Laband Felix

Deaf Safari is an audio collage of subjects that interest me and speak
of the world I live in. It is an album composed of sampled recordings
from the media landscape that has been the soundtrack to my life over
the last ten years.

The most important development in my current music and as can be heard
on Deaf Safari has been my understanding of the beauty and power of the
spoken word. I have experienced severe indifference to contemporary pop
and electronic music as a whole over the last many years, as I have felt
that social comment of any relevance has been ignored by music in general.
Deaf Safari attempts to bring sociopolitical comment into my music
without taking any specific stand.
Sampled outside of musical influence directly from the news, from
preacher sermons or from contemporary African documentaries.
I have finally created a story with sound that I feel accurately conveys
my personal experience with the African world I live in.

My musical influences on this album lie mostly with local Kwaito house.
Deaf Safari is an experiment within certain boundaries of the 4/4 genre,
to create my own South African "house" album.
I am proud and inspired about the South African Kwaito house scene.
However, as with my first three albums, "Thin Shoes In June“ (2001) -
"4/4 Down The Stairs“ (2002) and "Dark Days Exit“ (2005), I am still
interested in making strange and evocative music.

American Roots music from the earlier periods of the 20th century has
deeply resonated with me during the making of this album.
The incredible field recordings by Alan Lomax of Negro prison and chain
gang work songs, and the
beautiful early recordings of artists such as Leadbelly have had a major
influence on Deaf Safari.