Category Archives: All Releases

Sep 15 2011
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Afrikaans, All Releases, Shifty Records, Sjambok

KOOS – The Black Tape

band name

 KOOS

Sing Jy Van Bomme   00:00/02:07
The Black Tape_KOOS Cover ArtThree big things happened to me in 1987: I returned to South Africa after a year of touring my Kalahari Surfers band in the UK, I met my wife and I saw a band called Koos. They were, for me, the only South African band that fitted in with the work I was doing with Recommended Records and the political climate of the time. I saw them play at “The Pool CLub” and later again at “The Black Sun” in Johannesburg.They performed with incredible intensity combining theatre, art and music with punk sensibility, and best of all using the Afrikaans language which the best expressed , in my opinion, the peculiar zeitgeist of the 80’s. Not only the South African 80’s but the global cold war 80’s. Like German, Afrikaans has an angst that grabs the soul. I approached them about recording and brought them into the Shifty Studio* one Sunday morning where most of their tracks were laid down live. Shifty had already begun recording some of the Afrikaans punk bands like Gereformeerde Blues Band and Bernoldus Niemand. KOOS were different though:they fitted somewhere outside of the light entertainment market. It was hard. I think of the Brecht quote “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” Essentially a live studio album, it was recorded straight onto a Fostex B16 and digital SonyPCM ( the first digital recorder on the market). The recording was released as a cassette tape in a brown paper bag stamped with the word “KOOS”. Some months later, I recorded one of their performances live at the Black Sun, from which 2 bonus tracks appear here Here, then ,is the KOOS cassette packaged for CD reissue and now for MP3 release through Sjambok. As they say “Oud maar nog nie koud” Warrick Sony – Kalahari Surfers www.kalaharisurfers.co.za Lloyd Ross and I ran a small mobile studio called “Shifty” which was situated in a derelict mining village South West of the city of Johannesburg. Check out the Shifty Records website: www.shifty.co.za I will be uploading their releases here shortly.
credits
released 06 June 1986
tags
tags: afrikaans alternative art electronic industrial johannesburg punk rock south africa Cape Town
license
Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.
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Jul 09 2011
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All Releases, Shifty Records

NOISE KHANYILE

Grooving Jive (1988)
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released  July 1988
Grooving Jive Cover Art

The Art Of Noise  (1989)

The Art Of Noise Cover Art
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Dlamini 03:31
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Baba Wami 04:05
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Umamemeza 03:24
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Ugobuzela 03:10
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about
soulsafari.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/noise-khanyile-jive-violinist-w-joburg-city-stars-amagugu-akwazulu/This album demonstrates the late Noise Khanyile’s range of both traditional and jive music. In 1960 he began to play shebeens, and he also learned how to play the violin. His violin playing was influenced by Mareza, probably the most famous jive violist of the early 60’s.In 1964 Noise was still playing acoustically. He did not begin to play in a band which used drums until 1969. He went to Trutone Records, made a record, switched to EMI’s Umsakazo label but although the worked hard at several sessions, the result in being paid was a session fee of about 8 rand ( UKP 2.00) a side.Noise Khanyile -Dlamini
In 1972 he recorded with the Boyoyo Boys, a big jive band at the time. He worked with the legendary producer West Nkosi on sessions like ‘2 Mabone’ which went gold twice for the FGB label. These ‘Mabone’ records were a bit of a craze among jive musicians. Mabone means headlight and the number describes the number of headlights on a car. There were loads of Mabone titles ‘3 Mabone’, ‘4 Mabone’ etc.But jive music had not made much progress since it originated and consequently the newer sounding disco took over as a popular form in the mid-70’s. Jive as a music form was put into the shade by disco for some time, but Noise remained optimistic about its survival. Noise has never made disco records, he went back to the traditional music and also marabi, an early jive guitar picking style, where the instrumentation is guitar picking and rhythm guitar, plus occasional addition of saxophone, but no drums or bass guitar.
Noise Khanyile -Via Scotch Land
In 1989 Noise had recorded with Mahlatini, the renowned groaner, and he made a special appearance as member of the Jo’burg City Stars’ that same year.
Noise Khanyile -The Art Of Noise with the Jo’burg City Stars & Amagugu Akwazulu

Shifty Records
Globestyle ORB 045
text from the liner notes by Carol Fawcett
released 31 May 1989
tags: folk south africa traditional world zulu zulu jive zulu trad South Africa
All rights reserved

discography

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Jul 05 2011
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All Releases, Shifty Records, Sjambok

Sankomota (Shift 01)

 Sankomota

released 11 November 1983
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Madhouse 03:57
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Monoana 05:08
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Uhuru 04:23
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Woza 04:47
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Mope 03:36
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Ramasela 05:17
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Vukani 06:03
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Hero 03:57
about
Ironically, the first full Shifty project was not a punk or new wave band at all, but Sankomota , recorded in Lesotho in late 1983. I had heard them whilst working on a documentary in Lesotho earlier that year. At that stage the band was a three piece, but they had previously toured South Africa with a larger outfit under the name Uhuru. Because of their lyric content, their name and the provocative onstage outbursts of a band member who went by the name of Black Jesus, Sankomoto were thrown out of the country.They were now in a pretty dire situation for a band wanting to record. There were no studios in Lesotho, which was and is the only country in the world completely surrounded by another country – in this case South Africa, where they were forbidden entry. They were of course too broke to fly elsewhere. This is when I discovered the benefits of owning a mobile studio. I parked the caravan outside the recently deserted studios of Radio Lesotho, ran a cable inside to one of the rooms and we were in business.

Frank Leepa

Recording Sankomota taught me a lot about producing music and working with artists, but I also learned painful lessons about the recording industry in South Africa at large. We had made what was patently a good album; it’s subsequent track record and critical acclaim confirms that. But no record company was willing to release it. The music did not conveniently fit into any of the industry’s pigeonholes, and no one could see past that. This bias against original, or edgy music was reinforced by the broadcast media with their safe and restrictive play lists. Sankomota failed a number of tests in this regard. Firstly, they sang in different languages, which violated grand apartheid’s pipedream of keeping all languages pure and separate. Secondly, the lyrics referred to what was really happening in the country, which was of course a total no-no. And finally, the music was eclectic, a concept that has confused industry marketing departments since the invention of the gramophone.
These experiences were to repeat themselves with almost every record that I produced over the next decade. But I was young and naïve at the time, so I decided to set up my own record company and do what nobody else was willing to do. Thus Shifty Records was born.
Lloyd Ross : Shifty Records ,Johannesburg -2010

credits
released 11 November 1983
Frank Moki Leepa – Guitar
Moss Nkofo- Drums
Maruti Selate-Bass& sessions by:
Sunshine Moena – Keyboards
Sponky Tshabala – percussion
William Ramsey – tenor sax
Rick Van Heerden – alto sax
Stompie Monana – trumpet ,flugel horm
Warrick Sony trombone & percussion
Lloyd Ross – producer ,additional guitar,keyboard, etcphotos by Lloyd Ross
cover by Caroline Cullinan
Shifty Record: Shift1

Maruti, Moss and Frank outside the Uhuru Cub in Maseru 1983

Jul 05 2011
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Afrikaans, All Releases, Sjambok

GETUIES – The Uprising of Hangberg

album name

The Uprising of Hangberg

band name

  ill-human-nati  GETUIES
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Warning 03:08
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about
all tracks by composed by DMUS and MANIAK
getuies@gmail.com
credits
released 12 January 2010
african noise foundation
po box 15322
vlaeberg 8018
cape town
south africa
tags
tags: african hip hop cape town hip hop south africa South Africa
May 05 2011
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All Releases, Sjambok

Die Wors Broers

Sexess

Die Wors Broers

Mar 02 2011
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All Releases

Lesego Rampolokeng

Lesego Rampolokeng & Kalahari Surfers

End Beginnings

End Beginnings Cover Art

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Tapeworms 04:12
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Treason 04:07
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The Desk 03:54
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Guerrilla 03:37
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Rapmaster 03:34
about
original 1989 release plus 2 extra tracks. Album download includes scans from original CD cover of framegrabs from the William Kentridge’s short film “Johannesburg: Greatest City Next to Paris”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXxCknnNPOI
credits
released 12 June 1991
tags
tags: concept dub electronic experimental songwriter South Africa
Mar 01 2011
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Afrikaans, All Releases, Shifty Records

2 reissue 7″singles from Bernoldus Niemand

 

Boksburg Bommer (7″ single)

Boksburg Bommer (7" single) Cover Art
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This song was written before Gerrie Coetzees defence of the WBA boxing championship. Bernoldus went along to the weigh in and gave Gerrie the single hoping he’d play it before the match. He didn’t and was consequently knocked out.
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The night the Boksburg Bomber struck: 

Coetzee’s reign as WBA champion was short. Amid more controversy, he lost to Greg Page in his first defence on December 1, 1984 at Sun City.
Ticket prices for the fight were at an all-time high for South Africa – a minimum of R100, and R450 for ringside seats.
Page, rated No 6 by the WBA, arrived in Johannesburg eight days earlier than scheduled to prevent efforts by the US anti-apartheid lobby to block his visit.
Coetzee was the overwhelming favourite. Most critics predicted a win inside the distance and Coetzee was the betting favourite at 10 to 1.
However, the champion was knocked out in a sensational finish in the eighth round.

A major row erupted over the duration of the last round. The pay-off punches from Page came at a time when his manager, Janks Morton, was shouting to the time-keeper that the round was over.
Coetzee had been down for the first time after the bell in the sixth round when Page caught him with a right that saw him sink to his knees.
In the seventh round, a barrage of punches put the South African down for the mandatory eight count.
Towards the end of the eighth, Coetzee was beginning to outbox the challenger. Then Page landed a left hook to the jaw that left Coetzee flat on his back – 3 minute 50 seconds after the start of the round.
The Coetzee camp claimed that the knockout was illegal and appealed to the WBA to have the result nullified. However, the appeal was turned down.
Despite the controversy, Page was a worthy winner.

credits
released 12 January 1984
Bernoldus – voice guitar
Lloyd Ross – bass, producer, photos
Warrick Sony- drums
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Hou My Vas Korporaal (7″ single)

by Bernoldus Niemand

Hou My Vas Korporaal (7" single) Cover Art

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the first single from Bernoldus
released 06 December 1983
produced and recorded by Lloyd Ross
P&C Shifty Music
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Feb 28 2011
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Afrikaans, All Releases, Shifty Records

Mr Mac and the Genuines

Mr Mac and the Genuines

At a time when the youth of Britian were rediscovering the fun and liveliness of 60’s  Jamaican Ska, and bands like Madness and the Specials were riding a wave of popularity, the Genuines decided to do a re-introduce  early “Goema” music of the Cape to a younger audience. Largely ignored and undiscovered this album has to rate as one of the finest South African fusion albums ever.
Listen in full fidelity to tracks from this album. Digitally remastered and available for download for the first time ever in Flac or high quality MP3 formats.
Samuel “Mr Mac” McKenzie (1924-1990) played banjo for over 50 years and was one of the last wave of the true exponents of “Goema” music of the people of Cape Town.
The magic of Mr Macs Banjo was part of the Cape’s musical scene for over 5 decades. This album combines the traditional Goema tunes with the razor sharp performances of his son’s band
“The Genuines” . .
Mr Mac Cover Art
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Beetle 02:09
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Moonbeams 02:29
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Maanskyn 02:03
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Off Side (hidden) 04:20
credits
released 02 February 1987
Samuel “Mr Mac” McKenzie: banjo
the Genuines:
Gerald “Mac”McKenzie: Bass,Vocals
Hilton Schilder: Keyboards, Percussion, vocals
Gerard O’Brien: guitar
Ian Herman: Drums
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recorded at Shifty Studio July to October 1987
produced and engineered by Lloyd Ross
c&p Shifty Records
cover by Sarah Hills
photos by Peter McKenzie and Lloyd Ross
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Feb 24 2011
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Afrikaans, All Releases, Shifty Records

Bernoldus Niemand – Wie Is Bernoldus Niemand

Wie Is Bernoldus Niemaand

classic re-issue of the original vinyl release of the first Afrikaans punk album ever.

album name

Wie Is Bernoldus Niemaand

Wie Is Bernoldus Niemaand Cover Art

album download includes a free track and never seen before photos of original Bernie photo shoot and cover skrepboek etc etc.

Bernoldus Niemaand

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    Snor City 04:28
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    Visse 02:46
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    credits
    released 02 February 1985
    tags
    tags: 80’s afrikaans pop rock south africa Johannesburg
    license
    All rights reserved
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    ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
    Feb 23 2011
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    All Releases, Sjambok

    Extend Yourself – DIXX

    Extend Yourself

    mini album by   DIXX

    warrick sony and friends exploration of the organic side of Dubstep they call it “DubStoep”

    Extend Yourself Cover Art
    • Immediate download of music as 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
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    Babalazi 04:44
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    Tagged , , ,
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