Felix Laband - Deaf Safari

Facts Deaf Safari is an audio collage of subjects that interest me and speak of the world I live in. It is an album composed of sampled recordings from the media landscape that has been the soundtrack to my life over the last ten years. The most important development in my current music, as can be heard on Deaf Safari, has been my understanding of the beauty and power of the spoken word. I have experienced severe indifference to contemporary pop and electronic music as a whole over the last many years, as I have felt that social comment of any relevance has been ignored by music in general. Deaf Safari attempts to bring sociopolitical comment into my music without taking any specific stand. Sampled outside of musical influence directly from the news; from preacher sermons or from contemporary African documentaries. I have finally created a story with sound that I feel accurately conveys my personal experience with the African world I live in. My musical influences on this album lie mostly with local Kwaito house. Deaf Safari is an experiment within certain boundaries of the 4/4 genre, to create my own South African 'house' album. I am proud and inspired about the South African Kwaito house scene. However, as with my first three albums, Thin Shoes in June (2001), 4/4 Down the Stairs (2002), and Dark Days Exit (COMP 185 LP, 2005), I am still interested in making strange and evocative music. American roots music from the earlier periods of the 20th century has deeply resonated with me during the making of this album. The incredible field recordings by Alan Lomax of Negro prison and chain gang work songs, and the beautiful early recordings of artists such as Leadbelly have had a major influence on Deaf Safari. I am truly excited to release this album and to start performing in the music world again. It has been ten years since I released Dark Days Exit, and although I have been purposefully absent from the music world, I have nonetheless never stopped making music. I feel that I have finally arrived at a mature and challenging stage in my pursuit of making emotional music of relevance. -Felix Laband, February 13, 2015.