JOHN WIZARDS - John Wizards

John Wizards – John Wizards 

Bounce around the room. Bounce around the house. Bounce around the world. This is all I want to do when listening to the debut album from this Cape Town based African-pop, electronic, funk, meld-of-all-sorts band. Main man John Withers, who is at the helm of this project, creates a wonderfully joyous and original sound which ricochets excitedly throughout, almost, the entire album.

When opening track ‘Tet Lek Schrempf’ begins to unfold, you instantaneously get the feeling that you’re being enveloped in someone’s world, no, universe of sounds. It starts with some pleasant piano and friendly blips acting like creatures flying around in a colourful jungle. It quickly transforms into something more electronic, bringing in synthpop influences on the arpeggiated rhythms. This is swiftly moved on and replaced yet again, this time with metallic Rock N Roll guitars, raising the song to raucous levels. And then all of these sounds are brought together in an excitable medley, evocative of walking through a dream-like fantasy of colours and nature. And that’s just the first track.

Near every track on the album brings in something new, a new sound or instrument which keeps the album fresh and poignant throughout. Even with all of the electronic elements, the songs all have a natural feeling to them. This is mainly down to the frivolous use of African percussion instruments in almost every track, some of which sound distinctly handmade on tracks such as ‘Lushoto’, giving that touch of honesty. The percussion sometimes delves in to the electronic realm, on ‘Limpop’ especially, which boasts extremely hectic synthetic beats which rattle through the track giving an intensely hyper feel.

Nostalgic vibes are brought into play on tracks such as ‘iYongwe’ and ‘Jamieo’. ‘iYongwe’ has a quintessentially 80s feel+. It has that trademark 80s funk to it, but with additional sounds from several different arenas of music too. It sounds as if it’s their experimental African-pop tribute to Chic. ‘Jamieo’ on the other hand is like a soul song revived from the 70s, complete with smooth piano chord progression and endlessly positive finger clicking, and remixed in this odd ‘John Wizards cauldron of sounds’. Whilst it displays these soul elements, it also has an electro bass-wobble accompanying it, which sounds like it’s been taken straight out of a Mr Oizo song; another of the genius mixtures on this album that works so staggeringly well.

Unfortunately there are some songs on the album which are a tad pedestrian, such as ‘Finally/Jet Up’, ‘Maria’, and ‘Hogsback’. Tracks like these, while relatively pleasant, just don’t throw around an interesting variety of sounds in the same way as other tracks on the album. However even some of the more subdued efforts still pay-off; ‘Muizenberg’ begins with a jangly, affected guitar riff, before introducing some surprisingly deep bass sounds and a blissfully soft melodic vocal. It comes across like a less constructed Alt-J song, but with a vocal that doesn’t sound like someone mimicking their mother.

Similarly, the reserved ‘Durvs’ is nice and subtle, and plays out like a calm dance-pop tune. The song ‘LEUK’ also has a slight dance vibe, and sounds like it could have been played on children’s toy instruments. The happy, childlike composition is led by a high-pitched squeal, acting like a cute, pleasant vocal for the song to trundle along with.

Subtlety can be pleasant; however it is most definitely the more up-beat tracks in which John Wizards truly shine. The medley of sounds on ‘Tet Lek Schrempf’, the eclectic percussion on ‘Limpop’, the reggae-style guitar upstrokes on ‘I’m Still a Serious Guy’; all of these intriguing and ultimately enjoyable segments come together to create the feeling of waltzing merrily through a safari park of sounds. Generally, the vibe of the album as a whole is most reminiscent of Battles’ masterful album Gloss Drop: so much intricacy and depth to the whizzing sounds, and yet they come together in a cacophonic symphony of sunny beauty.

If some of the weaker links had been dropped from this lengthy album, it could have been closer to perfect. But nevertheless it is a wonderful trip into a fantasyland of colours, characters, and all sorts of mind-sparking wonderment. If Nintendo decided to make an exceptionally colourful Mario game about partying in the Caribbean, it’s difficult to imagine anything but this being the soundtrack.

Leo Lumley