Search - Blk Jks :: After Robots

World Beat meets Prog. Rock

R. B. Winning | New Mexico | 11/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After Robots by South African Quartet BLK JKS is a powerful, altogether innovative addition to recent world music. The band performs in three languages, including English. Stylistically the band draws their sound from a wide variety of musical heavyweights like Pink Floyd and power-chord bands like Led Zepplin. The sound is filled by an incredible rythm section that marries the sounds of the both the dark continent and traditional rock sets. This CD will go largely unnoticed inspite of a stellar revue in Rolling Stone magazine. I read the RS review and became intrigued. I bought the CD for less than $10 and now its a staple on my Ipod."

A great freshness to this music.

Greg | Brooklyn Park, Mongolia | 11/12/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's funny how bringing just one or two new elements to a form can give it a fresh new feel. In this case, the percussion work especially and the vocal work as well give what would otherwise be more-or-less straight up rock music a startling and invigorating new vibe. Also, there is variety from song to song that makes the CD listenable as a collection, because it is not--as too many CDs can be--like one long song. Each song has a distinct sound that ranges from The Who style rock, Rush style rock, raggae, jazz, world, and even lullabye. In fact, in writing this my greatest challenge was to try to say something unbiases about the music...at least finding some uncontroversial way to classify it, for example. But all I am left able to say is that I like it very much. It is ecclectic, it is eccentric, and yet it is not strange or off-putting in the way that, say, the new Flaming Lips CD (Embryonicis, because it is not "experimental" in the usual sense of the term--pushing creative boundaries simply for the sake of creating something new. It is experimental in the best sense, mashing up African beats and well-trod rock idioms with a unique flare that proves--as if it were needed--what an endlessly plastic and adaptable form rock represents."