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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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Songs by South African artists on the UK and USA Top 100 singles charts

With Tyla’s ‘Water’ making it into the US charts, going viral on social media, and being awarded a Grammy, there has been some discussion in the media about previous songs by SA artists making the US charts. There haven’t been many, and there have been a few more that have made the UK charts. We decided to research the US Billboard and UK top 100 charts and put together a mixtape of songs which have charted in either country. They appear in the chronological order in which they charted. The list below indicates the peak position of each song, and the date on which it reached that position.

Interestingly there are no songs which appeared on both the USA and UK charts. In fact there isn’t even a single South African artist who has charted in both charts. One song charted twice on the UK top 100: ‘Scatterlings Of Africa’ – first the Juluka version, and four years later the Savuka version.

The mixtape selection is restricted to South African musicians and groups who are regarded as wholly South African (for example, this does not include songs by Manfred Mann who only began his musical career once he had emigrated to the UK, Yes when Trevor Rabin was a member, or Freshlyground doing a collaborative song with Shakira, and so on). Collaborations of those sorts can be a focus for a future mixtape!

Some of these are probably very familiar to you, and others you might have hardly ever heard at all. Give them a listen and enjoy!

  1. Pata Pata – Miriam Makeba no 12 on 25 November 1967 (USA)
  2. Up Up And Away – Hugh Masekela No 71 on 13 and 20 January 1968 (USA)
  3. Master Jack – Four Jacks And A Jill No 18 on 8 June 1968 (USA)
  4. Grazing In The Grass – Hugh Masekela No 1 on 20 July 1968 (USA)
  5. Puffin On Down The Track – Hugh Masekela no 71 on 19 October 1968 (USA)
  6. Riot – Hugh Masekela No 55 on 8 and 15 February 1969 (USA)
  7. He’s Gonna Step On You Again – John Kongos No 4 on 22 May 1971 (UK)
  8. Tokoloshe Man – John Kongos No 4 on 20 November 1971 (UK)
  9. Substitute – Clout No 2 17 June 1978 (UK)
  10. Scatterlings Of Africa – Juluka No 44 on 5 Feb 1983 (UK)
  11. She’s The Master (of the game) – Richard Jon Smith No 63 16 July 1983 (UK)
  12. Impi – Juluka No 87 on 6 August 1983 (UK)
  13. The ABC Of Kissing – Richard Jon Smith No 77 on 30 March 1985 (UK)
  14. Scatterlings Of Africa – Savuka No 75 on May 10 1987 (UK)
  15. Lies – Jonathan Butler No 18 on 1 August 1987 (UK)
  16. Holding On – Jonathan Butler No 92 on 24 October 1987 (UK)
  17. Asimbonanga – Savuka No 94 on January 24 1988 (UK)
  18. Take Good Care Of Me – Jonathan Butler No 89 on 13 February 1988 (UK)
  19. Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World – Savuka No 86 February 4 1990 (UK)
  20. World In Union ’95 – PJ Powers & Ladysmith Black Mambazo No 47 3 June 1995 (UK)
  21. Inkanyezi Nezazi (The Star And The Wiseman) – Ladysmith Mambazo No 33 15 November 1997 (UK)
  22. Ain’t No Sunshine – Ladysmith Black Mambazo No 42 16 October 1999 (UK)
  23. Broken – Seether No 20 in 2004 (USA)
  24. When You Come Back 2010 – Vusi Mahlasela No 70 on 10 July 2010 (UK)
  25. Water – Tyla No 10 on November 28 2023 (USA)
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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