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In Feature

Benjamin Jephta on Returning Home Without Repeating Himself

November 25, 2025 No Comments

It’s not easy to go back. Especially when “back” isn’t a place but a version of yourself you’ve outgrown. For bassist and composer Benjamin Jephta, revisiting his debut album ten years later wasn’t about nostalgia — it was about truth-telling. Homecoming Revisited, released on 19 September 2025, doesn’t try to reconstruct 2015. It listens to it from the other side of a decade — one that’s taken Jephta from the Cape Flats to Berklee, to stages around the world, and back to the South African jazz community that raised him.

In Op-ed

Leaving Spotify: Why artists are finally pulling the plug

October 30, 2025 No Comments

It starts quietly: a few artists pulling their catalogues, a few more muttering about payouts and principles. But lately, the volume has risen. From Cape Town to Copenhagen, the whisper of “maybe I should leave Spotify” has turned into a full-blown chorus.

In Review

Champion Trees Shares Autumn Songs from a Band Far from Home

October 28, 2025 No Comments

It makes sense that Champion Trees‘ latest releases feel more like autumn than spring, since they’re now singing to us from the northern hemisphere. Before most of the band moved to England in early 2023, the band had a breakout two years surrounding the release of their debut album, NOW 3000, in July 2022. We gave the album a warmly appreciative review back then, praising its Western Cape sentimentality and heartening undercurrents. It should be no surprise then that we were very excited by the release of four new singles in anticipation of a full album, “I Wear a Shirt That Says Australia” , “I Want to Sound Like a Ghost” , “Gentle, Apple, Balanced”, and “Cabbage Song”.

In Event

Spokofontein: Cape Town’s Groove for the Ones Who Stay Until the End

October 10, 2025 No Comments

These days, too many events feel designed for people who drift in, snap a few photos, and leave before the night really begins. The music becomes background, the crowd thins by midnight, and the promise of connection gets lost somewhere between the bar and the DJ booth.

In Feature

Kujenga on retaining the political urgency of jazz

October 8, 2025 No Comments

In recent years, many musicians and fans have questioned whether jazz still carries the same political charge it once did. For Cape Town’s seven-piece collective Kujenga, those tensions pulse beneath every note of their new EP, Common Ground, a record that insists jazz — or what they call “Black Improvised Music” — still carries a responsibility to the times we live in.

In Op-ed

Spotify Playlists Don’t Mean What They Used To — And Neither Does PR

October 2, 2025 No Comments

A few years ago, landing a track on RapCaviar was akin to winning the lottery. Today, the same placement feels closer to a consolation prize. Streams are down, algorithms are up, and the machinery of music discovery is quietly being re-engineered while artists attempt to keep pace.

In Event

When Jazz Met Township Rap Maglera and Kujenga Made Cape Town Hold Its Breath

September 16, 2025 No Comments

For a few hours on the evening of the first Thursday of September, Cape Town’s music scene witnessed a shift. When Aloe Aloe and Quiet Life Co staged Maglera Doe Boy alongside Kujenga, it wasn’t merely a show; it was history being written in real time.

In Event

VERVE’s Workshop Brought Cape Town’s Entire Music Community Into the Light

September 4, 2025 No Comments

By the time the last question was asked last Saturday afternoon, you could feel it: nobody wanted to leave. In a city where meaningful conversations about music often happen in snatched greenroom chats or late-night WhatsApp groups, VERVE’s latest workshop at Obz Books gave Cape Town’s creative community a rare chance to sit down together — artists, managers, journalists, and curious fans alike — and be heard.

In Op-ed

Women Are Building Cape Town’s Music Scene On and Off Stage

September 3, 2025 No Comments

It’s tempting to start this piece with “despite the odds” or “against the grain.” But let’s not. Because here’s the truth: femme-presenting artists in Cape Town and beyond aren’t breaking into the music scene — they’re helping build it. And if you’re not paying attention, you’re not just missing the moment. You’re missing the movement.

In Op-ed

Is Freestyling Still the True Test of a Rapper?

August 16, 2025 No Comments

It was a simple question, but the answer sparked a storm. When DJ Speedsta asked Cape Town-born rapper K.Keed to freestyle live on his 5FM show, she refused with a calm but firm, “Let’s not do that.” Instead of letting the moment pass, Speedsta pressed her again — igniting a debate that has since spilled far beyond the studio walls.