..Die Antwoord. Like if 2 Unlimited or CnC Music Factory grew up as redneck Zef-rap Afrikaaners, played their gameboys, baile funk/carioca, old skool electro and Eminem rather too much, met a strange funsized blonde, met a 24 year old progeria suffering DJ, wearing clothes with an obvious Keith Haring influence then recorded a funny hiphop album with hooks that Black Eyed Peas would reject as too kawaii* sometimes with a donk beat that the Bolton massif would go nuts for. Brilliantly nuts, basically.

So here’s Enter the Ninja – this year’s Tatu meets 2Unlimited meets GLC hybrid. What? You weren’t looking for that? Kak!

As you could have guessed, severely NSFW…

and Zef Side (Zef is Afrikaans for redneck) – love their manifesto/mantra

“To sum it all up, in this place, South Africa, you get a lot of different things: whites, coloureds, English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, watookal—I’m like all these different things, all these different people, fucked into one person.”

Thanks to BoingBoing for turning me on to this…I ignored the original posts but the follow ups and Leon Botha (a very good artist) intrigued me…they are blowing up bigstyle (although mostly Internet fame you can’t cash down the bank). And a good interview here – as Yo-Landi put it their philosophy is ‘drive fast and play kak (shit) music loud. It’s a zef rap-rave jol (party), with lasers, smoke machines, 3D graphics, rappers… and everyone’s gonna be there.’ (my translations). Sounds good to me!

For a more academic take on Ninja and co go here – I read Koos Kombuis’s book about Voelvry and James Phillips (odd bloke) so it’s an interesting comparison but some of the politics mentioned there is dodge – yes there are and were progessive Afrikaners but it’s not a far stretch to connect apartheid with Afrikaners since they were in power and nearly all supporting those policies (why Voelvry was so sharply political, and did help the fall of apartheid – cos the ‘good’ Afrikaner kids weren’t supporting their parents bigotry – but it is a stretch to connect Die Antwoord with this movement!). But I can understand the attraction and tensions between British and Afrikaner white South Africans – John grew up there as a Scottish import (must have been annoying to be referred as ‘Inglesman’ when there were more than the English in SA

Anyway I think the ladies doth analyse too much – hearing Afrikaans in humourous GLC-style rap is really funny, fokken lekker And I’d rather these guys and gals get famous than the blandness that is B.E.P…they might be surreal performance art and all playing roles from a previous project – or be the ZA version of The Streets – but when it’s this fun, who actually gives a fokk?

* Japanese for cute, allegedly.

As remixed by Akira the Don and featuring Jay-Z, Dizzee Rascal, Bill Hicks and Haulden Caulfeild from Akira The Don’s mixtape, ATD20.

Friend to Radio Clash and fellow Year-Zero-n (hmm must work on that collective noun) Celebrity Murder Party has been busy – not only remixing several of the upcoming remixes for Billie Ray Martin’s Crackdown Project releases (both remixes of Just Fascination and Crackdown) but also producing this promo minimix where you can hear some of the tracks, and also a mix for the Mininova release of a few of the mixes from the project (available on all friendly torrent programs at the link).

Not only is it interesting that Billie chose to release tracks via Mininova Content Delivery Service, but also shows the change in the musical landscape between free and paid; between getting people to take notice but also make money; getting what you give basically…torrent sites can either go either way after the crackdown (lol) – either become Napster with a paid model, to start again and fairly irrelevant and outgunned by the likes of iTunes, or offer the ‘free music’ as part of a promotional tool by artists who want to reach fans direct.

I do prefer the latter model, because the genie is out of the bottle – people will expect music for free from now on – but also people will support the music they like, buy special formats, support the artist. Try before you buy, basically…these models are not incompatible, only if your thinking is locked in 20th century thinking of physical formats…it’s still up in the air, but I think it’ll work. I’m drafting in my head a post about music marketing in the age of bittorrent and p2p actually, because although I think marketing is an evil dark art (not in a good way either) and follow Hicks creed, it’s also obvious to me that there are certain opportunities out there that aren’t being followed.

Certainly turning your fans into criminals and banning the sites will not work, as it never has historically. So respect to Billie for embracing the new technology; needs to be far more well-known and unknown people who see it as an opportunity rather than a threat, even if all the bits haven’t totally been worked out yet, it will fall into place.

Anyway on that note here’s one of the free mixes from the Mininova download, CMP’s remix of Just Fascination and mighty fine it is too – loads more where that came from from the bits I’ve heard I hear there is going to be a launch shindig (March 6th?) in Berlin with CMP and Phil Retrospector and others performing live on stage with Billie Ray Martin also – should be good ;-D

I did the dates/BUYBUYBUY spammage in the previous post so you know what to do if you likey. (And if you have a problem with that fair enough, endlessly promospam on blogs annoys me also, but can I point out none of us atm is snorting coke off hookers backs (well maybe Jez is ) and I am hopelessly in debt partly cos of working for free on this frigging site/podcast, so bring on the WAHMBULANCE loaded with cash, plz

So Cold The Freak (Communards vs LFO) by Fudge Tools (10000 Spoons) from Tim Baker on Vimeo.

OK so I was bored…and part of what happens when I’m bored I create mashup videos for lonely or new mashups that really need them cos they are the best mashups EVAH (it’s an ongoing project). I’d just gotten the video for ‘Freak’ by L.F.O. so *ding* lightbulb moment decided to create a quick video for one of my favourite mashups OF ALL TIME – So Cold The Freak (The Communards ‘So Cold the Night’ vs L.F.O. ‘Freak’) by Fudge Tools, which we all now know is 10000 Spoons (well you do now – but he ‘fessed up officially when GYBO went all swanky).

The video for ‘Freak’ is very odd, same territory as Cunningham and the Come on My Selector video – scary Japanese school children getting their freak on, originally to Leed’s finest but now with added Glaswegian camp as well. It works spookily well with The Communards in fact. Will also be on MutantPop TV shortly.

Also available on YouTube, dunno for how long for, seems like a roulette wheel nowadays:

I’ve been on a Viv Stanshall kick (again) recently because a kind listener (reader? what is the collection noun for podcast and blog listeners? poggers? pistener? err..anyway thank you Julian it made it through the snow!) sent me some Viv rarities as a result of the ‘Viv and Neil’ podcast I did last year inc the excellent 2002 radio documentary ‘Canyons of His Mind‘ which of course is referring to the above track, recorded for ‘Colour Me Pop’ in 1968. Apparently they did the whole show, which I really want to see.

Also read a great piece about Viv by his second wife, Ki Longfellow about how they met…I mean I fell in love with him reading it, so in person the effect must’ve been greater . She as mentioned in the text SHOULD write a book about him. If she or anyone relating to her is reading this, please give her a prod, because reading that I would buy a copy, and I have a feeling a lot of people would feel the same way…and also because of his mysterious/insane/wonderful/maddening/glorious lifestyle there are a lot of wrong rumours out there – one of which is that he set himself alight with cigarettes when he died (no, coroner said it was electrical wiring, apparently). Would be great to have a book that comes closer to the real Viv (well dunno if that’s possible actually, but closer than the people writing ones who never met him!) and fills in that gap post Bonzos in the mid-late 70s.

Also did they ever record Stinkfoot? I’ve always wanted to have a copy, either on DVD or audio – and missed hearing about the short revival on Thekla last July…bah!

Oh a few of you might not know who Viv Stanshall was, you poor petals. So here’s a good intro, a show produced by the BBC and introduced by John Peel with Viv on himself and his history in his own words and music (the original piece in 1991 was called ‘Crank’, it seems to have gained the name ‘Diamond Geezer’ somewhere?).

It explains how Viv was just Viv ‘Well I don’t do it, I’m merely being myself, as near as dammit without frightening the housing estates…and her question was absurd rather than fatuous, as if I’d decided one day to wake up and decide I’m going to be a giant squid for the weekend or that’s it I’m going to be a wardrobe for the rest of my…err..word. Well strap me to a tree and call me Brenda! I’m whatever you like just don’t expect me to join in….You see I’m not different for the sake of being different, only for the desperate sake of being myself” Great words, indeed

…although I have no idea why an obit from 1995 has the roman numeral date of 1993 (I suspect it’s been edited together from Crank?) – EDIT: it is from 1993, someone added the ‘Diamond Geezer’ in 1995, seems like many layers of ‘Late’ show, I’ve got a headache.

Bonus: One Man’s Week, a 1975 film about Viv seems to have escaped from the BBC’s Gormenghast Colditz Vaults by means of 1975 quality video…such a shame Viv wasn’t let loose more often on the public with a camera, that would’ve been a great TV programme. Also in part 3 you can see him working on ‘Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead’ which was heavily African influenced and years before it’s time.