ZULU HITS

 

The titles and cover accurately indicate contents here - a glorious collection of late '80s South African music from a few artists you may know (LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO, UMOJA) and a slew of new-to-you bangers from ZIA (perfect '80s freestyle), LUCKY DUBE, INKUNZI EMDAKA, SPLASH (perhaps my favorite track on the tape), NGANE KHAMBA and heaps more. This music makes me happy in the right way - it's happy and upbeat music but it's far from empty. These sounds are full of hope, full of life, full of power. You can hear it, and you can feel it while you're hearing it.  

ZULU HITS: BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN MUSIC

HAWK

"Once upon a time, there was a garden. The garden bloomed. She stood naked, she stood proud."

The instant you hear the opening lines to HAWK's 1972 opus Africa, She Too Can Cry, you know this is not going to be another rock 'n roll listening experience. Johannesburg's most notable heavy rock export of the '70s manage to wrap the previous decade's hippie/protest rock up in a bundle with no limits operatic assemblages and gratuitous cultural appropriation to create a stunning record...even if it enjoying requires a touch more latitude than I typically grant myself. Musically...what about FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND tempered with THREE DOG NIGHT? Does that raise your eyebrow? "Rolling Of The Bones" and "The Elephant Must Die" are solid floor jammers, and the bloke who put this cassette together was nice enough to throw a few non-LP cuts from era appropriate 45s at the end of the album, including the aquarian "In My Youth" and their biggest commercial hit "Orang Otang" (thinking of this song having anything approaching commercial success is really bizarre to my 2021 ears). Something about a bunch of white dudes in 1972 South Africa singing about the power, beauty and conflict of a continent colonized and enslaved by...well, a bunch of white dudes...it tastes a little off. But hell, I wasn't there, and maybe they were on the right side of the fight.

 

AFRICA, SHE TOO CAN CRY

Also, getting this in a package of over the top noise and harsh power electronics tapes was a real treat, so there's that. Try rolling from the EMASCULATE REGRESSION tape right into "The Return."

It's a trip...

COMPILATION - SOUTH AFRICA

Welcome to the world of the under-the-radar other world hardcore. A few bands on this collection have creeped into Northern Hemispherical consciousness (INSEK, GROINCHURN, SLEEPING AT THE POPES), but a lot of the tonnage here has remained hidden from all but the most prying eyes. Clocking in just under an hour, Compilation - South Africa features sixteen bands from different ends of the spectrum, but all with a raw urgency that makes even more melodic acts like APPLESHINE and THE DEADBEATS sound dirty. This was put together in the mid '00s, and highlights for my ears are the aforementioned TOUCHED BY NAUSEA, A.W.O.L., DISTRUCTION WOLVES,  Oi!ROTHOL and TDKM. But beyond the "highlights," because ultimately this isn't a competition, this is a great document of a scene outside of most punks' reality. 

COMPILATION - SOUTH AFRICA

CONTRACAPITOL

When was the last time you listened to a rehearsal demo from a South African hardcore band? Probably been a while, huh? I'm here to help. You don't have to thank me, but you might want to imagine how much more killer these tunes might be if given the proper studio treatment. Not that this is bad, but nuances in tracks like "Another Bhopal" are kinda muddied by the rough recording...such is punk I suppose, and this tape is still crucial. Got this from some our hosts when CFD were there in 2007 - we played with member/s of CONTRACAPITOL in other bands at our second Johannesburg show....that was a really good tour. Met a lot of really good people on that tour, both at the shows and in the not-punk world. 

CONTRACAPITOL

SOUTH AFRICAN MIX TAPE

Remember all the shit I said about mix tapes last week when I posted that French heavy metal collection that someone made for my buddy Devon? Well apply all of those accolades to today's collection of bands from South Africa. Chaotic live anarcho/thrash from OUTRAGE (who have previously visited The Escape) and a chunk of commercial metal/grind from GROINCHURN, probably that country's best known punk or metal export, but everything else on this mix was new to my ears. Melodic '90s punk from FUNGY GONE WEST and CRUSH, while DIMINISHED RETURN play charging metallic hardcore with UK punk vocals, and DEVIATE are heavy grinding metalcrust. INFECTIOUS OUTBREAK (total weirdo/anarcho art/grind), THE GLEE CLUB (FROGS meets TEENAGE FANCLUB), and FRIDGE MAGNET (average punk, but the chorus just repeats "Police Stupidity" so I'm kinda into it) make appearances, but the highlights for me are the bands that start and end the tape. Seven tunes from FUCT OFF kick off the A side, raw and forceful UK influenced politically charged punk - simple but absolutely killer songs (these tracks are really raw, sounds like a several generations old recording...would love a cleaner version if anyone's holding?). And the whole thing ends up with BATTERY 9, a commercially successful dance/industrial band from the mid '90s - these two tracks were my introduction, and inspired me to get lost down an internet rabbit hole searching out more music from this duo. Land Of Rape And Honey-era MINISTRY meets POP WILL EAT ITSELF as a lazy reference, great shit. This is why mix tapes rule...again.

SOUTH AFRICAN MIX TAPE

OUTRAGE

South Africa is one of the most powerful places I've ever been, and I cannot even imagine living there during my adolescence. And to be outspoken political punks in South Africa in the years immediately following the fall of apartheid? A heavy time in a very heavy place. Musically, OUTRAGE dish out spastic bursts of uncompromisingly political dual vocal anarcho punk that has more in common with '80s UK than anything else, but there is a pervasive edge to the band and their sound. Some of that edge can be easily attributed to ineptitude, but I like to think that some part of Johannesburg has managed to work it's way into their sound. I'm rambling....international punk is important. That's all.

OUTRAGE

OUTRAGE // DIMINISHED RETURN

This tape was in a pile of gems that Devon placed in my care for a while, and since I know Devon as I do, I was not surprised at all to find this South African split cassette amongst the heap of Bay Area thrash metal and South American pop punk. OUTRAGE are female fronted anarcho-crust, and their three songs would have fallen right in line with bands of the same ilk making similar sounds in the US or Europe around the same time (1995), but with a drummer who seems like he'd rather be in a metal band (a pairing that works well for the most part). 

With OUTRAGE I only have a lyric sheet to go on, but unfortunately the only tool at my disposal to help with DIMINISHED RETURN is a little friend I like to call "google." Also from South Africa, they farmed members off to THREE CHORD THEORY after their demise (I know this only through the website of the Malaysian band CARBURETOR DUNG), and created classic punk. "Jungle Jive" is a pure burner, and will rev your inner pogo machine to maximum RPMs (and help you recover from the flute laced first track that left you all confused inside). Great shit, with a subtle ska flare that doesn't detract in the slightest. I wish I had more from both bands to offer, but three apiece will have to suffice.

OUTRAGE // DIMINISHED RETURN