So all you faithful readers of this blog, I have got the new site up and running.  Go and have a look though it,  it is to become the quintessential site for home entertainment reviews in South Africa.

The URL is http://www.hereviews.co.za.

Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

Uncertain of how to write a biog on a band, I am just going to write it from the heart, and give you some of my experience of the band.  I feel that these staid biogs that are often written can be boring and sometimes tedious to read.

Fokofpolisiekar is made up of five members, Francios Badenhorst (vocals), Hunter Kennedy (support vocals and rhythm guitar), Jaco Venter (drums), Wynand Myburgh (bass), and Johnny de Ridder (lead guitar).  They are in my opinion South Africa’s finest rock outfit.  Their lyrics are only in Afrikaans, but you don’t need to understand the language to feel the passion these guys put into their music.  They come out of Belville, near Cape Town in South Africa.

L-R: Johnny, Francios, Jaco, Hunter, Wynand (Picture on Facebook Fan Group)

The name of the band is somewhat controversial, as the direct English translation is Fuck Off Police Car.  They started out to try and shock the South African Afrikaans population, being rather conservative.  They, however, made it big, with their first single, Hemel Op Die Platteland, making it onto the 5FM (the largest rock radio station in South Africa) playlist.  This was the first time South Africa had been exposed to good Afrikaans music.  Their fame grew from there onwards.  They are still known as one of the country’s most controversial bands, but they are a great live act to watch.

Their discography is as follows:

• As Jy Met Vuur Speel Sal Jy Brand – EP (2003)
• Lugstuering (2004)
• Monoloog In Stereo – EP (2005)
• Brand Suid Afrika – Single (2006)
• Swanesang (2006)
• Antibiotika – EP (2008)

I’ll take you down a lane that many people probably have not spoken about before.  The support people in the band, two in specific.  Matt Edwards, the design genius and Liam Lynch, the photo genius.

Matt Edwards, also known by his work at The Fortune Foundation, created many of the cover artworks and tour posters for the band in their early days.  These covers included:

© Rhythm Records

© Rhythm Records

Matt is part of the reason Fokofpolisiekar became as popular as they are.  It is always the behind the scenes genius that greases the cogs.

Liam Lynch, the unofficial, official photographer of the band followed the band from a very early start.  He has become known as the photographer for the band.  Probably his most impressive work done for the band were the photographs used in the music video for Ek Skyn (Heilig). These photographs were taken from the band’s tour of Europe.

Let me talk a little about this bands live performances.  These guys are amazing on stage.  Francios holds the crowds in rapture with his performance, and Wynand is such a showman.  The crowds are usually made up of angry teens rebelling against society.  The looks in their faces is often a picture that cannot often be captured, but this is as close as I came to capturing that feeling of rebellion.

© Me

The band decided go on a hiatus from recording in 2007 so that the band members could follow their personal pursuits.  Francios and Wynand started the Afrikaans hard rock band, Van Coke Kartel. Hunter and Jaco started the hit band aKING, and Johnny started Die Heuwels Fantastis, an electro-rock band.  They came back together to record the EP Antibiotika.

Francios has also been known to do unplugged acoustic sets at the most random places.  Jack Rabbits, in Morningside, Durban, for example.  This set was made up of a collection of Fokofopolisiekar tracks.  He showed his talent not only as a vocalist, but as a guitarist too.  This image captured the moment of that gig.

© Me

Fokofpolisiekar; may their music live forever, and may there soul and rebellious nature never be lost.

*Thanks to all my sources I used on this, most importantly Wikipedia and Rhythm Records for the images.

Cover Artwork: Fink - Biscuits for Breakfast

2006

Fink is a genuis…

Fink, Fin Greenall, is a singer/songwriter born in the UK.  Biscuits for Breakfast is his second album.  The music is surreal and very laid back.  But when you listen to it carefully, there is a depth in the guitar playing not often seen from the modern rock we listen to all the time on the radio.  His acoustic sets are awesome.  I was fortunate enough to go along to The Alexander Theatre, deep in Braamfontein, last year to go and watch the genius in action.  He was supported by Cabins in the Forest, a local outfit from Cape Town.  They set the scene perfectly with a trippy acousitic set.  Fink came on with his bassist and my goodness, I was completely blown away.

The first track starts of with a clean voice and beautiful picking on the guitar.  The stomp box is a clear bass beat keeping the time of the music.  It moves into a strum, subtle at first, building up to a climax.

The rest of the album keeps with this style, and quite frankly, if you are stressed, give Fink a listen, and you will unwind quickly.  Produced by the guys at Ninja Tune, this album keeps giving.  You take something new from the album everytime you listen to it.

Should you wish to purchase this fine piece of musical genius, head on over to our friends at www.kalahari.net and pick it up at the mere price of R140.95.

If you like Fink, you should definitely try out Cabins in the Forest, a local band with a similar sound.  You’ll only be able to pick up their album from one of their gigs by the looks of things.  But you can sign up to join their mailing list at their official website, www.cabinsintheforest.com

Cliff Stoll: The Cuckoo's Egg

“A spy story for the ’90s – and its all true” Tom Clancy

Author: Cliff Stoll

Printed: 1990

Publisher: Pocket Books

Genre: Non Fiction

Cliff Stoll, an astronomer turned systems manager at LBL (Lawrence Berkeley Labs), picked up an accounting error in the mainframe.  It was out by 75 cents.  This 75 cents led him on a wild goose chase across continents searching and entrapping a hacker working for the KGB ulitmately.

The book captures you into a world of academia, spies, and computer junkies.  Stoll was an academic working at LBL on the computer systems when he came across an accounting error, this error led him to investigate a little, and he found a hacker had worked his way through the security in his Unix Mainframe.  He decided not to close off the connection, but rather trace the invader.  This led to a year long chase.  He writes brilliantly about how he was losing friends due to his connections with the government.  He writes how he had no support from any of the government agencies in the beginning, but perseverance pays off in the end.

The book is somewhat heavy at stages for people who are not sure about computer languages, but Cliff Stoll manages to simply explain every line he writes, without making the reader feel inferior.  This book is one for people who love spy stories, just note this one is real.

You can find the book online from our friends at www.kalahari.net for a mere R341.66.

Happy reading, and I guess I won’t see you for a while, because the book is impossible to put down.

Cover Artwork: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Written By: Tim Burton

Directed By: Henry Selick

1993

An all time classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas, has now been remastered High-Def beauty that is Blu-Ray.  For those of you that do not know of Jack Skellington and Sally need to watch this film.  It is penned at a childs movie created by Walt Disney Studio, but the humour and dialogue are definitely aimed at an adult audience.  The film is considered to contain Mild Scenes of Horror.  So parents you have been warned!

The story is about the hero of Halloween, Jack Skellington, who becomes bored with the idea of Halloween and wants more from his skeletal life.  Whilst walking in the forest one day he happens upon a grove of trees which holds doors to other holidays.  He enters the Christmas portal and immediately get transported into Christmas Land.  He gets an idea to become the new Santa, and does a horrible job at it.

The film is part musical, part normal dialogue.  The score is done by Danny Elfman, probably most famous for his score in Men in Black. The score is lovely upbeat singing with dark, morbid lyrics.  It definitely appeals to my love a dark, morbid things.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is filmed with stop motion animation.  It is stunning and will captivate any viewer.

Please do yourself a favour and watch this all time great Tim Burton film.

Should you wish to purchase this film, head on over to our friends at www.kalahari.net and pick it up for a mere R255.56 on Blu-Ray or for R229.95 on DVD.

Cover Artwork: aKing - In The Twilight

2009

So I am just listening through the first three tracks of this album, and you know what, its damn good.  I think I might even go as far as to say, this is better than their first album!  One thing that is kept constant from the last album is the clean, clear vocals of Laudo.  You can hear everything they have to sing about, which is a huge difference from some of the other bands that are out there at the moment.

Laudo’s low notes are deep and resonant, and hold you captivated as you listen to the superb lyrics.  The guitars are clean with little distortion, which makes for a huge difference.  On In The Twilight, there is a short vocal from an African vocalist, which adds a dynamic to the album we did not see on Dutch Courage, taking them to a new level.  In The Twilight is a beautiful track pulling one in and keeping one captivated right until the end.

This album has all the makings of another hit.  I feel it might attract a new listenership and they will definitely retain their existing listener base.  I cannot wait to see them perform this live, and I will definitely be at their first Jozi gig.

If you would like to purchase these first three tracks off In The Twilight, head on over to www.rhythmrecords.co.za and for a mere R21.00 you can download these three tracks!

All I can say is if the rest of the album lives up to these three tracks, we have another huge hit on our hands!  Well done guys!

Cover Artwork - aKing: Dutch Courage

2008

I am eagerly anticipating the release of the aKing album, In The Twilight.  In fact I am so excited that I am downloading the first three tracks off the album as we speak.  I thought it only fair that I do the review of the first album before I jump headfirst into the review of the first three tracks off the new album.

Dutch Courage is a work of genius.  I have followed the band very closely since Fokofpolisiekar went on their hiatus from recording.  The first of the bands to be formed was Van Coke Kartel, an Afrikaans hard rock outfit.  Then aKing came along, and Belville had made it big.

The band consists of two of the original members of Fokofpolisiekar, Hunter Kennedy (Guitar) and Jaco “Snake” Venter (Drums).  The rest of the band is made up by Hennie van Halen (Bass) and Laudo Liebenberg (Guitar and Vocals).  They decided to venture away from the traditional Afrikaans rock they had been performing up to now, and made themselves a name as one of South Africa’s best rock outfits.

There are some tracks on the album that everyone knows and bops along to them in the car when they are played on the local radio stations, for example Safe as Houses and I Believe.  Personally, however, the track Decomposing Lullaby just blows me away every time I hear it.  When the track breaks away and Laudo is singing with very little backing brings goose flesh every time I hear it, for those of you that know the track, will know what I am speaking about, for those of you who don’t, go have a listen.

If you are interested in purchasing the album, head on over to our friends at www.kalahari.net, and they will send you the album for R115.95.  It is a bargain for such great South African music.

So the first three tracks of In The Twilight have just downloaded, and I am about to give it my first listen…  I will let you know what I think.

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Woody Harrelson

Director: The Coen Brothers
2007

This was not quite what I was expecting when I rented the BluRay last night.  I had heard good things about the film, and the fact that it won 4 Oscars generally means the film must be relatively good.

Enjoy is not a word one can describe this film with.  Yes it was good, the filming technique was superb, but the story line, mmmm…  The general synopsis of the film is as follows:

“An artisan, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is out hunting one day and comes     across a failed drug deal.  There he finds $2 million and decides to keep the     money.  There is, however, a man after this money.  Anton Chigurh (Javier     Bardem) stops at nothing to get his money back.  The local Sheriff (Tommy     Lee Jones) follows the trail of this man.”

Not to add any spoilers into this review, but the story does not unfold the way you would think it would.  In hindsight, having slept on it, i do feel that this film deserved its Oscar wins, but DO NOT watch this film if you are feeling a little depressed!

Having won numerous awards, including Best Motion Picture of the Year at the Oscars, the award that was awarded most often was for Javier Bardem for his supporting role as Anton Chigurh.

I would suggest this is a film to rent to say you have watched it, but don’t expect a feel good film.  It is real and brutal.

I personally thought this film was worth every cent for the rental, but I don’t think I will be watching it again in a hurry.

If you want to own this superb film, you can find it at www.kalahari.net for R98.95 on DVD format.  I couldn’t find a price for the title on Blu Ray online locally, but I am sure it is available.

This is home entertainment at its best!

This is one of the most bonechilling albums I have listened to for a very long time.  Now I am a huge Pink Floyd fan, I always have been.  The music has a certain soul to it.  It is not the most technically difficult music, but there is so much soul in the lyrics and melody.  I watch The Wall at quite a young age, and didn’t really fully understand the significance of the film.  It is an outcry to the state of the world.

There is a track in the film that doesn’t appear on the album; When The Tigers Broke Free. If it wasn’t for a friend I would never have found this track.  Well, for those of you wondering, it is the track when the the little boy picks up his fathers gun.  It is the most beautiful song.

But I digress.  This album contains very simple guitar riffs and a simple drum beat, but the fact of the matter is that this still remains my top album for the month of February.  Whenever I listen to The Final Cut, I get the feeling that this band has tapped into the emotions of all around them.  The brass section of When The Tigers Broke Free, gives me chills everytime.

For those of you looking for an album that has meaning, this is definitely the one to have a look at..  It may be oldish, produced in 1983, but it is still a great album!

If you want to pick it up, go along and have a look at www.kalahari.net.  It will set you back R145.95.

Go and get it, you will not be dissapointed.

Cast L-R: Nate Archibald, Dan Humphry, Serena van der Woodsen, Jenni Humphry, Blair Waldolf, Chuck Bass

This has been an educational show for me.  A friend of mine mentioned to me that once you have one hit of Gossip Girl, you will be addicted and you will not be able to stop watching the series.  I can fully understand that comment.  I watched the pilot episode and was not totally convinced by this series.  But a few days later I walked into the flat, and sitting there was my flatmate watching the series.

Once I got that first hit, by god, I couldn’t put it down!

The series relates to the rich and famous in New York’s upper East side.  When I say this I mean these are the top 0.1% of society, the super rich.  The series surrounds the lives of the kids, and the daily problems they face, and the fights they have and the parties the have.

For anyone that has not seen the series, I would strongly suggest you rent the DVD or better yet, you can buy it from www.kalahari.net for R277.85.

An excellent series for any fan of skinner!

*Eds Note: Just had a comment as to why I watch this series, I mean just look at Serena van der Woodsen here!!!!