Laband had, as he puts it, “a big fall from grace” where he could barely take care of himself, let alone write music. Before all that, though, Laband was one of South Africa’s bright young things, a gifted and troubled musician that got his start in a thrash punk band as a guitarist and screamer.
Soon, though, Laband fell in love with electronic music generally and Kid Loco specifically. Acid trips with A Grand Love Story led to his own sample-laden soundscapes that made him a star in his home country and, eventually, a deal with Compost Records in Europe to release his third album, Dark Days Exit in 2005. Laband has an uncommon touch with mellow sounds—a way of creating downtempo that never treads near cliché.
Things went quiet release-wise after Dark Days, but recently Laband has re-emerged with a new DJ name (Snakehips) and the promise of a new album with Compost. He also has plenty of opinions about music and his beloved—and fragile—homeland. Indeed, as RA’s Richard Marshall found out earlier this year, even as he makes noise about leaving South Africa, Laband can’t help but speak to how much he still has to learn from it.