Dark Days Exit

Felix Laband is Maritzburg-born, Durban-bread and Cape Town-based. He thankfully took up computer music instead of surfing, and was in various guitar-based bands (including Fingerhead and incurable) before having a solo piece included on the Koert Kotze en die Vrouekolonie CD. Laband´s fiendish and phat foray into introspective electronics was highly promising and the highlight of a critically acclaimed project. He also had two notable inclusions on the excellent Sound of the Durban Underground collection. He already produced two fantastic albums, but this time he's going real deep and shows us his Dark Days Exit.

This album is deep, it comed from the deepest heart and reflects a phantastic sound journey through a land, whose contrasts couldn't be extremer and whose history couldn't be more bizarre. As Felix told U.K. magazine "Dazed & Confused", "That South Africa is a land of weird contrasts which definitely comes through in my music. I'm not afraid to throw things around. A lot of European stuff is quite formulistic, people stick to a certain sound and a specific way of doing things. I try to throw that out of the window."

Dark Days Exit enriches with the artificial intelligence and sensitivity of electronica, indie pop, folk, post rock and old school ambient with some warm jazz elements. It also slightly reminds of French movie soundtracks. Listen closely! This album stands out due to those subtly puzzled out electronica and sublime moody electro sounds. "Like liquid LSD" (Rage / ZA). On the one hand, it approaches the works of Stereolab, Notwist, Console, Plaid and such, on the other hand, it truly inspires the old school Compost community aswell. Many people compare the album with A Forest Mighty Black, Taran or the classic Kruder & Dorfmeister releases. Indeed a little bit of everything, but self-contained enough to be one of the most outstanding albums of 2005. Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister loved the album from the very first note and gave us top quotes. The artist is celebrated like a star in South Africa, a cool and inspired guy, whose last two albums were released on African Dope Records.