Indestructable beats
I have been thinking a lot about boycotts, cultural boycotts, "smart" boycotts" and non-smart boycotts recently. And then I saw this at one of my favourite music blogs, Aquarium Drunkard:
This compilation, which I borrowed from my local public library on vinyl and copied to cassette on my parents' then new "hi fi", came out in 1986, at the height of - and breaking - the cultural boycott of South Africa. Read this review at 17 Seconds, which notes that it made The Wire's 100 important Records Ever Made List and adds that the
(Cick here to listen to mp3s.)
The good news: The Indestructible Beat of Soweto, Vol. 1 is now available at eMusic — I can promise you it is well worth the 12 credits. A must for Afro-pop enthusiasts, at twelve tracks, this is a concise measure of the pulse of the regional radio and clubs of Soweto in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Aesthetically, the impact this compilation alone had on Paul Simon’s Graceland is inestimable. And, hey, just think how many people are borrowing from Graceland now….
This compilation, which I borrowed from my local public library on vinyl and copied to cassette on my parents' then new "hi fi", came out in 1986, at the height of - and breaking - the cultural boycott of South Africa. Read this review at 17 Seconds, which notes that it made The Wire's 100 important Records Ever Made List and adds that the
"rock world sat up and took notice. The albums made subsequently that both 'borrowed' ideas from this record have been well-documented, analysed and argued over. Forgot that, just for now, and check out this compilation."
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