Music I like

I grew up on punk and 80s alternative and Goth. My musical ‘home’ is The Pistols, The Clash, Exploited, Crass, Joy Division, New Model Army, Jesus and Mary Chain, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, David Bowie, and my all time favourite, Swans – all British except for Swans, who are from New York.

I also like folk: traditional, especially Scottish (my ethnic heritage) and Irish, as well as Bluegrass and other US stuff (Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie), and the 60s stuff. I also like modern folk/ electronica cross overs like Beth Gibbons, Mojave 3 and Jim White, and dark folk like Death in June and Current 93.

I also like ‘World’ and particularly Middle Eastern music. And Dead can Dance and Loreena

McKennit.

I like some jazz – swing, and off the wall experimental stuff – though I don’t go out of my way to find it.

I like modern classical music, especially minimalist stuff like Arvo Part, Henryk Gorecki, Eric Satie and Philip Glass. Part did the soundtrack for that amazingly lyrical Cate Blanchett/ Giovanni Ribisi film, Heaven.

I like some Hip Hop and Dub: Gil Scott Heron, Linton Kwesi Johnson, NWA, Dead Prez and, I am ashamed to admit, Eminem. I also like Kwaito, which is SA dance music that owes quite a bit to hip hop, though admittedly it’s a bit superficial. But I like to hear rapping in Tsotsitaal, a Zulu based gangsta patois. There is also some good SA Hip Hop like Skwatta Kamp. They
also have Tsotsitaal rapping, but for me the US influence is a little too big. My favourite is Max Normal, fronted by a white boy called Watkin Tudor Jones who comes on stage looking like an accountant, complete with pocket protector, and does some really cool lines – the juxtaposition is quite effective. Hip Hop as voice of oppressed white collar workers!

I like eerie electronica like Sigur Ros from Iceland, and God Speed You Black Emperor! and A Silver Mount Zion.

And I like local music. My favourite is the Afrikaans political folk of the late 80s and early 90s, and the artists who continue their tradition, like the excellent fokkofpolisiekar! These bands did a lot to change the consciousness of young Afrikaners and give them an alternative version of their culture to embrace. There is a wonderfully caustic and subversive alt. afrikaner scene, with cool komix etc.

I am not mad about ‘the Cape Town sound’, which is a kind of jazzy rock, but there are a few exceptional bands, like Boo, The Rudimental, Fetish and Soulja.

And I like trance music, of the sort that you hear at outdoor parties, like Infected Mushroom.