VARIOUS ARTISTS, South African Rock, Pop and Dance Vol 1 (Rebel Records)
The CD covers for South African Acoustic and its companion album, South African Rock, Pop & Dance are pretty grim.
They appear to have been “designed” in 10 minutes by somebody’s PA, just after she’d been fired.
And if you can’t be bothered to get an aKing song title right, or decide how Karin/Karen Zoid’s name should be spelt, why should we bother to pay for a sub-standard product?
No wonder the music industry is losing the battle with online — at least the only ugly things on a download site are the pop-up ads.
And this slapdash production is a pity, because there are a few great songs on the compilations, although all are reduced to the mediocre lowest common denominator of the poorer songs.
Putting the BLK JKS’s grimy Lakeside next to the Parlotones relentlessly bounce-along Should We Fight Back isn’t doing either band a favour.
Of the two compilations, Acoustic has the better choices.
For example, Wrestlerish’s Orphans, Ashtray Electric’s Heartbeat and aKing’s Safe as Houses are all great songs, although the only difference between the studio and “acoustic” versions seems to be that the acoustic one is a far inferior pressing of the otherwise identical original.
And why is there one aKing song on the rock compilation and one on acoustic — and they’re both from the same aKing album?
“Acoustic: pertaining to, or being a musical instrument whose sound is not electrically enhanced or modified.” It’s not that difficult, people.
No, seriously, this is a scam.
Buy the artists’ CDs, but don’t dignify these nonsensical compilations by laying out bucks.
The only actual acoustic version of a song on SA Acoustic, for example, appears to be Van Coke Kartel’s wonderfully passionate, perfectly pitched Algehele Kontrole from Skop, Skiet & Donner, the giveaway being that it’s specially marked as acoustic on an album of allegedly acoustic songs.
What a crock. — Chris Roper
Jack Parow, Jack Parow (Supra Familias)
So South Africa has its own Eminem.
It was only a matter of time in a country that so nauseatingly battles with identity on a daily basis.
As a nation we have already birthed a white Afrikaans kwaito artist, Lekgoa, who nowadays goes by the name of Snotkop, and then there is Danny K and his cringe-worthy R&B crooning.
So the real surprise is not that Jack Parow exists but that he can actually rhyme. Jack Parow has talent — but what will he do with it?
Jack Parow may have been strutting his stuff for years, but until Cooler as Ekke captured the imagination of the nation’s youth, not many people cared.
On the back of this hit tune he rode on into the pop mainstream with his zef-cool style and great lyrics like, “Jy’s die ou met die new fresh look/Ek’s die ou met die Pep Stores broek” and the crowd favourite, “Ek drink Klipdrif/jy drink Peroni/Jy’t vriende in Swede,/ek het vriende in Benoni”.
So what can you expect from the full album? Well, a bunch of catchy singles, a few mediocre numbers and a bunch that you may never want to listen to again.
Parow’s collaboration with JR (of make the circle bigger fame) on Ek Wens Jy Was Myne is a highlight, and Feite and the Haezer-produced Dans Dans Dans featuring Francois Van Coke on the chorus are also standouts.
But there are also forgettable tracks such as Tussen Stasies and Ricky Louw on the album.
This self-titled debut will do for now, but I suppose the real question is whether Jack Parow can progress beyond parody and offer South Africans something more than penis jokes and incessant bragging about his virility.
It’s clear that Parow is not a one-hit wonder – there are enough engaging songs to put paid to those accusations — but a one-album wonder … let’s see where Parow takes us next.– Lloyd Gedye