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The Best of 2025

The end of the year is generally a difficult time to write sleevenotes for all sorts of reasons but in this case, travelling without a computer and too many other things to do. Last year was so busy that, having lined up all of our best songs of the year, there just wasn’t time to write sleevenotes and in the end we never got around to posting the best of 2024 mixtape. We don’t want that to happen this year, so the most important thing is to get the mixtape up so that those who are interested can listen to 30 of the songs which we think are worth taking note of. After all, the music is most important, especially for the musicians who have released music into an ever increasingly difficult terrain. So these sleevenotes focus on listening and perhaps dancing to the music, and don’t include detailed notes on each performer and song.

This mixtape doesn’t include an even cross-section of everything that was released in 2025, but it does especially promote a lot of music which isn’t being listened to much (if listening figures on Youtube, Spotify etc. are anything to go by). If something especially interests you, do some research and find out more about it. Furthermore, we will welcome your participation if you want to write a biography on one of the artists included here who is not already featured among the musicians covered in the encyclopedia on our webpage. You could also suggest updates and corrections on existing ones.

So … this year’s list includes some people who have been around since the last 1970s (Robin Auld, Tim Parr, Radio Rats) and 1980s (Bright Blue, Ian Inx Herman, The Genuines). It includes many songs released as singles but also songs taken from albums or eps not released as singles, there’s a song taken from a film soundtrack (Chris Letcher’s piece from Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight), covers of both South African and international songs, and a 1980s recording of the Genuines at Jameson’s in Johannesburg, but released for the first time this year. And of course Tyla – one of South Africa’s most successful artists internationally, ever.

Please go to Bandcamp and look up artists you like and pay for album or song downloads, some even have CD and vinyl releases available. Look out for their live performances and book to go to see them. Support them if you like them! Check to see if they have a social media presence and follow them, contact them, find out how to get hold of their music if you can’t find it. Maybe but their merchandise if they have any – a T-shirt is always useful and fun!

Most of all, enjoy this mixtape!

  1. Vocabulary Of Grief From Requiem For The Impossible – Lucy Kruger
  2. How Chimpanzees Reassure Each Other – Ruby Gill
  3. Malachi’s Dream – Tim Parr
  4. Smoke In The Air – Ian Inx Herman & Vusi Mahlasela
  5. Let’s Talk About The Weather – Bright Blue
  6. Johnny Calls The Chemist – Robin Auld
  7. Heavy Weather – Radio Rats
  8. Devil Woman – The Sighs Of Monsters
  9. Karried Away – Karriers
  10. Villainous Wasteland – Zondo Commission
  11. Ska Daddy – Half Price
  12. Reaching – Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys
  13. Accidents – Kathryn Georgina
  14. Leaving The Farm – Chris Letcher
  15. Mar Vista – Ian Inx Herman, Crystal Monee Hall, Otis McDonald, Dave Schools,
  16. Sikiru Adepoju, & Gawain Mathews
  17. Vukani beNguni – Mthuthu
  18. Ancestral Home – Steve Dyer
  19. I Know This Place Part 2 – Guy Buttery, Derek Gripper & Jonno Sweetman
  20. Kea Morata – Abel Selaocoe & Manchester Collective, Fred Thomas, Alan
  21. Keary, Sidiki Dembélé & Dudu Kouate
  22. Incantations – Acid Magus
  23. Pretty Life – A Million Ways To Die
  24. Sweat And Blood – We Kill Cowboys
  25. Wilt – Filthy Hippies
  26. Bless The Idea – Crow Baby
  27. Whiskey Love – Hannah Ray
  28. If That’s Love – Mazula
  29. Grey – Laurie Levine
  30. Bliss – Tyla
  31. Sparkle – Alice Phoebe Lou
  32. Crazy Summer (Live) – The Genuines
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The 23 Best of 2023

As another year fades out we have once again taken the opportunity to reflect on our favourite tracks of the year, as well as others that have caught our attention. We’ve included 23 new songs which capture a spectrum of South African musical styles.

Several of this year’s artists have appeared in our songs-of-the-year mixtapes over the previous three years and are back again: Stanley Sibanda (‘Clusters’), Julia Church (with a solo acoustic version of ‘Lullaby’, also released as an electronic track with PRAANA), Nakhane (‘Standing In Our Way’), Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys (‘Burning Building’), We Kill Cowboys (‘Journey’), Alice Phoebe Lou (‘My Girl’), and the West Coast Wolves ‘Knuckles Tight’).

Two musicians who have been releasing music prior to the current century are back with new albums. Jonathan Butler released his first music as a solo artist back in 1975 and here we have included ‘Silver Rain’ from his Ubuntu album. Vusi Mahlasela released his first album with Shifty Records back in 1992, and returns with a new album, Umoya – Embracing The Human Spirit, from which we feature ‘Tsietsi La Letswalo’. In addition, veteran musician Gary Rathbone (with 1980s bands What Colours, Aeroplanes, and the Spectres) is back with his latest initiative, The Weathervanes (in collaboration with Nechama Brodie). Here we feature ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ from their debut EP.

We also include several musicians who have been on the scene for a while but who this year feature for their first time on our songs-of-the year list. These include East London-based Bongeziwe Mabandla (‘Soze’), Gauteng-based musicians Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness (BCUC, ‘The Woods’), Acid Magus (‘Caligulater’), Shameless (‘Victim of Data’), and Tyla (‘Water’). Also included are Kwazulu-Natal based musicians Wren Hinds (‘Dream State’), The Lion, The Bear, and The Panther (‘Something Real’), and Jim Neversink (‘Man’s Best Friend’). We also include Cape Town-based musicians Bhex (‘Demons’), Ethyl Ether (‘Dead Conversation’), Beatenberg (‘Don’t Call Her Over To You’), Matthew Mole (‘Good Thing’), and Asher Gamedze (‘Wynter Time’).

Much has been made of Tyla’s ‘Water’ being the first song by a solo South African musician (or South African group) to reach the USA Billboard Top 10 since Hugh Masekela’s ‘Grazing In The Grass’ in 1968. It has been viewed over 100 million times on YouTube. Which is crazy (by comparison the Weathervane’s ‘Heart-shaped Box’ has less than 30 views). Popular musicians keep putting their music out there, regardless of what might happen to it, hoping that at the very least some listeners will enjoy it. We hope we have introduced you to something that connects with you. Give this mixtape a listen, and support the musicians who catch your interest. More than ever they need your support – buy their music, go see them live, and tell your friends about them! Enjoy …

  1. Soze – Bongeziwe Mabandla
  2. Clusters – Stanley Sibande
  3. Lullaby (acoustic) – Julia Church
  4. Dream State – Wren Hinds
  5. Tsietsi La Letswalo – Vusi Mahlasela
  6. Silver Rain – Jonathan Butler
  7. Standing In Our way – Nakhane
  8. The Woods – BCUC
  9. Demons – Bhex
  10. Burning Building – Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys
  11. Journey – We Kill Cowboys
  12. Dead Conversation – Ethyl Ether
  13. Something Real – The Lion, the Bear and the Panther
  14. Man’s Best Friend – Jim Neversink
  15. Don’t Call Her Over To You – Beatenberg
  16. My Girl – Alice Phoebe Lou
  17. Heart-Shaped Box – The Weathervanes
  18. Good Thing – Matthew Mole
  19. Knuckles Tight – West Coast Wolves
  20. Caligulater – Acid Magus
  21. Victim Of Data – Shameless
  22. Wynter Time – Asher Gamedze
  23. Water – Tyla
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The Best South African Music – 2021 – Vol.2

2021 was another year hindered by lockdown but many South African musicians and record companies were busy with new releases. This is the second mixtape featuring what we think are the best 30 songs of 2021. This selection is generally more relaxed than the previous one, so sit back, chill and enjoy …

There are a few musicians included on this second volume who also appeared on the first, although not in quite the same way. While previously The Kalahari Surfers performed with Lesego Rampolokeng, here they partner the IKD Band, led by Ivan Kadey, formerly of National Wake. They sing “Moonwatcher”.

Arno Carstens is the lead singer of the Springbok Nude Girls, featured in volume one, but here he appears on his own, with “Reason”, from his 7th solo album, Out Of The Blue Into The Light. Koppies have three vocalists: Victoria Hume, Chris Letcher and Matthew van der Want. Each gives the group a distinct sound. On the previous mixtape we included “# Time’s Up” with Matthew van der Want on vocals. This time Victoria Hume is on vocals, singing the haunting “Hospital Song”.

It has been over a decade since BLK JKS released the album After Robots (2009) and the EP Zol (2010) but in 2021 they were back with a new album, Abantu/ Before Humans, from which we have selected “Human Hearts”. There were also new pieces from two familiar jazz musicians – Bokani Dyer and Bheki Mseleku. Dyer’s “Ke nako” is taken from the compilation album, Indaba Is, curated by Thandi Ntuli and Siyabonga Mthembu. “Cosmic Dance” is from the posthumously released Bheki Mseleku album, Beyond The Stars. The album was recorded as a solo session in London in 2003. The session was set up by Mseleku’s musician and music scholar friend, Eugene Skeef, and it is Skeef who oversaw this release, working with Fred Bolza and Francis Gooding, co-founders of new record label, Tapestry Works.

Veteran South African guitarist Tony Cox released the album The World Went Quiet from which we feature “Bathed In Blue”, and another veteran South African musician, Wendy Oldfield released the album Salt, the title track of which is included here. Lucy Kruger and her backing band, the Lost Boys, entered the South African music scene more recently, although Kruger has now relocated to Germany. In 2019 she released the album Sleeping Tapes For Some Girls, the first in a planned trilogy of albums. In 2021 the second album, Transit Tapes (For Women Who Move Furniture Around), was released, from which we have selected the first single release, “Evening Train”. We look forward to the April 2022 release of the third album in the ‘tapes’ trilogy, Teen Tapes (For Performing Your Own Stunts). Mthata-born Nathi (Nkosinathi Mankayi) has been around for almost a decade, having won several South African Music Awards in 2015. In 2021 he released the single, “iThemba”, featured here.

Singer songwriters Dave Starke, Alice Phoebe Louw, Stanley Sibande, Gaellou, and Sarah Blake are also featured on this mixtape. Dave Starke’s “Burn After Reading” was released in December 2020 but sneaks in because we only came across it in 2021! Alice Phoebe Lou has been releasing new music at a prolific rate lately, with two new albums in 2021: Glow and Child’s Play. The title track of the latter is included here. Zambian-born Stanley Sibande released his debut album, Hopeless Dreams in August 2021. “Lavender eyes” is a single taken from the album. “Language of Kindness” is folk musician Gaëllou’s debut single, released in February 2021. Another debut single in 2021, “Precious Time” was released by Cape Town-based multi-instrumentalist and singer songwriter Sarah Blake. It sees out this mixtape.

2021 was a productive year for South African music. We have tried to capture a good glimpse of it over these two mixtapes and hope it will interest you into following some new musicians. As always, they depend on your support.

  1. Moonwatcher – Ikd Band & The Kalahari Surfers
  2. Human Hearts – Blk Jks
  3. Ke Nako – Bokani Dyer
  4. Cosmic Dance – Bheki Mseleku
  5. Bathed In Blue – Tony Cox
  6. Burn After Reading – Dave Starke
  7. Hospital Song – Koppies
  8. Evening Train – Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys
  9. Child’s Play – Alice Phoebe Lou
  10. Ithemba – Nathi
  11. Salt – Wendy Oldfield
  12. Reason – Arno Carstens
  13. Lavender Eyes – Stanley Sibande
  14. Language Of Kindness – Gaellou
  15. Precious Time – Sarah Blake