Cape Town offers up intimate acoustic musings alongside smooth Afro-house.
? Considering his meteoric rise to fame, it would be easy to stereotype Black Coffee as just another black diamond, a BEE beat magnet out to mine the insatiable upwardly mobile urban house-party market. But as he proved on his South African Music Award-winning album Home Brewed, this DJ and producer defies convention. Sidestepping Afro-house clichés and stage-managed highs in favour of restrained sophistication, Black Coffee’s penchant is for true Afropolitan house: home-brewed but trendsetting, fashion-conscious and future-focused. Expect almost sculptural balance and beauty.
Grand Café, Granger Bay Road, off Beach Road, Granger Bay. September 16 at 9pm. Entrance for ladies is free before 10pm; R80 before 11pm; R100 thereafter. Tel: 021 425 0551.
? The String Collective gathers together a six-pack of unplugged artists who animate the art of acoustic craft. Each will perform three pieces of work that cover a diverse range of string pieces and vocal composition in alternative styles. Strum ‘n wailer Gary Thomas shares experimental anti-folk abstractions from his latest album, Contraption Distoria, and experimental guitarist Righard Kapp showcases micro-folk compositions from his album Strung Like a Compound Eye on support. The rest of the line-up includes self-styled Appalachian alt-freak folkies Miss Texas 1977, acoustic percussive funk-rock outsider Tombstone Pete and nu-folk singer-songwriter Miles Sievwright. “Tale-swapper” Donny Truter accompanies his poetry with sparse guitar tones.
Theatre in the District, Chapel Street, Woodstock. September 16 at 8pm. Entrance is R80.
? Heather Mac calls her album “the birthing of a 20-year-old baby”. After an absence from recording of almost two decades, the former Ella Mental chanteuse is back with a new album, Within. The deeply personal collection of songs charts Mac’s journey from seedy nightspots such as Hillbrow’s Chelsea Hotel to British rock clubs, and from the despair of personal tragedy to a spiritual rebirth in Brazil and the ability of love to overcome heartache and loss. “Each song represents a part of my life experience over the passing years,” she says. Long-time guitarist Mark Harris accompanies her at this intimate supper-club show.
Villa Pascal, 28 Van der Westhuizen Street, Valmary Park, Durbanville, on September 16. Entrance is R80. Tel: 021 975 2566.