South African band Die Antwoord were a surprise hit at the Reading music festival in the UK at the weekend. Cape Town rappers Yolandi Visser, Ninja and DJ Hi-Tek (now known as "God") are, to put it mildly, eccentric. So there was some trepidation about how they would go down on the main stage at Reading Festival, where boys with guitars still dominate.Die Antwoord have been described as combining "crystal-sweet, childlike vocals with electro-dance beats, menacing English and Afrikaans raps, and a colourful, cartoonishly trashy image, inspired by a little-known South African counter-culture known as 'Zef'".But from the minute the trio burst on to the stage at Reading they managed to be "utterly compelling, bewitching the crowd with their wild energy", according to Sunday Telegraph reviewer Rebecca Hawkes.She continued: "Yolandi - all limbs and long bleached locks, like a pixie crossed with an animated alien spider - treated the stage like a trampoline, never seeming to stay on one part of it for more than a few moments."Sound-wise, the band were also on form: Ninja's raps were aggressive and clear, while Yolandi's breathy, helium-high singing was note-perfect on the songs that rely on her melodious choruses - such as Ugly Boy and set-closer Enter the Ninja."Ninja and Visser underwent numerous costume changes, incorporating everything from bright orange boiler suits, to a T-shirt emblazoned with various iterations of "F***", to cartoon onesies . All this theatricality was infused with an underlying intensity more commonly seen in metal bands.Hawkes concluded: "Die Antwoord are playful, but they're deadly serious at the same time - and it was this that gave their refreshingly different set such an edge. Kudos to whoever booked them." ..