After Robots

BLK JKS, Blk Jks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 8, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Secretly Canadian
• ASIN: B002H3ETGO
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,138 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

It's been too long since anyone was able to bring this much soul and heartblood to progressive rock, a medium that has been left cold and dry by a misguided focus on technical show-offery. But by entangling the music they love township blues, fringe jazz and renegade dub into the DNA of prog, BLK JKS have provocatively pulled afro-futurism into a new century. After Robots has all the ingredients of a party record but this is not party music. It's at times disorienting and overwhelming, but it always maintaining a cool, alluring mystique.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars World Beat meets Prog. Rock November 18, 2009

By R. B. Winning

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

After Robots by South African Quartet BLK JKS is a powerful, altogether innovative addition to recent world music. The band performs in three languages, including English. Stylistically the band draws their sound from a wide variety of musical heavyweights like Pink Floyd and power-chord bands like Led Zepplin. The sound is filled by an incredible rythm section that marries the sounds of the both the dark continent and traditional rock sets. This CD will go largely unnoticed inspite of a stellar revue in Rolling Stone magazine. I read the RS review and became intrigued. I bought the CD for less than $10 and now its a staple on my Ipod.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great freshness to this music. November 12, 2009

By Greg TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

It's funny how bringing just one or two new elements to a form can give it a fresh new feel. In this case, the percussion work especially and the vocal work as well give what would otherwise be more-or-less straight up rock music a startling and invigorating new vibe. Also, there is variety from song to song that makes the CD listenable as a collection, because it is not--as too many CDs can be--like one long song. Each song has a distinct sound that ranges from The Who style rock, Rush style rock, raggae, jazz, world, and even lullabye. In fact, in writing this my greatest challenge was to try to say something unbiases about the music...at least finding some uncontroversial way to classify it, for example. But all I am left able to say is that I like it very much. It is ecclectic, it is eccentric, and yet it is not strange or off-putting in the way that, say, the new Flaming Lips CD (Embryonicis, because it is not "experimental" in the usual sense of the term--pushing creative boundaries simply for the sake of creating something new. It is experimental in the best sense, mashing up African beats and well-trod rock idioms with a unique flare that proves--as if it were needed--what an endlessly plastic and adaptable form rock represents.