#388 - Various Artists - The Indestructible Beat of Soweto (1985)
MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:
Released in 1985 on Earthworks Records in the U.K. and on Shanachie Records in the U.S. the following year and produced by various people, this is a compilation album of South African artists recorded between 1981 and 1984.
Soweto is a region of Johannesburg, South Africa and stands for “southwestern towns.”
Soweto has historically been associated with both the institutionalized racial segregation called Apartheid and the uprising against it as well as extreme poverty.
Donald “Jumbo” Vanrenen, a white and well-off South African grew up fiercely opposing the injustice of Apartheid and its effect on containing so much great, local, live, music.
As a student at Cape Town University he and his friend, fellow white South African Trevor Herman would seek out records from the “Jive” musicians of the local Jazz scene as Apartheid made attending shows illegal.
In 1971, sick of the racist policies, Jumbo went to London and started working at a Virgin Records store where he was in charge of ordering import records that included his beloved Afro-Pop and Reggae.
After a few years of enthusiastically turning on innumerable customers to this World Beat music he became a staff member at the Virgin Records label where he worked with artists like Mike Oldfield, Robert Wyatt, and the Sex Pistols.
But he wanted to share the music he was passionate about.
He got that opportunity in 1978 when Virgin launched the Reggae-imprint Front Line Records and made Jumbo the head of A&R.
In just two years he released more than a hundred legendary Jamaican Reggae albums and became a celebrated figure of World Music culture.
By the early ‘80s he was spinning records at a popular “Worldbeats” night in London, presenting concerts by African musicians, and organizing protests against Apartheid and to free jailed revolutionary Nelson Mandela.
In 1983 he left Virgin and started Earthworks Records to further showcase the artists he loved.
That year Jumbo released, “Zulu Jive”, an album with songs from four South African artists compiled by his old Cape Town friend, Trevor Herman.
It was well received yet didn’t completely deliver on the promise of a musical revelation. However it set the stage for Trevor to follow up with another collection.
This time he put together a solid and exciting set of the best and most authentic songs by artists whose talents and influence were singular.
As is stated on the liner notes the songs are mainly played in the guitar-based, style of music called Mbaqanga which was popular locally in the shebeens which were the illegal drinking halls in the impoverished Johannesburg and Durban townships.
However in addition to Mbaqanga there was also: the Swing Jazz-inspired, repetitive, keyboard style called Marabi; Gospel-inspired, female, close-harmonies of Mgqashiyo; call and response harmony singing called Mbube; traditional music played on Western instruments called Maskanda;, and a cappella close chorale singing called Isicathamiya.
The first four were non-traditional, hybrid, styles while the last two incorporated more traditional rural and urban elements of the area.
The whole record is filled with Gospel-influenced call-and-response and harmonized chorale singing, growling, groaning, and soaring solo vocals, intense guitar interplay, reinterpretations of imported African-American Jazz, Blues, and R&B, and incessant rhythm sections with elastic and burbling bass and complex drum patterns.
But don’t mistake the vibrancy and joyous energy of these recordings as just entertaining dance music… these are intensely powerful and direct protest songs about resilience and survival.
They display pride amidst horrible oppression and deprivation of their cultural identity and hope despite terrible poverty and inhumane living conditions.
“The Indestructible Beat of Soweto” along with “Zulu Jive” were two of the first albums of contemporary South African music to be widely available outside the country.
They introduced many Europeans and North Americans to South African stars Mahlathini, the Makgona Tsohle Band, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Now you’ll no doubt hear and recognize elements of these songs from Paul Simon’s huge 1986 hit record, “Graceland.”
That’s because he was inspired after getting a bootleg cassette of Mbaqanga that featured some of these artists and then recorded a large portion of “Graceland” in Johannesburg with local musicians.
When released a year after this album “Graceland” brought the sound of Soweto into the mainstream.
Then many fans sought out these purer versions prior to them being appropriated for consumption by Western culture.
Besides Paul Simon other artists who were influenced include Peter Gabriel, Sting, David Byrne, and more recently Vampire Weekend who referred to their sound as “Upper West Side Soweto.”
This album became such a huge critical and popular success that it led to three more volumes being released.
Noted and respected critic Robert Christgau even gave it an A+ rating and called it the most important record of the 1980s.
It has remained so revered and respected that it still ranks on many best of lists.