John Wizards

Any new sounds these days outside of the increasingly tired litany of beat-driven pop and gurgling electronics are met with immediate attention at Stark. Enter a sleepless morning, a Pitchfork Rising feature and 25 year old South African John Withers - aka John Wizards. Withers songs - while rough and homemade are startling refreshing given our curent summer music landscape - at times reminding us of the first time we heard The Very Best. While it's hard not to make a reference to Vampire Weekend - it's important to note that when Withers sings of South African locations - he actually has been there, and lives there. There's not much on the internet right now - other than tracks at Pitchfork and a new EP next week, with an album to follow in Sept on Planet Mu Records. Kudos to Ryan Dombal and Pitchfork for really jumping on this one early.