Johannesburg-based art rockers BLK JKS (pronounced Black Jacks) will undoubtedly earn comparisons to TV On The Radio not only for their deft fusion of jazz, blues, doo wop and electronica but because they’re, well, black men in the white as rice realm of indie rock.
Most of the media furor surrounding BLK JKS has come on the back of “Lakeside” a track whose soaring vocals, background falsetto and insurgent rhythm section recalls TV On The Radio at their most epic, that is until a chanted tribal breakdown kicks in and things get weird.
In short the genre bending four-piece make noisy avant garde rock peddled most recently by a wave of afro-beat inspired Brooklynites. The key difference being BLK JKS are actually from Africa.
