Johannesburg’s Blk Jks made more than a few new fans during their last stop in Austin for SXSW. Having built up a good head of steam with their first EP, they were one of the bands that everyone seemed to be buzzing about. Seven months later, they return to Emo’s outside with a brand-new full length under their belt, the ambitious After Robots. The record is a cavernous-sounding, guitar-based rock record that fuses elements of prog, mbaqanga, experimental noise, metal, and dub, and stands in stark contrast to Kwaito, the popular music of South Africa’s post-apartheid generation. Overall, the band and album are one of the few bright exports from a city with a 37% unemployment rate, in a country that's still struggling to build a reliable infrastructure. more ›