Purple. That’s the colour of trip-hop. It’s a deep, muted purple sound that floats into the thick, velvet curtains of the theatre venue. And despite the pop-art stickers bearing the grainy lettering ‘Tapedeck Circuitry’ all over the sleek silver Macbook digital Line6 keyboard and synthesizer in the background, it’s an analogue sound. Cue neuvo trip-hop. It’s not the first time this stuff’s going down in Cape Town — we’re on party #5 here. Ripe.

Johnny Cradle: forefront of the emerging African trip-hop trend. SA Music Vids on Zoopy | YouTube | Facebook

There can’t be a person over 23 who doesn’t recognise the distinctively mellow opening key strains of Portishead’s ‘Dummy,’ and with the right exposure, the same could hold true for the emerging Mother City African Trip-Hop Collective. They’re a crew hailing largely from Port Elizabeth and throwing monthly Tapedeck Circuitry parties around the city. There’s no glamour; the dreadlocked, peak-capped, glasses-wearing blackwhitecolouredasian Sunday night crew with their feet on the back of the chair in front of them aren’t here in response to some poster of some cheesy guy grinning at a naughty, over-made, plastic-faced ‘honeyz‘. There are none, and unlike the shouty, anxious indie-guitar jols you’ve been going to, this is music you can actually enjoy with your eyes shut.

There’s always a main man behind a trend. Uh…Ghandi for peace? No. You know, someone who couldn’t have done it on his own, but grabbed the reigns and said, ‘fuck it, let’s ride.’ One half of two-piece instrumental downtempo outfit Johnny Cradle, dreadlock-shaking guitarist and programmer Sakie is the guy. Formed in the ‘silently active’ P.E community in 2005, Johnny Cradle is a result of varsity music student Ace sharing a practice room with Sakie. After playing some uni youth functions, Sakie left for Cape Town, hooked up with turntablist DJ Laz (who actually has a shirt that says ‘DJ Laz’ on the back – nice.)

“All lyrics are in English & Xhosa. We’re both from the East Cape,” goes Sakie. As a duo, Laz and I have performed in various venues throughout the most part of 2008. Tapedeck Circuitry is the joint musical venture between the collaborative chillaxation of Johnny Cradle, the soulful sex-appeal of Lebadi and like-minded musos Eavesdrop (C.T), Fungus (C.T), Asanda (East London), Steel (C.T) and ex-Kwani Experience vocalist Nosisi.”

In the dimly lit L-shaped hall enclosing 50+ people, there echo a few references to Haile Selassie and Jesus Christ, and clearly, spirituality is top of the list here. And while we’re boxing them in, let’s talk about the sound. Adrian Thaws, the throaty, whisper-rapper you may know as Tricky, reportedly hates the moniker ‘trip-hop’ to describe his sound, but hey – being labelled is the price you pay for the life you choose as an artist. And anyway, getting a Mercury nomination for your debut (Maxinquaye, 1995) is a pretty good start, so suck it up. But what do Johnny Cradle call their stuff?

“I obviously haven’t the slightest of clues! As a scapegoat I always say it’s “roots electronica,” chuckles Sakie. “I doubt that makes any sense but bear with me cause I’m not very creative with these things! I wouldn’t necessarily say our music is minimal cause like the genre thing it may differ from song to song.”

As emerging musicians, tripling up as artist, promoter and publicist is part of the package. How these guys find the time to put together an EP is a question worth musing over. Preferably one evening at the studio, with a couple of spliffs and a steel-string.

“We’ve recorded quite a sum of tracks here in my home set-up using a laptop, a Line6 interface and a Rode NT1A mic,” he says, and as he talks he professes an almost sexual expertise with the production of electronic music. “Programming is done with a bunch of software instruments and plug-ins on Logic 8 with an E-MU controller. Acoustic guitars going through the Gearbox plug-in for Fx, and additional noises and bass from the Little Phatty stage II. All scratches and sampling are done through Dj Laz’s turntables, which are routed through the Tone Port and fed into Logic. We thinking of who’s and how’s with regards to mastering and recording so I think a meet with you guys (Overtone) would be magic.”

Anything else for the soul-brothers to chew on?

“Somebody please tell these dudes to let go of those 40′s jazz records. This whole sampling generation thing…will kids in 2040 sample sampled music?”

“Young South African musicians should stop looking back but rather build on what they’ve learnt. There’s already been a Miriam Makeba. Mango Groove did their thing. TKZee did their thing. Somebody please tell these dudes to let go of those 40′s jazz records. This whole sampling generation thing…will kids in 2040 sample sampled music?

But ripe as it is, what pushes the trip-hop collective into their own category is how you hear about it. You don’t. It’s still relatively underground, and you probably wouldn’t have heard about it unless you’re already a part of it. Sure, you could stumble upon it online (we found them through a blog comment on Overtone), but this is a word-of-mouth affair. Refreshingly under-mediated. Couple of kids in the audience, cos mom digs the stuff too much. Post-middle age relatives at the back, chatting. Anti-exposure flanked by four walls of purple-velvet audio. Halfway through the gig, it’s absolutely essential that you run down the street to the Spar, pick up an Almond Magnum and return to your seat before someone takes it. Now, this purple sound tastes like chocolate. Tapedeck Circuitry, everyone. Last Sunday of every month at Obz Cafe. 6.30pm. Come and chill…

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