Forget everything you think you know about music from South Africa. The music recorded in the summer of 1984 for this debut album sounds wild, avant-garde in a way that feels closer to rock experimentalists like Henry Cow or Negativland.
The name of the loosely formed collective around South African musician, composer and producer Warrick Sony might conjure sunny tones, and that’s likely intentional – but with an edge. While Sony played a crucial role in promoting African artists such as Salif Keita, Kasse Mady Diabaté and S.E. Rogie, the work of his band was cut from a very different cloth.
Because no pressing plant in South Africa would touch it due to its political content, Own Affairs was released in England on Chris Cutler’s Recommended Records, the label run by a central figure in the British rock avant-garde. He must have recognised kindred spirits in Kalahari Surfers, who, using film samples, dub techniques, rough-edged rap, a touch of jazz, a bit of krautrock and more, crafted searing commentaries on the political conditions in South Africa. Even today, it still sounds thrilling, beautifully abrasive and refreshingly idiosyncratic.
Own Affairs
