BLK JKS (pronounced Black Jacks) pretty much defy categorisation. With a wrecking crew rhythm section and debonair vocals, BLK JKS bring a spirit of no-holds-barred freeform expression and mix'n'match eclecticism to their extraordinary music. Hailing from Johannesburg, they were discovered and brought to New York by super-producer Diplo and have already appeared on the cover of America's prestigious Fader magazine. They have been variously as the city's "first trendy rock'n'roll export”, "the sound of a new South Africa” and "an example of the post-apartheid nation's new cultural momentum and boundary-breaking sensibility”.

BLK JKS shoot an African music sensibility through the tenets of rock. On the one hand it is easy to politicize BLK JKS; here is a band that is instantly young, black and fly even as they reclaim styles that have been stolen, watered down, and regurgitated for generations. And yet to get caught up in anything but their sound is to sell this phenomenon short, because as musicians - as artists - BLK JKS simply cook.

The band's fresh, forward rhythm, layered harmony and elliptical guitar vernacular reveal the urban Zulu blues of mbaqanga that is the center of BLK JKS songwriting. Teaching themselves guitar on the same block where they both grew up, childhood friends Linda Buthelezi (lead vocals) and Mpumi Mcata (guitar) formed the band in 2000, though BLK JKS’ music initially caused some problems back home.“Rock was always seen as a white thing, the music of the enemy,” they say. "When we started, we encountered a lot of hostility. Soon, though, people realised that what we were making was far more in tune with what's going on in South Africa now than any of the pop music playing on the radio”. After the band's current lineup took shape with the addition of bassist Molefi Makananise and drummer Tshepang Ramoba, both of Soweto, they embarked on a heavy touring schedule throughout South Africa that soon earned them a national following.

Produced at New York's Electric Ladyland studios by Brandon Curtis of Secret Machines (a fan of the band), “After Robots” features dense vocal harmonies, eclectic guitar riffs and cyclones of sound. The listener can expect sudden tempo changes within each track and syncopation that refuses to kowtow to the demands of any one style. The end result is a collage of sounds, solos, FX, textures and reverb that create a feeling of hazy disorientation. They call what they do "psychedelic rock dub" but that's only part of their remit as they career wildly between genres: there are elements in their sound of shoegazing, of roots reggae, jazzy extemporisation and African hi-life and drum beats. It all adds up to one of the most unique musical visions of 2009.