The story of BLK JKS reads like a veritable rock’n’roll legend. For a couple of years around the end of the 00’s, the enigmatic South African rock quartet was the darling of the underground scene. Apparently “discovered” by Diplo in South Africa, they went on to meet and befriend everyone from The Mars Volta to TV On The Radio, two bands they were often compared to. They jammed with The Roots, snapped pics with Pharrell Williams and hung out with Lou Reed at the SXSW festival in Texas. They played double bills with Squarepusher at Southbank (UK) and Femi Kuti at the fabled Irving Plaza (NYC). Recording an EP aptly named “Mystery” by chance at Jimi Hendrix’s iconic Electric Lady Studios. This and a Fader Magazine cover feature in March 2008 then led to the band signing with indie label Secretly Canadian in 2009.

Their debut album “After Robots” went on to blow down the walls of rock'n'roll Jericho with its heady yet seamless mix of post-apocalyptic African funk rock, jazz, kwaito, folk, renegade dub, psych prog-rock, TV channel hopping, internet surfing, mbaqanga, soul and pretty much everything else in between. Confidently pushing one golden envelope through another the band began captivating a cult following for their music worldwide.

Foo Fighter Dave Grohl declared “After Robots” his favourite album of 2009. Thanks to a killer live collaboration with Alicia Keys at the 2010 Football World Cup Kick-Off Concert to an estimated television audience of two billion and their hit song “Lakeside” being synched on EA Sports’ FIFA10 soundtrack, the reviews were glowing and global audiences growing – case in point, Rolling Stone Magazine championed the BLK JKS as “Africa’s best new band”.