You Should Know:

Culoe De Song is a nineteen-year-old Eshowe boy that has been causing waves on the international house music scene for the past two years: after South African house impresario Black Coffee met him in Dur-ban he signed him to his label Soulistic Music. His stint at Red Bull Academy in Barcelona resulted in him being approached by famed German label Inner-visions, who then released a three track vinyl release of Culoe’s songs.

Thanks to that deal, Culoe now spends a lot of time on the decks both here and abroad. Finally, his much anticipated debut, A Giant Leap, is out. Surely you’ve heard his massive hit ‘Webaba’ (a remix of Busi Mhlongo’s powerful track)? This hot House offering also features a remix of a track by Salif Keita and Jimmy Dludlu. 

he was interviewed in the studio while working on his most recent project, this is how it went:

Okay I just have to ask you about your name, Culoe De Song, what does it mean what inspired it, who gave it to you?

The name Culoe De Song originates from my real name at birth, ‘Culolethu’, which means ‘our song’ in isiZulu and it is a name that spiritually came to me, through my passion.

How long have you been in the music industry and what have your biggest songs been and what compilations did they feature on?
My time in the music industry hasn’t been that long, but somewhere somehow I feel it has been an adventure; roughly two to three years if you will, and I’d say my biggest songs in South Africa thus far would be ‘100 Zulu Warriors’ with Black Coffee (on Have Another One), the remix of ‘100 Zulu Warriors’ on Fistaz Mixwell’s Impressive, ‘Super Afro’ which has a music video, ‘Dwellers of The Jungle’ which was featured on DJ China’s House Kollektives Vol 3 and currently the Culoe De Song Zulu Spirit Mix of the song ‘Let Me Go’  by Reggie Dokes is doing pretty well in the scene….

Where are you from and where are you now based?
I’m originally from a small town up in the north of Durban called Eshowe.

How would you describe your sound?
With all honesty I really don’t have a solid term to describe my sound, but I can say that it draws inspiration from my origins and my world dream.

You’re signed to Innervisions, where is that label, who else is signed to it and how did you get signed to an international label?
Innervisions is a German Label and it is family of the likes of Ame, Henkrik Schwarz, Dixon and other well-known international artists in the electronic/house music scene. I got signed to this stable through my music and they released my first global 12inch EP, ‘The Bright Forest’.

You’re only 19, you’re touring internationally and have an international deal, when did you start playing?
I started DJing a while ago, from back home but only formally joined the industry around 2006. 

Who or what inspired you to start DJing?
My passion for the art and the music is my primary motive behind my skills as a DJ. I really love it, from the times I used to record radio shows and mixes with my cassettes…

When did you start producing?
I started producing intensely around 2006.

What’s the link between you and Black Coffee?
Black Coffee is the man behind my signing in South Africa; his label is Soulistic Music. He is more than just my label boss, he’s like a father through his guidance and support, and we met through a long time brother and friend, DJ Kabila.

Why do you look up to Black Coffee?
I look up to him as person and as an artist. His story in the music industry is an inspiration to many, and his sound brought a whole new era of soul in South African house music, and he is the father of what he does, a man in his own league, very genuine and legendary.

Who are your other favourite DJs and producers?
I have a great list of DJs, producers and musicians who are my favourites: Osunlade, Black Coffee, Vinny Da Vinci, Kerri Chandler, Dj Christos, Boddhi Satva, Charles Webster, Abicah Soul, Louie Vega, Franck Roger, Jazzanova, Henrik Schwarz, Ame… also to mention that I’m a great fan of musicians like Salif Keita, Femi Kuti, Busi Mhlongo, Oumou Sangare, Hugh Masekela, Lira, Thandiswa, Camagwini, the list is endless…

You were at the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona in 2008, and now South Africans can enter to take part in it in London next year, what did that do for you as a person and a music maker?
The Red Bull Music Academy did a lot for me spiritually and career- wise. Spiritually I mean; I was exposed to different types of cultures and music and this greatly opened my heart and inspiration.

Speaking of international trips, where in the world have you performed?
I’ve performed in places such as Spain, Italy, Holland, Swaziland, Belgium and South Africa of course…

Is there a difference playing for SA crowds and international crowds?
Well maybe for some DJs this would be otherwise but I feel a difference in atmosphere, in terms of the crowds, and it is a great thing to experience different atmospheres as a performer.

Anything else coming up this year?
This year I had quite a number of projects coming up, The Dragon’s End ft Fatima with Remixes to be released on Offering Recordings, another Culoe De Song 12 inch EP on Mule Musiq, Culoe De Song remixes for Mzee Wa Afrika on Ocha Records, and also a currently unannounced project with Boddhi Satva.

Any plans to study further, seeing as you’re so young!
Well yeah, even though I’m keeping a low profile on that but I’ll be doing something along those lines in the near future, and I believe that each one of us never stops learning until the moment we leave earth.

hot flash:

Perhaps no artist is better known for using costumes for role playing than Cindy Sherman. An American photographer and film director known for her conceptual self-portraits.  Sherman works in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. For example, in her landmark 69 photograph series, the Complete Untitled Film Stills, (1977-1980) Sherman appeared as B-movie, foreign film and film noir style actresses. Sherman's most recent series, dated 2003, features her as clowns. Although Sherman does not consider her work feminist, many of her photo-series, like the 1981 "Centerfolds," call attention to the stereotyping of women in films, television and magazines. Throughout her career, Sherman has appropriated numerous visual genres—including the film still, centerfold, fashion photograph, historical portrait, and soft-core sex image—while disrupting the operations that work to define and maintain their respective codes of representation. In addition to numerous group exhibitions, her work is also the subject of solo exhibitions. 

In response to cuts to NEA funding and attempts to censor photographers Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano, in 1989 Sherman produced the Sex series. These photographs featured pieced-together medical dummies in flagrante delicto and sex positions. Like much of Sherman's work, many critics find the series both disturbing and funny. Many art critics consider Sherman to be not only the most successful female photographer of the modern era, but one of the most successful artists of either genders in the late twentieth century with as much influence on younger artists as did Andy Warhol in his era.


Feeling pigeonholed by the feminist discourse that surrounded her work, Sherman gradually dispensed with representations of the female, often removing herself from the picture and moving toward more fantastic and lurid imagery, as in her Fairy Tales and Disasters series from the mid- to late 1980s. The ever-increasing market for her photographs also prompted this turn, challenging her to attempt to create work that was “unsaleable” due to its visceral depictions of vomit, body parts, and grotesque fairy tales. Simultaneously, she instilled the works with a heightened sense of artifice created by garish colors and gaps that reveal the fiction behind the illusion.

Pantheon has recently published Cindy Sherman, a collection of 39 black-and-white and 50 color photographs. This publication by a relatively young artist (she was born in 1954) is an unusual event: monograph collections of photographs, even by the field's elders, are risky commercial ventures and the books often end up remaindered in a year or two. However, Cindy Sherman has cannily succeeded in presenting her work as art and not photography, as Peter Schjeldahl writes in the Introduction, her work is presented "not as 'art photography' but as art, period." 

video of the week- The Bike Song

the fame monster: John Galliano to Stand Trial

Paris prosecutors on Wednesday ordered famed fashion designer John Galliano to stand trial in the coming months over alleged racial insults. The trial could take place between April and June, and Galliano could face up to six months in prison and about $31,000 in fines if convicted, the prosecutors office said in a statement.

Capping a five-day whirlwind of scandal around the designer, the prosecutors said he will face allegations of "public insults based on the origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity" against three people. The news came shortly after the talented 50-year-old designer apologized for his behavior after top-tier house Christian Dior sacked him as creative director over anti-Semitic remarks. Video of an inebriated Galliano praising Hitler and the subsequent firing of one of the industry's most talented and moneymaking designers have sent shock waves through Paris Fashion Week, which began Tuesday. Galliano broke his silence on the issue Wednesday.

"Anti-Semitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologize for my behavior in causing any offense," he said in a statement via his British lawyers. Galliano also said he was "seeking help" for his personal failures, without elaborating. At fashion week, a spokesperson for the John Galliano clothing line declined to comment when asked if the designer was in rehab.

Galliano's downfall began Thursday when he was detained in a drunken state and questioned about accusations that he hurled anti-Semitic insults at a couple in a Parisian cafe. Another complaint about a different incident followed. Then a video of yet another incident surfaced Monday in which Galliano said "I love Hitler," prompting Dior to fire its star designer after 14 years with the company. In the statement Wednesday, Galliano said: "I completely deny the claims made against me and have fully cooperated with the police investigation" into the initial cafe case. But he said he fully accepts "that the accusations made against me have greatly shocked and upset people."

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"I only have myself to blame and I know that I must face up to my own failures," he said. "In all my work my inspiration has been to unite people of every race, creed, religion and sexuality by celebrating their cultural and ethnic diversity through fashion. That remains my guiding light."

Since his appointment in 1996, Galliano made an indelible mark on the storied House of Dior, with theatrical, often outrageous, runway shows that were among the most-anticipated displays on the Paris calendar. But his behavior finally pushed Dior over the edge. Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman, who is Jewish and the new advertising face of the Miss Dior Cherie perfume line, expressed fury over Galliano's remarks.

While Galliano was struggling with his inner demons, fashionistas at Paris Fashion Week were debating who would replace him at Dior, which battles crosstown rival Chanel for the title of world's top fashion house. Many fashion critics, editors and stylists put their money on Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci, whose dark, S&M-steeped creations for Givenchy have won him a rabidly devoted fan base.

Naysayers, though, note that Tisci has done little to boost sales at Givenchy, which is also owned by Dior parent company LVMH Moet Hennessy, and suggest that Dior, as the group's moneymaking locomotive, might be looking for someone with a more proven sales record. Alber Elbaz would fit that profile. The Moroccan-born Israeli has transformed Lanvin from a musty old Paris label to one of fashion's hottest properties. Rumors have long swirled that he would be a shoo-in to replace Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel once the 77-year-old uber-designer retires, but Elbaz has always insisted he's happy where he is. "In a perfect world, it would be Alber" tapped to replace Galliano, said Dana Thomas, a veteran fashion critic and author of "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster."

Other potential candidates include Oliver Theyskens, who's been working for New York-based commercial house Theory after being dismissed from Nina Ricci, and Yves Saint Laurent's Italian-born designer Stefano Pilati. The scandal has thrown Dior into such flux that it was not immediately clear when it would announce any new appointment. Dior still plans to show its fall-winter 2011-2012 collection as scheduled Friday. A Dior official told The Associated Press on Wednesday the house is focusing on preparing for the show and would not comment on discussions of a replacement for Galliano. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of company policy. The fate of Galliano's signature line's presentation, slated for Sunday, remained a question mark. Galliano is also owned by LVMH. A spokesperson for LVMH could not be immediately reached for comment.