“Bastard dancehall”, “euro-crunk” and “electro-psychedelicia” are just a few of the compound words journalists have invented to describe the sound of Berlin-based Modeselektor. It’s this sort of genre bending that links all the artists appearing at A Taste of Sónar.
Designed to give Capetonians a sample of the Barcelona-based Sónar music festival, it features a mix of artists loosely assembled for their innovations in electronic music. Modeselektor are joined by French DJ and producer Brodinski and German Byetone. On the local side DJ Fletcher will be alongside DJ collective Killer Robot and Das Kapital. The real highlight is an appearance by the BLK JKS.
City Hall, Darling Street, Cape Town, opposite Grand Parade, March 2 at 7pm. Entrance is R250.
? Music theorist Mark Fischer reminds us that “spectres are unsettling because they are that which cannot, by their very nature, ever be fully seen”. It is this absent present, filled with forgotten memories, lost traces and hidden maps, that Red Earth & Rust evoke on their third album, Skeletons of Memory: Songs for the West Coast.
As its title suggests, the album is a sonic psychogeography of the west coast of Southern Africa. Combining elements of folk, rock and African desert blues, the band evokes the forgotten histories, cultures and figures that haunt this harshly beautiful region of our country.
Regular band members are joined by special guest Madosini, the “Queen of Xhosa music”, on uhadi and umrhubhe traditional bows.
Fugard Studio, corner of Caledon and Lower Buitenkant streets, District 6, March 3 at 8pm and March 4 at 7pm. Entrance is R100. Book at Computicket. Tel: 021 461 4554. Website:
thefugard.com.