty of psychiatrists around, plenty of philosophers, plenty of poets, plenty of this… plenty of that…

oss: …and plenty of self-help books.

RB: Plenty of self-help books… that’s pretty funny, yeah, and there will be plenty more.

Perhaps life – as real as it is – is constructed of scenes and instances that are so intricate, so conceptual… even revolutionary… that it seems all too overwhelming and intense to be of a worldly nature. These moments are impossible to define.

As a person with a lot to say, I still sit with many questions. I do know that, whether tragic or comic, light or dark, theatrical or real, Roger Ballen’s Boarding House is ultimately whatever it means to you. But perhaps Roger puts it best:

You can try for the rest of your life to come up with words that define these photographs, but you’re still not going to hit the bullseye. And that’s what ultimately makes good art. Art that can stand on its own… Art that doesn’t necessarily need words to explain it.

Cut Loose (2005) - Boarding House

Boarding House (2009) is published by Phaidon

Words: Sarah Claire Picton
Images: © Roger Ballen

Read the rest of issue 22:

Click here to view our #flashBack selection for September.

Click here to view all our #Flashbacks.

A foray of the fingers, the voice and the instruments, you’ll find Len Cockraft on drums, Nikhil Singh on guitar, vocals and synths, and Gareth Dawson on bass, noises and effects. Fluid and unpredictable like their moods, their unique sound is born out of a lucid, experimental organic process. “Most of the songs come out of jam sessions….it’s kinda’ all three of us writing subconsciously at the same time”.

The sound is as unique as it is esoteric, absorbing as it is surprising. It resonates with that distinct ambient-rock-indie energy, a sound Cape Town is still fervently exploring. Transcendent and conceptual, The Wild Eyes engage and fondle with electronic toys, using technology to amplify their creativity and push audio- boundaries.

“Like an exposed plug lying on a stage drenched in your own sweat”, the boys create a hypnotic reverie of multi-tiered, electronically drenched tracks. Death metal, Sticky fingers in a plug socket and a 9th birthday casino rap man…they’re scholars of electronic music, still learning and still moving forward.

The “Blue Meanie”, the “Grey Meanie”, the ARP 2600. It’s is on their list, and has been for a long time. With a plethora of switches & sliders, this vintage beauty would surely satisfy these analog synth aficionados. Perhaps this year, The Wild Eyes will cut down the naughtiness and get their wish.

Disko beats, Nazi uniforms, Venus and volume knobs….their influences are as unexpected and enthralling as the contours of their sounds; shaped and manipulated with tenacity and creative courage. It’s about stripping down and ripping apart any external pre-requisites and expectations, keeping it real and keeping it intimate.

Vigorous and highly infectious, the synth-driven and textured tracks send you on a reckless voyage of all things fresh. With The Wild Eyes, vintage synths should come in doubles, and preferably hand delivered by Isao Tomita. No software, just hardware, and bass lines on a diet of groove and melody.

“Each song is a unique entity and there are no formulas.” The Wild Eyes, just like you, are constantly creating new sounds. And what’s to come? Aside from deafening mayhem, corruption, poltergeist activity and some uncanny memories….get ready for a brave repertoire of shreaky, supernatural dancy gems.

words by: Sarah Claire Picton