You can’t dismiss BLK JKS. They are just too bloody intriguing. I’m even going to hail them as the face of South African rock. As opposed to our previously assigned moniker of ‘the next best band you’ve never heard of’…
BLK JKS are the face of South African rock (that’s official now), with a cultural web of musical influences. Retaining that very African sound with their township grooves and social lyricism, whilst embracing distant ripples of ska, dub, prog-rock and most noticeably; psychedelia. The BLK JKS boys came our way via ‘Mr Finger In All Pies’ Diplo and haven’t looked too far back ever since, even landing on the cover of Fader.
Today’s track is all of the above, as the Johannesburg quartet build through brass melodies and swelling percussion into an emphatic crescendo lead by a weaving electric guitar solo that so joyously nods to Mr Hendrix himself.
DOWNLOAD: ‘Molalatladi’ (right-click, save as)
For glimpses of these boys live, get along to Summer Sundae on Aug 14th to see them melt the face off Leicester. Just like they did at SXSW (below).
