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Kalahari Surfers
The Kalahari Surfers is the moniker of South African composer and musician Warrick Sony. It began as a solo recording project in the early 1980s to subvert the total media and propaganda onslaught of P. W. Botha's Apartheid South Africa. With guest musicians, the Kalahari Surfers recorded five albums, toured Europe and played concerts in East Berlin, Moscow, Riga and Leningrad. The Kalahari Surfers began with a home recorded cassette release in 1981, and built a reputation as being one of the most politically radical musical forces in South Africa. Their second release was a double single package released by Pure Freude Records. German group Can were involved with this label and, along with other krautrock bands, were an important influence on the Surfers sound at this time. Shifty Records tried to release their 1982 release album Own Affairs but could not find a vinyl pressing plant who would do it. The reasons given by EMI were that it was "too political".
Those who owned the means of production, especially the electronic media, were controlled firstly by themselves (self-censorship i.e. those too afraid to put a step wrong made it impossible for others to realise their objectives) and then by the State: anything which had made it into the mainstream which was found undesirable was then banned.
Chris Cutler's London based Recommended Records pressed the album and set up an alliance that continues to this day. Cutler (ex-Henry Cow drummer) helped set up tours and in 1985 they put out the second album Living in the Heart of the Beast to critical acclaim. The album title was taken from the title of a Tim Hodgkinson composition, "Living in the Heart of the Beast" on the Henry Cow album In Praise of Learning (1975). A unique South African album, Living in the Heart of the Beast pushed the barriers of local independent music. Stylistically it ranged from dub-reggae, art rock, rap, and punk Zappa-ish in places (with the use of rapid tape splice edits and juxtaposing of ironic bits of state propaganda broadcasts).
The Surfers moved to London to complete the third album Sleep Armed and to perform live concerts there and in Europe. The Kalahari Surfers were seen as far afield as Holland, Germany, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Moscow, Leningrad, Riga, East Berlin and London. The 1980s ended with the release of a forth album Bigger Than Jesus which was officially banned in South Africa followed by concerts in the Soviet Union and East Germany (the first South African rock group to do that).
The new millennium consolidated the New South Africa and new technologies influenced the Surfers sound. The avant garde moved into the mainstream and, in the clubs of Cape Town, the Surfers found a younger audience who were drawn to their eclectic electro world-dub, sound. The new millennium saw a number of releases through African Dope Records and Microdot Records:
Akasic Record was critically acclaimed and saw the licensing of tracks for various films commercials and television,
Muti Media (which featured a sculpture by artist Brett Murray on the cover),
Conspiracy of Silence, and
Panga Management followed.
Remix projects include work for M.E.L.T. 2000 on the Busi Mhlongo remix album as well as an "African Cheese" set for the BBC Food series Cooked in Africa. Recent work includes:the Wiesen Festival in Austria 2006 and the Unyazi Electronic Music symposium at Wits University, Johannesburg,
Turbulence; the South African art Exhibition in Salzburg - Red Bull's Hangar 7 event, March 2007
the experimental sound design and final mix for the feature film SMS Sugarman;
composing for local SABC and M-NET TV series: Origins, The Calling and 2 seasons of Home Affairs;
Co-producing and arranging for the album The Triptic (2007) for Polish metal band Sweet Noise;
Composing and designing music with Dizu Plaatjies for the opening of "Turbulence" Salzburg'Red Bull's Hangar
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