Less buttons, more strings!

The last pop song I remember liking is Schitzo by Iscream and the chocolate stix. It is named after a personality disorder because it has a personality disorder: It is hip hop, pop and rock with a thumping base line (thumping; this means it was created by a guitar, not a computer). It has a dubstep breakdown and a guitar solo at the same time. I like that a lot. So I heard the song a few times before I stopped listening to the radio altogether - I live on mp3s nowadays, South African radio just doesn't tickle my fancy anymore.

So when I heard these guys were playing at my favourite club, Live, I just had to go and see, because I think they're onto something.

And they are. They have a face man called chocolate stix - brilliant stage nad offstage personality and an good rapper. They have another rapper too: Iscream (now the name makes sense). He's a fairly ratty-looking stoner who bounces off his partner quite well. I think he's the talent from the way he explained all their songs. There's also a guitarist, a bassist and a guy with a mac, because acapella just doesn't cut it in the world of pop.

So yes, they're onto something: they've discovered that the future of music lies not just in strings or in computer-generated noise but rather in the bringing together of these two things. They've discovered balance, but they're still standing two far left on the scale.

They have too much Macbook in too many of their songs. They have a fantastic guitarist and a brilliant bass player and they need to make use of them more often; they need to get schitzo. I think if they bear this in mind while completing the face of a rolling stone it could be their best song. They played an acoustic snippet of that song and it sounded amazing. It sounded amazing because when you rap over a guitar you're being different and different is how you succeed nowadays.

What I'm really saying is that they make very good dance music, very good pop, but they have the means to make so much more than that, they really do. They have the ability to bring about a change in music either by being the band that changes things or by inspiring that band, because in a world where someone has already thought of everything, the best ideas are found in the blender.