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Capetonian band jacSharp received news last week that their debut single Saving Grace off their recently released Album – Technicolour, had smashed the popular 5fm chart in just 3 weeks! Entering the chart at Number 23, Saving Grace climbed dramatically to the top spot last week pushing jacSharp into the forefront of South African music.
The album – available online at Rhythm Records.co.za, has already done remarkably well on the national stations – with 3 singles currently being played by Highveld Fm, GoodHope Fm and Heart Fm, 5Fm and all of the campus stations. “Its an unprecedented number of singles for a debut album to have charted in the local market.”
“We’re ecstatic to see the album doing so well and of course our first Number One with Saving Grace is just the first step in the direction we’re heading!” says Ben Peters, drummer for jacSharp.
The group, who have been making music since 2005 only launched their brand to the public in 2008 and have subsequently made a significant impact both locally and internationally. Having won the Global Hewlett Packard Launch your Band competition last year – they have toured Germany, France and the UK and have an extensive tour of the USA planned for October of this year.
“Its our vision and goal to imprint our music on the world,” states Juliet Harding – Lead Singer. “we have the burning desire to create a successful business of our band and we’re taking every step to achieve that!”
From strength to strength it seems jacSharp is on a rollercoaster ride of success. This is certainly a band to watch out for. - Argus
Debut Album from jacSharp Boosts South African Music Scene
South African music has just received its next major boost; it's called Technicolour and it's jacSharp's world-class debut album
South African music is in an encouragingly positive space. New bands are springing up on an almost weekly basis, and they’re producing and playing quality music that people – in South Africa and overseas – are lapping up.
National radio stations are doing a great job of supporting new local music, and there are plenty of gigs happening around the country.
South African music is undoubtedly enjoying a resurgence of sorts, and it’s thanks to hard-working bands like jacSharp, who are making the effort to deliver colourful music that is distinctly South African and at the same time also world-class.
CapeTownMagazine.com attended the launch of jacSharp’s debut CD – Technicolour – in December 2008. The band chose to treat those in attendance to a star show at the Cape Town Planetarium, with each track being played in full, crisp surround sound, and each briefly explained by the various band members.
The band consists of Carl Wegelin on guitars, Ben Peters on drums, Emelio Gassibe on bass and Juliet Harding on vocals. Carl, Ben and Emelio all hail from one of South Africa’s top rock bands, Plush.
JacSharp classify themselves as Afro-Pop, and yes, while the majority of the tracks do incorporate well-defined African rhythms with an obvious pop presence, simply slotting this band into a slick-sounding genre is a shortcut to nowhere.
You really need to put this album on from start to finish and appreciate the finer nuances of all the tracks. Each is meaty enough on its own, but this album is really more about the whole – it’s an ingenious piece of work that has a strong overall identity and distinctive musical presence.
With textured tracks that range from catchy to contemplative, this album takes the listener on a multi-layered journey, filled with suave sounds and thoughtful lyrics.
“Technicolour is an album title with lengthy debate behind it, one that conjures up a range of visual imagery and certainly an identity which characterizes the diversity that best represents jacSharp,” says the band.
With pre-production first beginning in early October of 2007 the album has been over a year in the making – completed and with the final mastering it arrived back in late November 2008.
Technicolour exposes the listener to the band’s exploration of genre and their sharing of a passion for the music they create. It is permeated by an uplifting sense of an inexplicable and remarkable African flavour.
It’s said that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but jacSharp invites you to judge their debut album by its artwork, which is a stunningly accurate visual match for the music you’ll discover on the CD itself.
Altogether it is a production that has just lifted the bar for South African artists by quite some way.
Molo Says: “Look out for the second bonus track on the album – the Distractions remix by Chris Griffin, who’s produced and remixed hit songs for Madonna, Kanye West, John Legend, Missy Elliot and Janet Jackson to name a few – legendary stuff!”
“Use the rhythm. Kick it. All around the room…” jacSharp – Saving Grace
Here at CapeTownMagazine.com we see it as our responsibility to make sure that people from around the world have opportunity to discover great new South African music online.
- Cape Town Magazine
Discography
Album : Technicolour (Preview at http://www.last.fm/music/JacSharp)
Radio Singles : Saving Grace, Tonight, What's Going Down and Distractions
Photos
Bio
What do you get when you mix an electro drummer, funk rock guitarist, an afro bassist and a jazz singer...? People often struggle to put their finger on the genre, but we think afro-pop best describes the eclectic sound! Introducing jacSharp…
jacSharp began as a musical meeting of minds – with the group forming the live acoustic band in early 2005. After 2 years of relationship forging, jacSharp launched as a professional band in 2008. Soon after they had success in winning the Hewlett Packard Launch your Band Global competition – flying to Berlin to perform at the celebratory event held by HP for over 1000 international journalists.
Surging forward with a debut album mixed and engineered by a plethora of acclaimed international engineers the band has sculpted a foundation for radio success. With 2 singles already claiming air play prior to the records release! This did not go un-noticed and jacSharp soon found themselves enjoying the interest of several major publishing houses. They decided to go with Peermusic Publishing for all global territories as the company vision and level of professionalism is of the highest international standard.
Foreseeing a gap in the entertainment market and with a production vision in mind, the team designed and created jacSharp Electro – their secondary live show featuring a spectrum of trip-hop/dance remixes and new songs from their album. The show takes dance music to its next level – bringing a live element to the club scene whilst still maintaining the ease of action of the DJ. jacSharp like to call it their USB plug & play set... With a residency in the prime Camps Bay party zone at the exclusive club Karma Lounge, it seems those in the know have already stamped jacSharp Electro...Hot.
jacSharp is: Juliet Harding - who started writing music at the tender age of 12 and went on to wet her feet in the advertising world before committing all her energy to music in 2008 , Carl Wegelin - who developed a love for song-writing and jamming guitar throughout his school and university years, will easily shift from straight rock to his love of funk, reggae and experimental sounds, Ben Peters - who started out training as a Therapeutic Aroma Therapist but soon had his hands itching to be banging out the beats that cause heart palpitations. Ben has strong roots in trip-hop and electro music he adds an infectious groove to the mix resulting in an undeniable character to the songs, and Emelio Gassibe –who with his professionalism, knowledge of music and performance, and incredible skills on the bass guitar, is definitely the most experienced in the group, and added the final component to build the solid machine that is now jacSharp.
The eclectic sound that is jacSharp is already exploding both to the international and South African markets. Their brand has been established with hundreds of gigs behind them including prestigious festivals such as ‘South Africa’ day in London, Rocking the Daisies and Splashy Fen, a music video on DSTV’s MK channel, and extensive national radio airtime.
The vision behind jacSharp lies in building an empire of diverse business structures interwoven in the field of the music industry. Their ethical approach and professional delivery in all areas has lead to a reputation of efficiency and effectiveness across their band and brand portfolio.
If you dig to the core of this band, you will find something magical that has been built on a foundation of good times, solid relationships and musical diversity amongst the members. Through an understanding of their strengths they have taken this diversity, melted it down, mixed it together and energetically thrown it at their delighted audiences.
Needless to say, 2009 will see some surprising developments from this unique band who seem indomitable in their ambition for success.
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