Artist: Jane Rademeyer
Album: I think a Halo
Label: Uncorp Records
Year: 2007
Reviewed By: Woodstock Slim

She captures beautiful sounds and uses them to keep warm. This album is her life's work but I'm not entirely sure that she knows that. You can easily hear that the two years it took to make this masterpiece of South African reverie hides more years than just two.
I Think a Halo explodes with the ripping 'Missgive Misstake' that just kicks you in the belly and makes you fold double and when you breath in to come erect you start to dance. It's hard to believe although Electronica is a deep subculture here on the Southern Tip with acts like Radio Lava, Somerfaan and of course Jane Rademeyer. When I interviewed her for The Unhappy Hour Show, I suggested the three acts should tour together. The Prince of this genre is without introduction, Jesse Koolhaas from Amsterdam and he has, I guess, a hard time making it big too. Rademeyer loves sound and, I don't think fancied herself as a vocalist, when she created I Think a Halo. I think it is apparent to her and the rest of us that her voice is a revolution on our doorsteps and many things will come from this, from her, like a mother she has now given birth. She plans to release a her second album with more vocal stylings she has now become renowned for. She had produced the best album to come from this country in over 30 years since the Cloud brothers from Rabbit ripped up the vinyl and put S.A. Rock on the world map when other nationalities thought that lions walked in the streets here. She has works on the big screen, small screen, stage, sound art in galleries her voice in bands all over and samples to many to remark.
Her influences are unimaginable 'cept for the Lali Puna and Boards of Canada which are two of my favorites too. Her theatrical background help push her vocals into an art performance and not just moaning across tired tracks to hide nonsensical lyrics. Her words are well thought of and personal to everyone who hears them. There are fast paced slow and stripped tracks on I think a Halo, some are fun, some are serious and melancholy. Rademeyer talks directly
to you and every word from her lips falls gently on your ear like adult sized little girls'. Jane is to Electronica what Janice Joplin is to Rock! She is Kraftwerk and she is not yet done...
The first time I think I heard her voice was with Tracy Stokes from Angular Crescent(former Oceanica, me thinks...) Miguel Pedro and that lot. I think a Halo is a record that finds a home real quick and is hard to push eject on. It is clever, tricky, smart at times and even haunts now and then and even makes you feel like you're in Europe at a Dead Brothers show. By the time you get to the end past a few Dubby/Break Beat and even Hip-hoppy tracks you long for the sultry Trip Hop and Electronica sound that bleeps and buzzed you into the early stages of her record.
This album drop kicked, Feist's The Reminder, from my best album of the year slot. Sorry Lezlie, back to the drawing board for you.


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