Outsiders may -find it hard to believe that some of the most sublimely crafted pop
music of the twenty-first century has emerged from South Africa. After all, the
country is mostly known for exporting culturally-rooted world sounds, not songs
that can easily capture charts and hearts in London, NYC or Sydney.
But when Beatenberg released its debut album, the band made plain its ambition
to upend entrenched notions of what constitutes South African music. In the
process, the Cape Town-based three piece of Matthew Field (vocals and guitar),
Robin Brink (drums) and Ross Dorkin (bass) delivered are soundly international
the sound that subverts and effortlessly owns mainstream pop.
On its release in South Africa in 2014, The Hanging Gardens of Beatenberg became
a showcase for the possibilities of pop music unconstrained by outdated genre
boundaries and geography. Songs like “Ithaca”, “The Prince of the Hanging
Gardens” and “Scorpion-ish” deployed crystalline melodies to guide listeners
through deceptively complex song construction. At other times, the band’s
uncontainable musical appetite showed itself in the traces of other genres that
emerged in the music - reggae on “Cape To Rio”, and mbaqanga (the Zulu roots
music that attracted Paul Simon back in the eighties) on “Beauty Like A
Tightened Bow”.
The album also embraced the two most prominent urban genres that have
emerged in the post-apartheid era – kwaito and house. Usually the preserve of
artists working in these genres, Beatenberg’s uncanny ability to exist creatively
within and outside of traditions resulted in the two biggest Southafrican
crossover hits of the past -fifteen years, “Pluto” and “Rafael”.
“Rafael”, in particular, beautifully showcased one of Beatenberg’s real strengths:
Field’s literate, intricate lyric writing. In its description of extraordinary
excellence displayed by the Italian Renaissance painter and the tennis champion,

Field managed to contain the iconography of art and physical ability in one chart-
topping song. Other songs are as thrillingly lyrically accomplished: “Cavendish

Square”, a song about a Cape Town shopping centre that’s also a captivating short
story, sees Field come close to the work of Steely Dan and “All About Me” is a
superb glimpse into what it takes to follow creativity at its most pure (“I'm a
narcissist/I'm an impressionist/I'm an imagist/I'm an egotist/I'm an idiot/I'm a
perfectionist”.
With a debut album as potent as theirs, it’s no surprise that Beatenberg has
broken radio chart records and won numerous awards, including a sweep of the
2015 South African Music Awards (Album of the Year, Duo or Group of the Year,
Newcomer of the Year, Best Pop Album and four awards for “Pluto”).

It’s also no mystery why Beatenberg has caught the attention of a growing
a number of international players, most prominently Mumford & Sons.
Arising out of a support slot on Mumford’s 2016 South African tour, Beatenberg
is featured (along with Babaa Maal and The Very Best) on two tracks on the
British band’s forthcoming Johannesburg EP. The band is also set to appear on
Later... with Jools Holland and several other high-profile UK platforms this April
and May.
Against this backdrop, it would not be overstating things to suggest that
Beatenberg is poised for an international breakthrough. Indeed, there’s every
reason to believe that Field, Dorkin and Brink will be South Africa’s -first global
pop success of the twenty-first century – and that they will do this on the back of
a sound that’s rooted in their home country’s indigenous styles but is unfailingly
moving forward to the future.