Released:
2001, African Dope, ADOPECD003

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SA Rock Digest charts:
highest position: 1
weeks on Top 20: 18

Website:
Felix Laband

First sighting of this enigmatic new musical talent was at the beginning of the 'IT' compilation where a 30-second snippet of Laband's moody instrumental, 'Single Light' (titled 'Intro'), opened the album. The full 'Single Light' got a run later on that new-Capetown-wave compilation, and, as with many of those other acts, aroused a lot of interest. 'Thin Shoes In June' is the banquet to 'Single Light's' intriguing appetizer, and yet another triumph for the African Dope label. But this is nothing like the trippy beats fruit salad of Krushed & Sorted's 'Acid Made Me Do It', nor the shimmering hip-pop of the Mood "Phamous" 5ive's dazzling 'Steady On'. This is probably what Moby's 'Play' album would sound like without all those very old archived blues vocal samples. In fact the only words spoken here are a brief looped soundbyte featuring either PW or Pik Botha at the beginning of 'Hopeful'.

Otherwise these are just 15 light, sweet and addictive musical electronic-instrumental pieces that will calm, collect and chill you. Each with its own little tune and imaginative arrangement, designed to ensure that at no stage does this album become remotely tedious or repetitive. It has the dark sparkle of Air's 'Moon Safari', random trippy flashes of Pink Floyd's earlier sounds, and if David Lynch had based 'Twin Peaks' in Cape Town's City Bowl, then this would work as the soundtrack. 'Cat On The Fence' sounds like a symphony for nursery school percussion and xylophone; 'Bats In My Hair' sounds like the shimmering of power lines; 'Thin Use For Shoes' takes the chorus of 'I Love Paris In The Springtime' and turns it into an hypnotic tap-drip. There's enough invention, variety, confidence and great tunes on this bright and shiny debut album to satisfy the most jaded musical cynic. Laband plays on!

Stephen Segerman, SA Rockdigest #103, April 2001

Buy this CD from Sugar Music.

All info supplied by John Samson, July 2002