Cape Town music picks: 24 September 2010

There is a focus on African music of all genres this week.

• The Pan African Space Station Festival plays host to an extraordinary array of genre-busting artists from global Africa dedicated to exploring new musical territory this week. None more so than Democratic Republic of Congo’s, Kisangani-based dance collective Kabako Studio’s More more more—Future, who manifest the festival’s mantra that ‘there are other worlds out there, they never told you about”. A collaboration between globally acclaimed Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula, Afro-punk fashion pioneer Lamine Badian Kouyate (Xuly Bët) and famed guitarist Flamme Kapaya and his band, based on the words of dissident poet, Antoine Vumilia Muhindo, More…Future simply defies categorisation. Infusing the hybrid rhythms of ancient Ndombolo music with hefty doses of with cyber-punk polemics, explosive dance with experimental theatre, fashion with politics, and mysticism with militancy, the collective create a poetics of autonomy, conceived in sonic, social, aesthetic and economic terms, and prepared to (sometimes literally) sweat blood for a better future. City Hall, Darling Street, Cape Town, September 25, 7pm. Entrance is R30 (pre-sold) or R50 (door). Book at Computicket. Website: www.panafricanspacestation.org.za

• Given the preponderance of ‘sexy’, ‘deep’ and ‘dirty’ beats dominating dancefloors, it’s tempting to think that contemporary clubbing music is bound to booty shaking banality. Enter pioneering American DJ and producer Theo Parrish who shatters any such hedonistic clubbing clichés when he rewires techno into a genre-imploding tradition of expansive composition at the Pan African Space Station Festival on September 28. Channelling Chicago house’s murky, atmospheric soulfulness with the fierce intellectualism of Detroit-vintage techno he fuses fragments of jazz, ragas, blues, rock, soul and Afrobeat into other-worldly sonic sculptures that confront technology and attempts to humanize it, to explore inner as well as outer space. Playing vinyl like a self-contained instrument, dissolving the borders between machine music and free form expression, Parrish is as likely to break out in a deep slamming soul or to skitter-dance across outer-orbit beats as he is to swing or testify Coltrane-style. Trail blazing Mzansi house producer Mbuso T cocktails street-infected Soweto funk with spirited organic Afro-jazz, deep, irresistibly thumpin’ techno and classy nu-soul candied house in his llatest Maf & So evolution on support. Albert Hall, 208 Albert Road, Woodstock, September 28, 10.30pm. Entrance is R30 (pre-sold) or R50 (door).

• Visionary guitarist, composer and bandleader Dr Phillip Tabane traces blues, funk and gospel back to their African roots through intricate improvisation and freeform soloing with his band Malombo at the PASS Festival on September 30. It’s a rare opportunity to catch the enigmatic seer in action, channelling the voices of his ancestors, the Malombo spirits of Venda, through rich polyrhythmic African beats and alchemical free jazz improvisation. Experiencing the Doctor, dressed in his signature snakeskin trousers, injecting his Gibson hollow-body with an insatiable sense of discovery, and coaxing free form sounds by hitting the strings or sparking otherworldly melodies from feather light plucks isn’t just a musical experience. It’s a spiritual one. Whether he’s sidestepping conventional chord structures as he fashions harmonious sound around the innuendo of his voice, his energy music is a potent life force that reignites black consciousness and speaks to the soul while insisting you get up and dance. Sama-nominated pianist and composer Kyle Shepherd re-imagines traditional Cape rhythms, melodies and harmonies, Afro-American jazz idioms and global roots music with his trio of Shane Cooper (double bass) and Jonno Sweetman (drums) on support.

  St. George’s Cathedral, Wale Street, Cape Town, September 30, 7.30pm. Entrance is R30 (pre-sold) or R50 (door). Book at Computicket.