John Wizards - "John Wizards"

Oct 1

Alright, I’m back from my hiatus, I know all 1.5 of you that actually partially care about my blog and my opinions/musical affinities missed me. It’s kind of ironic that during the summer, when I should be the most free, I didn’t post anything. But I decided to explore other avenues with my time, like reading my favourite series again (Dune, the greatest series ever for those of you that aren’t in the know, and part of the cool kid science fiction club. That series will change your gat damn life, I’m as fanatic about it as a religious extremist), I also hung out with friends a lot, did manly physical labour, and wrote (just not on the interwebz). Anyway, enough about me, lets get back to the title of this post, which if you’ve forgotten during my drawn out introduction, is John Wizards.

John Wizards is a group out of South Africa, and their debut self-titled album is something special. I felt like Qui Gon Jinn when he first came across Annakin (it pains me to make episode 1-3 metaphors, but it fits). Like I was wondering where these guys came from. How could there be so much skill in someone so young? And I had the ominous feeling that these guys would be something great. (Except they’re not an obnoxious annoying brat that’s played by one of the worst child actors ever, so my metaphor sort of falls apart there) Their music is just a breath of fresh air. Its like if the setting of the song “Under the Sea” in The Little Mermaid just became this cool, eclectic dance party for young hip twenty-somethings. They fuse elements of hip-hop, disco, African pop, and just chill ethereal vibes. Its like if Vampire Weekend, Discovery and the Ruby Suns all got together in this musical orgy and by some miracle of science produced a bastard child that shared all three of their genetic traits. But really, using other genres and bands to describe them is doing them a disservice, cause they truly do something unique on this first record of theirs. Keep your eye out for these guys, cause I feel like when the mainstream musical media gets a whiff of these guys they’re gonna be the new “in thing”. Every overcrowded music festival from Coachella to Bonnaroo will be scramblin’ to get these guys on one one of their stages. So gain some hip points by giving them a listen now.

Sadly there’s not a lot of their songs on youtube, and I’m in no mood to make my own, so the ones that are on there will have to suffice. But do yourself a favour and check out their whole album. I guarantee you won’t be able to resist dancing, smiling or at least bobbing your head.

“Muizenberg”