CD of the week: Dave Chislett
The recent vast successes of the Springbok Nude Girls, best exemplified by the track Blue Eyes, has tended to overshadow the roots of the band, and the fact that, without a doubt, they are really an alternative act.
At Nude Girls shows at the moment, you will find trendies, curious normal- looking types, as well as hardcore fans. The new converts are easy to spot: they are the ones who wait at the back of the hall with bemused expressions until Blue Eyes is played. They are the ones who react with alarm and horror when the moshpit explodes, when the fury of tracks like Grr! and Totally Committed is unleashed. They are the ones that leave early and never come back. Ever.
This is what Opti Mum (Sony) seeks to address. It is accompanied by a video, which is the Nude Girls unadorned. Sleepless, sweaty, swearing, spitting, with food hanging out the mouth, clowning in front of the cameras like the five rebellious Afrikaners they are. It is loud, rude, frank, and in some places even embarrassing. As the sleeve says, it is a glimpse of their real lives outside mosh pits and panting groupies.
Historical footage of the band has been gathered, and there are clips of Theo still with long hair, the old Cow Print shirts and even the old Managing Mula video. There is also lots of live footage, from London, Amsterdam, Belgium and local shows. Six music videos feature in all, including four brand-new ones, and lots of irreverent clowning around from all five of the Girls.
The style is rough, DIY, in your face. At one point, drummer Franois Kruger says: “There is nothing to say anymore. I believe what I believe, you believe what you believe.”
But this video says it all anyway, just by being an unreflexive representation of a band that has become a phenomenon in South Africa. The band’s studied lack of stance on anything translates into a demonstration of belief through action. The message from the video and the new single is clear:they are not interested in conforming, but would rather pursue the thing that brought them into the limelight in the first place: they would rather just be the Springbok Nude Girls.
The new CD even more so. Again is the new single, and the only new track on the CD. The other four cuts are remixes and remakes of older material. In previous forays into the melding of rock and dance, the Nudies didn’t quite get it right, but now they have obviously learnt from their mistakes. All the programming is by Craigie Dodds, the genius behind Egyptian Nursery, and the resultant arena of sound is of far higher quality than earlier efforts.
The cynical might say that such dabbling in dance forms by such an overtly rock-based band is sheer opportunism. But these mixes reveal things about the original songs that have until now remained hidden. The band is also less one-dimensional, able to swing wildly from one musical style to another.
They have always been ferociously experimental, and Opti Mum continues this tendency. Not intended for the fast track to number one singledom, or huge sales, Opti Mum is, instead, a must for all dedicated Nudies fans.