Riaan Wolmarans

<b>CD OF THE WEEK:</b> News that Oasis were releasing a new album this year had to make one wonder whether it would just be a lukewarm attempt to recapture days of glory past, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

Moby’s new album <i>Hotel</i> is a many-roomed building with a range of guests from the quiet-as-a-mouse businessman to the raucous newly weds in the honeymoon suite, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

<b>CD OF THE WEEK:</b> Emile Minnie’s second album offers songwriting that manages to be contemplative without falling into the rut of rather pretentious songs about life and love that so many "serious" Afrikaans singers seem to prefer, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

It’s time for the yearly Oppikoppi Easter music blast, this time quaintly titled the Dust on My Meerkat festival. The line-up includes a host of excellent local acts, as well as guest Canadian singer Tal Bachman, who spoke to Riaan Wolmarans.

While it’s not a new idea to get pop stars to do Cole Porter’s songs for this movie, <i>De-Lovely</i> has managed to keep the approach traditional, without trying to spruce up Porter’s work for the MTV generation, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

Cape Town band Flat Stanley are on the road to fame and show no signs of stopping soon. Vocalist Andrew Mac spoke to Riaan Wolmarans.

<b>CD of the week</b>
Riaan Wolmarans

One person out of every eight on Earth is now connected to the internet, and this phenomenal growth has occurred in less than 10 years. By 2010, this internet usage growth could narrow to one in five people. This is according to the latest statistics released this week by <i>ResearchWorldwide.com</i>.

Punk-rock Green Day has identified the need to evolve to stay on top. On <i>American Idiot</i>, they combine a solid helping of social conscience with a range of rock sounds and tempo changes, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

Double CD <i>The Winds of Change (African Cream)</i> coincides with our celebration of 10 years of democracy. The result is an aural tribute to our history, particularly the dark apartheid years, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

Hot on the heels of <i>Cape Town 2am</i> is Ready Rolled’s newest compilition — <i>Cafe Melville: Afrikan Time</i>. Richer-sounding and more rewarding than the glut of slapped-together "chill" albums available these days, Riaan Wolmarans gives it a thumbs-up.

If you can withstand the odd roaming pack of boisterous teens, the annual Woodstock festival in Gauteng is worth a look-in. With a superb line-up of local music and some adrenalin-charged activities, fans will be thoroughly entertained, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

While no milestone album, Cowboy Junkies’ <i>One Soul Now</i> is damn nice. There are plenty sad bluesy guitar chords to be savoured on their 10th album. Riaan Wolmarans lends an ear.

Saturday August 28 has been declared Software Freedom Day and the Go Open Source campaign and Linux user groups are hosting "install-fests" across South Africa. Members of the public will be able to take their computers to one of these national install-fests to have open-source software installed.

Record label USM just keeps ’em coming to please South Africa’s dance aficionados, and several recent USM releases do not disappoint. Riaan Wolmarans lends a willing ear to the sounds of the Deeper Sound of Craig de Sousa and others.

When you’ve got smoulderingly hot looks, a sexy singing voice and a heap of chart-topping pop hits with infections Latino rhythms, there is not much that can go wrong when you perform live, even if you wear a funny tea cosy on your head, writes Riaan Wolmarans of Enrique Iglesias’s performance on Sunday.

Embark on a motorcycle race through "Hellbrow". Test your memory after smoking a spliff. Talk to a Jo’burg glue kid wearing a lurid purple outfit. Make your own music in a Rasta’s studio. Battle enemy helicopters over Johannesburg. These are just some of the fun things to do on local outfit Binary Dredd’s new album, <i>Underground</i>, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

In the sleeve notes of <i>Patience</i>, George Michael says his colleagues know the meaning of patience, as the album took five years to make. He also thanks his fans for waiting patiently. But if one is going to make people wait this long for something, their patience had better be rewarded, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

‘I am not a one-trick pony," Nelly Furtado sings on <i>One-Trick Pony</i>, the opening track of <i>Folklore</i> (Universal), the follow-up to her hit debut album Whoa Nelly!. And one has to agree wholeheartedly, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

Acclaimed rock supergroup Limp Bizkit, famous for their heady mix of hip-hop and metal, on Tuesday announced the postponement of their South African tour, which had been due to start in Cape Town on April 2. Riaan Wolmarans reports.