South African Selection

If you find yourself in the Gardens district of Cape Town, there is a second hand record shop that I can never remember the name of - not very helpful I know, but if you ask a local they can direct you I'm sure.

In many respects its a excellent shop, with a huge selection of vinyl in particular. But in one respect it is in a bit of an unwelcome time warp. Because you could spend all day in there and you are unlikely to find more than a handful of records by black South African artists. I am sure this just reflects the abandoned record collections of their clientele rather than being a deliberate management policy, but it is a shame nonetheless.

Anyway, I was in there the other week and came across a job lot of promo compilation CDs of South African music. Called "Selection", they were issued by the radio station 5FM in the mid-2000s. As they were going for the equivalent of about 40p each I chose a few at random.

Unfortunately, like the record store itself, they aren't really very representative of the breadth of the local music scene, consisting mostly of rather derivative indie rock and hip-hop. But there are a few goodies, including these two from Volumes 10 and 11, both of which came out in 2005.

"Engimthandayo" - Mfiliseni Magubane

"Sana Lwam" - Zola (featuring Unathi)

Yes, folks. For authentic indigenous African music, look no further.