John Wizards

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John Wizards

John Wizards is a South African indie pop band led by singers John Withers and Emmanuel Nzaramba, with lyrics in English, Kinyarwanda and Swahili .

history

Band founder John Withers, who composes music for television commercials in Cape Town , experimented for the first time in 2010 with dream-like compositions between Congolese rumba and electronic sounds like that of the Warp label . Singer Emmanuel Nzaramba, who came from Rwanda, had played reggae there and in Uganda and who had fled to South Africa via Tanzania and Mozambique, worked in Cape Town as a security guard in a pub. There the two got to know each other and soon they met regularly to make music. Withers wrote the songs and Nzaramba sang to them. They then produced the pieces on their home computer using only guitar and microphone. In order to be able to play local concerts, they formed a live band made up of befriended musicians. After publishing some songs on the Internet, the British label Planet Mu became aware of them, whereupon an entire album was created.

The songs on the self-titled debut album are lo-fi recordings with an ostensibly African character, stylistically using elements of chillwave and indie R'n'B . Withers names Brenda Fassie , Franco Luambo and the South African house scene as influences . More with John Wizards brought in connection genres are digital dancehall and highlife , 80s dance-pop, 70s wah-wah - radio and Shagaan Electro Township sound. The multilingual texts and musical references to the previous hometowns of the band members give the album a "geographic dimension". Therefore, and alluding to the "Wizards" in the band name, The Guardian called it "The most magical album of the year", and John Wizards made it to 8th place among the British daily's "Best Albums of 2013" some German media made it into the list of the best albums of the year. In South Africa itself, John Wizards are largely unknown.

Discography

  • 2013: John Wizards (studio album; Planet Mu)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Mareike Holfeld, Julia Kulla (editor): "John Wizards: Concert on November 13, 2013" , in: Kampnagel.de: Program: Archive , Kampnagel Internationale Kulturfabrik GmbH. (Accessed January 3, 2014)
  2. ↑ ByteFM editors: "Tickets for John Wizards" , in: ByteFM: Magazin , ByteFM GmbH, October 31, 2013. (Accessed January 4, 2014)
  3. ↑ a b Tim Jonze: "John Wizards: the band behind the year's most magical album" , in: The Guardian  : Culture: Music , Guardian News and Media Limited, August 29, 2013. (Accessed January 3, 2014)
  4. ↑ Christoph Braun: "John Wizards: Band from Cape Town ..." ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: spex.de: From SPEX №347 , Piranha Media GmbH, November 11, 2013. (Accessed January 3, 2014) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.spex.de
  5. ↑ Caspar Llewellyn Smith: "The best albums of 2013: No 8 - John Wizards by John Wizards" , in: The Guardian: Culture: Music , Guardian News and Media Limited, December 11, 2013. (Accessed January 4, 2014)
  6. ↑ The best albums of 2013 in German media: BR.de , Byte.fm
  7. ↑ Martin Wendyl: “Local band are wizards on UK music scene” , in: Cape Argus , Independent News and Media, December 21, 2013 or earlier.
  8. ↑ Tom Jones: "In conversation: John Wizards (Planet Mu) ahead of Field Day Festival" ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: The Wild Times , Wild Times Futures Ltd., June 4, 2014. (Accessed June 5, 2014) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thewildtimes.com