kagablog

Godfather of local electronica, Warrick Sony aka The Kalahari Surfers, needs no introduction. Following his musical rebirth in 2000 Sony has gifted us his epiphanic masterpiece ‘Akasic Record’ (2000), all mystery and dreamy elegance, followed by the more upbeat, bass-driven ‘Muti media’ (2003) and the excellent ‘Panga management’ (2007); this in addition to 2003’s trance outing through Microdot Records, ‘Conspiracy of Silence’.

While all this was going on, a great, unreleased collaboration was coming to life in the shadows. Sony gives us a peek into the makings of what sounds to be a magnificent beast. As he put it: “ex-ORB Greg Hunter and Kris Weston vs. me and Brendan Jury. Unlimited budget and never finished – began in 1998 and a version finished now. 2 continents, self-flagellation, yoga and the beach!”

Warrick’s low-down: “[MELT2000’s Robert Trunz] suggested a collaboration [between Trans.Sky, comprising Warrick Sony and Brendan Jury, and] his favourite producer Greg Hunter, who at that point was finishing off his ‘Alien Soap Opera’ project and decided to swop freezing London for a particularly fantastic Cape Town summer.
‘Turntabla’ began in the summer of 1998 at what was then Shifty Studios in Camp Street, Cape Town. Greg fell in love with a Berimbau I bought when I was in Brazil, and worked on it day and night until he was shitfuckn hot on it. Brendan did string stuff on his viola and processed viola. We were jamming with piano, tabla, viola, veena, berimbau, mridangam, turntables, udu pots.. We even went out and bought and old Wurlitzer church organ for the bass pedals – I’ve never had so much fun in a recording. I think we all did.”

Following the initial swell of inspiration the project was dormant for two years, with Hunter and Weston back in the UK and other key conspirator Brendan Jury moving to Joburg. “Greg returned in 2000 and we finished the album at Milestone [studios], blowing all their main studio speakers in the process. This was a very productive period and the album shifted from the very synthesized sound to more organic; Greg taking control and shaping performances from myself, Madala Kunene, and a string quartet for 2 of the tracks.”

“The album lay around for a decade until Robert Trunz asked me if I wouldn’t mind doing some of my own mixes - a sort of remix of an album that never was. I returned to the album, found amazing performances [to replace some uncleared samples] that we’d done ourselves, and some great Madala Kunene guitar.. and so I reworked 3 quarters of the album.”
With Greg Hunter and Warrick Sony as inter-successive heads of this decade-spun project, and all the heady, exotic ingredients in the mix, I can’t wait to wrap my ears around this one!

[’TURNTABLA’ is out now - go to www.electricmelt.com]

(Turntabla:) First published in BPM magazine