Cape Fight League (CFL) – Cape Town’s very own premiere Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event is ready to blow minds away on 4 February 2012. MMA history will be made as CFL will be the first ever MMA event in South Africa; it will take place in Velodrome, Bellville.  Cape Fight League aims to present the talented MMA fighters of Cape Town, so the event will include both amateurs and pros.

MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is a combat sport that uses a mixture of martial arts techniques to overcome an opponent. MMA is one of the fastest growing sports and its origins go all the way back to the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC.

For the past couple of years the MK Awards have aimed to celebrate South Africa’s best Rock and Alternative music acts. The winners aren’t decided by any judges, but by you, the viewer. You have the opportunity to vote for you band or artist on the MK website. The winners will be announced on 23March, 2012, at the Pretoria State Theatre. The nominees are as follows:

 Best Video/Beste Video

aKing – The Runaround
Winterstasie – Los My
Spoek Mathambo – Control
Die Heuwels Fantasties – Modus Operandi
Locnville – Stars Above You
Jack Parow – Tussen Stasies

Best Newcomer/Beste Nuweling

The words to describe this trio don’t come easily. Conventional, definitely not. Blues influenced, very. Incredible, most definitely.

When a band releases a debut album of such emotion and consistency on every track, you can be assured that you have something special on your hands, as is the case with Machineri.

Formed in 2008 by lead singer Sannie Fox and guitarist Andre Geldenhuys, the band has been slowly biding their time to become one of the top new acts of the last year. It has grown to include drummer Daniel Huxham. Initially the band struggled to find a drummer that perfectly suited their style. In an interview with Just Music Fox said that they went through six drummers before they found Daniel.

And so our society has come to this: The world’s top tech house producer and DJ wears a mouse head. Or rather, a Mau5head. It’s amazing the Mau5isms you can come up with if you try. “Mau5ed up” (amped), “Mau5ed out” (tired after 10 hours of jamming to tech house), “I’ll meet you at your Mau5” (see you at your place). Etcetera.

It’s testament to this tech house phenomenon then, that his stage persona and the hype around it can enter popular culture so easily. Especially when you meet the man behind the Mau5. Which we had the privilege of doing at his pre-gig press conference in Camps Bay.

South African comedian and all round funny guy Trevor Noah appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles on Friday night (it will be aired in South Africa tonight, 10 January, on CNBC Africa). The comedian received a standing ovation from the audience who were in stitches, especially when they played a short clip in which Noah teased some African-Americans who turn whole sentences into single words with, as he puts it, “no regard for punctuation”.

Directly after the show Noah tweeted:”Just did the Tonight Show set and it was amazing. I got a standing ovation! Words cannot describe how happy I am.”

Happy New Year to everyone! South Africa has plenty to offer in 2012 and the annual Darling Music experience is a great way to get into this year’s festivities. The Music Experience will take place between 3 and 12 February, 2012 and the concerts will be spread between Darling’s lovely old Presbyterian church, the Buttery Museum, Maritz Studio Gallery, Groote Post, and the modern Vereenigende Reformeerde Kerk, a picturesque wine estate and a factory turned music hall.

The idea behind this unique music festival is to “freshen the image of classical music”, as well as increase its accessibility to every ethnicity in the Western Cape region and beyond. The Darling Music Experience (DME) was founded in 2006 by conductor David Tidboald, composer Hendrik Hofmeyr, and music enthusiast Alfred Langer. The festival was launched by organising small concerts in a rural setting in order to bring together music artists and music lovers.