BLK JKS

North American pomposity might dictate the expectation that psychedelic dub-rock from Johannesburg, South Africa, should sound foreign and unlike anything our privileged ears have heard before, but that would be wrong. BLK JKS has been picking up a lot of well-earned steam lately after forming in 2000, proving itself an indie-rock band with tireless inspiration—although its sublime debut LP, After Robots, just recently hit store shelves. Frontman Lindani Buthelezi leads his group through songs that effortlessly inject a sense of danger and impending doom with swaths of psychedelic guitar solos and unrelenting drumming. It's enough to make you forget that the band stems from the same place that gave the world Dave Matthews.

Updated 09/10/2009