Best South African Songs of 2022

At the beginning of each year we reflect on what we think were the best South African songs of the previous year. 2022 was another good year for South African music, with a healthy array of new music released. We are highlighting 24 songs which we think everyone should listen to.

Once again there were several new releases from veteran South African musicians. Ivan Kadey from late ’70s-early ’80s band National Wake, is back with a new band (IKD Band) and album, Edge of Time, from which we feature the title track. The album marks a shift from the more intense reggae-punk influenced music of yonder years towards a more subtle introspection. Robin Auld is another veteran South African singer with early roots in the SA punk-ska scene (with the Lancaster Band) who is still releasing new music. Auld has released solo albums for four decades now, and his latest, The Everlovin’ Wind is excellent. “About A Boy” is an upbeat track that implores you to get up and boogie.

There are several musicians who have more recently become veterans or are veterans-in-the-making (we are not quite sure at what point a musician becomes a veteran). Fuzigish have made a welcome return with a self-titled album, with the track “Believer” reminding us what a good ska-jol band they are. Also back with new releases are: Laurie Levine, the song “Dunes” is the title track of her EP; Nakhane, with the EP, Leading Lines, from which we feature “My Ma Was Good”; and Anna Wolf with the EP, Romance Was Born, from which we have taken “Heaven Breathes”. Zolani Mohala of Freshlyground released the single “Wawandithembisile”, a track featuring Kenza & Sun El Musician. “Snake Oil City” is taken from Dan Patlansky’s Shelter Of Bones album, which has been receiving good reviews far and wide. Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys were back with the third of their trilogy of albums, release in consecutive years. “Risk” is taken from Teen Tapes (For Performing Your Own Stunts), yet another exceptional album. We have also included a single by Dope St Jude, “You’re Gonna Make It”.

The Kongos, like several of the musicians on this mixtape, are now based overseas (they are in the USA), and “Speak Free” is taken from their album 1929, Part 3. The London-based Soap Girls released the album In My Skin, which opens with the high-energy punkish “Breathe”, the track we have included here. “Malele” is taken from Montparnasse Musique’s self-titled EP, released by Real World Records.

Mongrel Records is an exciting newish South African label who have produced a steady flow of releases over the past few years. 2022 was a continuation of that. Apart from the aforementioned Fuzigish album, there were new releases (featured here) from Evert Snyman & the Aviary, the Pruning In The Dark album from which we have chosen “I Never Listen When You Speak”, and a few singles, including “Dead Flowers” by the Filthy Hippies, and “The Veneer” by A Million Ways To Die, a project of former No Friends of Harry band members, Rob McLennan and Dace de Vetta.

This mixtape also features some notable single releases by artists who are fairly new on the music scene: “Blacksnake Blues” by All Them Witches, “Triomf” by The Great Yawn, and “Polar Operational Environmental Satellite” by We Kill Cowboys.

There are also several songs from artists with first time official releases in 2022: Australian-based Ruby Gill’s debut album, I Forgot To Be Profound Today, is more than well worth listening to. We have included the title track. Vietnam-based Madele’ Vermaak released her debut EP, A Pocket Full Of Stones, from which we have selected “Love Breaks Time”. There were noteworthy single releases from by West Coast Wolves, (“Factory Of Bones”), Lokaly (“Breathing”), and East London band, Can Of Worms (“Pillow”). We look forward to more music from these artists in the next year or so.

Once again, we hope you enjoy most, if not all, these songs, and that you end up exploring details about the various musicians and their music. There are several 2022 albums and Eps we think are worth buying, or streaming, and we hope you do! Also look out for live performances, these artists rely on your support!

  1. Believer – Fuzigish
  2. I Forgot To Be Profound Today – Ruby Gill
  3. Wawandithembisile – Zolani Mohala featuring Kenza & Sun El Musician
  4. My Ma Was Good – Nakhane
  5. Edge Of Time – IKD Band
  6. Dunes – Laurie Levine
  7. Speak Free – Kongos
  8. Factory Of Bones – West Coast Wolves
  9. Breathing – Lokaly
  10. I Never Listen When You Speak – Evert Snyman & the Aviary
  11. All About A Boy – Robin Auld
  12. Malele – Montparnasse Musique
  13. Breathe – The Soap Girls
  14. Blacksnake Blues – All Them Witches
  15. Snake Oil City – Dan Patlansky
  16. Risk – Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys
  17. Love Breaks Time – Madele’ Vermaak
  18. Triomf – The Great Yawn
  19. Heaven Breathes – Anna Wolf
  20. Polar Operational Environmental Satellite – We Kill Cowboys
  21. Dead Flowers – Filthy Hippies
  22. The Veneer – A Million Ways To Die
  23. Pillow – Can of Worms
  24. You’re Gonna Make It – Dope St Jude

SA Musicians Covering Overseas Songs

In our previous mixtape we featured South African musicians covering South African songs. This time we focus on South African musicians covering foreign songs. Anyone familiar with live performers in South African restaurants and pubs will be all too familiar with the countless musicians plying overseas covers for a trade. Many a South African songwriter shakes their head in desperation at the thought of all the cover artists, trying to mimic the singers of the songs they cover, and taking the performance spaces potentially available to more original musicians. However, covers are not always a bad thing. Several musicians who mostly perform their own compositions also include some covers in their live sets or even record them as singles and on their albums. Most often these are viewed as interpretations – where they change the emphasis of the song or switch the song from one genre to another. At times musicians simply cover a song which they think will be a big hit if they adapt it to what seems popular in the current climate, or among their specific fans.

There are examples here which fit into all those categories. Interpreting songs is a very personal thing, and so rather than explain every song’s inclusion here, and fitting it into a particular category of cover, we have just listed the songs here, for you to listen to, think about, and perhaps explore further. We have included the names of the original performers in parenthesis, so that (in case you are not aware of the original) you can go back and listen, and think about the way it has been covered here. In case this sounds like a Musicology 101 course, we won’t ask you to write an essay. But please do leave comments about anything that grabs your attention. In the meantime … enjoy!

  1. Down On The Corner – Miriam Makeba (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
  2. The Voice Of Rage And Ruin – Kalahari Surfers (Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Bad Moon Rising”)
  3. Build Me Up Buttercup – Mean Mr Mustard (The Foundations)
  4. Paint It Black – No Friends of Harry (The Rolling Stones)
  5. Into The Fire – Suck (Deep Purple)
  6. Fooled Around And Fell In Love – Julian Laxton Band (Elvin Bishop)
  7. Substitute – Clout (The Righteous Brothers)
  8. Why Did You Do It – Margaret Singana (Stretch)
  9. Living For The City – Disco Rock Machine (Stevie Wonder)
  10. Magic Carpet Ride – Buffalo (Steppenwolf)
  11. Take Me To The River – Mara Louw (Al Green)
  12. The Weight – Dan Patlansky (The Band)
  13. Fine Lines – Syd Kitchen (John Martyn)
  14. Somebody – Matthew van der Want (Depeche Mode)
  15. Walking In The Rain – Johannes Kerkorrel (Flash and the Pan)
  16. Wait – Chris Letcher (Lou Reed)
  17. Complicated Game – Peach (XTC)
  18. Beds Are Burning – TCIYF (Midnight Oil)
  19. When I Went Out One Morning – Tribe After Tribe (Bob Dylan)
  20. Ring Of Fire – Laurie Levine (Johnny Cash)
  21. Sugarman – Just Jinger (Rodriguez)
  22. Money Money Money – Karen Zoid (Abba)
  23. Sunday Morning Coming Down – Wonderboom (Kris Kristofferson)
  24. Control – Spoek Mathambo (Joy Division – “She’s Lost Control”)
  25. Heart Shaped Box – Goldfish & Julia Church (Nirvana)

The Best South African Music – 2021 – Vol.1

At the beginning of each year we reflect on what we think were the best South African songs of the previous year. 2021 was a refreshingly good year for South African music, with a divergent array of new music released. Whereas we featured 20 songs from 2020, this time around we are highlighting 30 songs which we think everyone should listen to. These are presented over two volumes of fifteen songs each, so that the listening experience is less daunting, fitting more easily into our often busy schedules.

This first volume includes several veterans of the South African music scene. The Springbok Nude Girls sum up the return to a semi-normal life after severe lockdown with “Emerging Submarines”, one of the 2021 singles from their Partypocalypse album. Lesego Rampolokeng and the Kalahari Surfers are back with Babylon Mission Report, their first album since 1992’s End Beginnings. “Perverse Chrysalis” is a good example of Rampolokeng’s insightful poetry against the backdrop of the Kalahari Surfers’ deft accompaniment. Tim Parr first appeared on the South African music scene as guitarist for Baxtop back in 1979 and has featured in several bands since then, including Ella Mental in the 1980s and the Zap Dragons and Colourfields in the 1990s. He has also intermittently performed as a solo artist, most notably with the release of his Still Standing solo album released in 1996. This mixtape features “Time”, a single released this year. Hopefully it will be the first of many more songs from the legendary South African guitarist. Another guitarist with a solid reputation, with several solo albums to his credit, is Dan Patlansky who will be bringing out a new album, Hounds Loose, in 2022. Here we include his first single and title track from that album, released in late November. Steve Louw has been a feature of the South African music scene since the 1980s, with his bands All Night Radio and then Big Sky. In 2021 he released a solo album, Headlight Dreams, from which “Crazy River” is taken.

Lead vocalist for Freshlyground, Zolani Mohola (The One Who Sings), released a couple of singles as a solo artist in 2021. “Remember Who You Are” is the song we have opted for here. London-based Anna Wolf released her first solo album, The Dark Horse (under the name Tailor), in 2012. Over the past few years she has re-emerged with songs released under her own name. One such song is “Gong”, a single released early in 2021.

Montparnasse Musique is a collaboration between Algerian-French producer Nadjib Ben Bella and South African DJ Aero Manyelo. Their self-titled debut EP was released in 2021 and sure to get you jiving around your living room. On “Bitumba” they team up with Congolese band Mbongwana Star to great rhythmic effect. In mid-2021 Mushroom Hour Half Hour were back with the album, On Our Own Clock. This oft-changing ensemble featured artists from London, Dakar and Johannesburg. The Johannesburg musicians were Asher Gamedze (drums), Siya Makuzeni (trombone), Zoe Molelekwa (keyboards) and Tebogo Sedumede (bass). Recording began in June 2020 in the three cities and the digital collaboration resulted in this 2021 album, from which we have selected “Ngikhethile”.

It has been a while since fellow Shifty singer songwriters Chris Letcher and Matthew VD Want have released solo material but in 2020 they teamed up with Letcher’s singer-songwriter partner, Victoria Hume, bassist Andrew Joseph and drummer Nicholas Bjorkman. What began as a live show to showpiece new songs by Hume, Letcher and VD Want led to the formation of Koppies and the release of an EP of six new songs, two each by the aforementioned musicians. On this mixtape we feature one of VD Want’s compositions, “# Time’s up”.

There are also a few songs by relatively new musicians. Indie singer-songwriter Nic Jeffrey contributes “Say Love”, We Kill Cowboys perform “Take”, and The Great Yawn contribute “Take My Money”. It is exciting to see the recent emergence of indie label, Mongrel Records, especially as they are signing an enjoyable array of refreshing new artists: Here we feature the infectious “The Day I Gave My Sister Away” by The Amblers (duo Jason Hinch and Justin Swart) and “Feel It” by the Filthy Hippies, taken from the trio’s 2021 album Animal Farm.

We hope you discover some new music on this mixtape and follow a path of exploration into the music by the artists you like, and be sure to support them. The second volume appears in two weeks’ time, so listen to this one so long, put it on repeat and see you again next time with 15 more great 2021 releases …

  1. Bitumba – Montparnasse Musique & Mbongwana Star
  2. Ngikhethile – Mushroom Hour Half Hour
  3. Perverse Chrysalis – Lesego Rampolokeng & Kalahari Surfers
  4. Emerging Submarines – Springbok Nude Girls
  5. The Day I Gave My Sister Away – The Amblers
  6. Hounds Loose – Dan Patlansky
  7. # Time’s Up – Koppies
  8. Feel It – Filthy Hippies
  9. Say Love – Nic Jeffrey
  10. Take – We Kill Cowboys
  11. Time – Tim Parr
  12. Remember Who You Are – Zolani Mohola
  13. Crazy River – Steve Louw
  14. Take My Money – The Great Yawn
  15. Gong – Anna Wolf