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In Feature

Operation Khataza built the room before they built the record

July 1, 2026 No Comments

The Cape Town eight-piece built a devoted live following long before they released a note. Their debut single, recorded at Concept Records, is less a beginning than a record of everything that came before it.

There is a way most emerging acts arrive: a single first, an audience hopefully after. Operation Khataza did it backwards. The Cape Town eight-piece—Sanele Blaai (founder and frontman, performing as uFarrah Khataza) on lead vocals, Jarryd “Chuckie” Alexander on bass, Vuyo Nkasawe on keys, Timothy Fortes on drums, Benji Anstey on lead guitar, Fabian Arries Selote on spoken word, and Lois Flandorp and Mariana “MANA” del Carmen on vocals—has for close to three years been a fixture of the city’s underground rooms: mosh pits, sing-alongs, a crowd that knows the words, without a proper studio release to point to.

In Op-ed

Could Cape Town pull off an all-female music festival?

June 30, 2026 No Comments

When Olivia Rodrigo announced Daisy Chain Fields last week, an all-women festival in California with the proceeds going to women’s and girls’ charities, it got us thinking about home. Not whether we could copy it. Whether Cape Town has its own version waiting to happen.

In Feature

VERVE turns two and is still keeping Cape Town’s underground alive

June 24, 2026 No Comments

Writing about VERVE Magazine turning two is strange in the best possible way. On paper, they are technically a competitor. They cover the same city, move through many of the same rooms, and care about many of the same artists. But Cape Town’s music scene is not exactly overrun with thoughtful, independent platforms doing the work properly. When another publication makes it two years in this space with genuine care, consistency and taste, the response should not be insecurity. It should be respect.

And VERVE has earned that.

In Feature

The eye-level conversation: Many Ameri on what artists bring to brands, and vice versa

May 26, 2026 No Comments

There is a particular kind of advice that gets handed to emerging artists in Cape Town when a brand finally comes knocking. Soften the edges. Be easier to work with. Make yourself more palatable. It is well-meaning, and it is almost always wrong.

In Event

Every international artist already confirmed for Cape Town in 2026/2027

May 5, 2026 No Comments

Cape Town doesn’t get a steady stream of international tours. It comes in waves.

A few quiet months. Then suddenly: a cluster. A venue locked in. A genre moment. A reminder that while the city is still figuring out how to sustain its own music economy, it can still pull serious global names when the system aligns.

Here’s every international artist currently confirmed for Cape Town across 2026 (and what each booking actually says about the city right now).

In Op-ed

Cape Town’s music community is organising. It’s about time we paid attention.

April 23, 2026 No Comments

This piece is about a campaign, a document, and a growing movement that could meaningfully shift how live music works in Cape Town. It’s about who AHCOM are, what Our Conditions of Work sets out to do, why we’ve signed the petition — and why we think the rest of the scene should take it seriously too.

In Event

Kiss Kiss reminded us of what events can be

April 17, 2026 No Comments

There’s a version of event production that most of us have quietly accepted as the norm: book a venue, stack a lineup, open the doors, hope the energy takes care of itself. It works often enough. But it also means that when something genuinely considered comes along — when an event treats the entire experience as the creative work, not just the music — you feel the difference before the first act even starts.

Kiss Kiss was that difference.

In Feature

The team behind KAYA Café is ready for bigger stages

April 16, 2026 No Comments

If you’ve spent any time in Cape Town’s live music circles over the past few years, you’ve probably ended up at 35 Loop Street. The KAYA Café — now operating as KAYA HQ — has quietly become one of the most consistent launchpads for emerging talent in the city. Not through hype or algorithmic positioning, but through something far less glamorous and far more valuable: showing up, night after night, with intentional lineups and a genuine respect for the artists on stage.

In Event

At CTIJF 2026, the loudest statements came without lyrics

April 10, 2026 No Comments

For all the scale and prestige that comes with the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF), what stayed with us most this year was something more fundamental. It was the love in the room for live music played by actual people, in real time, on actual instruments. Not as nostalgia. Not as a niche concern. As something alive, urgent, and worth gathering for.

In Feature

Sió spent a decade giving house music its stories. CTIJF is giving her a stage to match it.

March 25, 2026 No Comments

There’s a particular kind of artist South African house music produces every few years. Not always the loudest in the room, nor the name pushed hardest on a lineup, but the kind whose presence feels inevitable in hindsight — as if the music has been preparing audiences for them long before the moment arrives.

For Sió, 2026 is shaping up as that year.