{"id":75626,"date":"2021-03-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=75626"},"modified":"2021-03-22T18:59:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T17:59:31","slug":"blk-jks-abantu-before-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/blk-jks-abantu-before-humans\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock band BLK JKS returns with retro-futuristic album"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Increasingly popular in South Africa, BLK JKS will breathe new life into the Johannesburg music scene with their upcoming album, <em>Abantu\/Before Humans<\/em>. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>BLK JKS, pronounced &#8220;Black Jacks,&#8221; provides space for the individuality of each member, particularly guitarist Mpumi Mcata, who dresses like Black Uhuru did in the 80s. Their first album, <em>After Robots<\/em>, was a great success all over the world. <em>Rolling Stone magazine<\/em> called BLK JKS the &#8220;<em>best new African band<\/em>&#8221; after their collaboration with Alicia Keys during the 2010 World Cup. Performing mainly at festivals and nightclubs in South Africa, they have also played with the Malian legend <a href=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/tag\/ali-farka-toure\/\">Ali Farka Tour\u00e9<\/a> and American band The Roots. BLK JKS are also a source of inspiration for Urban Village.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div><div><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=763040475\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless loading=\"lazy\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blk-jks.bandcamp.com\/album\/abantu-before-humans\">Abantu \/ Before Humans by BLK JKS<\/a><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, BLK JKS sets foot on on new a journey with <em>Abantu\/Before Humans<\/em>, a retro-futuristic album that the band defines as follows: &#8220;<em>A fully translated and transcribed obsidian rock audio anthology chronicling the ancient spiritual technologies and exploits of prehistoric and post-revolutionary Afro-bionics, as well as the sacred texts of the Great Book of the Arcanum, by young Kushites from Azania, linked to the 5th dimension and the 3rd dynasty.<\/em>&#8221; This project is dedicated to the tenth anniversary of their debut album <em>After Robots<\/em>, in partnership with <a href=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/tag\/glitterbeat-records\/\">Glitterbeat Records<\/a> and We Are Busy Bodies. Grooves, horns and guitars serve a plurality of genres, from spiritual jazz to kwaito to post-apocalyptic funk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bassist Makananise reveals the secret ingredient of their band: &#8220;<em>In jazz, there are suspended chords and other things that give you a kind of discord. If Mpumi is playing his fears when I come in, sometimes I have to play what I&#8217;m feeling too, but in the process, I have to find out where he is. That&#8217;s where the jazz comes in.<\/em>&#8221; Metal and traditional South African music are also present. Guitarist Mcata states: &#8220;<em>Forget the idea that we&#8217;re going to make the rastas like our rock. If you have a gig, call us. A jazz event, anything, we become the color of the gig. We don&#8217;t have a home.<\/em>&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pre-order <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (s\u2019ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)\" href=\"https:\/\/blk-jks.bandcamp.com\/album\/abantu-before-humans\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Abantu\/Before Humans<\/em><\/a>, ahead of its May 21 release via  Glitterbeat Records et We Are Busy Bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen to BLK JKS in our Songs of the Week on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (s\u2019ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)\" href=\"https:\/\/spoti.fi\/2Pz0eyg\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify<\/a> and <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (s\u2019ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)\" href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/30zVbUA\" target=\"_blank\">Deezer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/a1c759eb-abantu.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-75556\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/a1c759eb-abantu.jpg 700w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/a1c759eb-abantu-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/a1c759eb-abantu-661x661.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/a1c759eb-abantu-465x465.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/a1c759eb-abantu-375x375.jpg 375w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/a1c759eb-abantu-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/a1c759eb-abantu-85x85.jpg 85w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/a1c759eb-abantu-73x73.jpg 73w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Increasingly popular in South Africa, BLK JKS will breathe new life into the Johannesburg music scene with their upcoming album, Abantu\/Before Humans. BLK JKS, pronounced &#8220;Black Jacks,&#8221; provides space for the individuality of each member, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":75553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3944],"tags":[35580,5325,32166,35581],"location":[7844],"yst_prominent_words":[35507,35509,35508,35506,8403,35579,19557,35501,15027,35578,8414,13802,11164,8447,8435,20879,10360,8438,19556,19555],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75626"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=75626"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=75626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}