Shifty Records was a South African anti-apartheid record label founded by Lloyd Ross and Ivan Kadey in 1982/3, which existed for around ten years.
Shifty Records was a South African anti-apartheid record label founded by Lloyd Ross and Ivan Kadey in 1982/3, which existed for around ten years.
Lloyd Ross and Ivan Kadey established Shifty records in 1983. [1]
In 1986 Kadey left South Africa and became partner with the Waterland Design Group in Hollywood, designing studios at Capitol Records, Virgin Tokyo, and many other recording venues. At this time Warrick Sony bought in as partner with the purchase of recording equipment.[ citation needed ]
Kontaktnätet , a Swedish non-governmental cultural organisation financially supported Shifty Records from 1986 to 1992 and held various events in Sweden for the company and the various artists associated with Shifty.[ citation needed ]
Lloyd began making music videos for some of the musicians, and then moved into documentary filmmaking in the mid 1990s, including the award-winning feature film The Silver Fez (2009). [1]
Aimed at providing a platform for independent music with a social message, Shifty was an outlet for South African musicians opposed to apartheid. As a result, Shifty struggled to gain exposure on the radio stations of the Broederbond-controlled South African Broadcasting Corporation. Its anti-establishment stance was appealing to young and politically marginalised South Africans. This was evident when poet Mzwakhe Mbuli's unadvertised Change is Pain went gold after the apartheid regime banned possession and distribution of the album. [2]
The label helped establish boerepunk and the alternative Afrikaans genre at a time when it was a reflex to stereotype all Afrikaners as supporters of the National Party. Operating from a caravan hitched to a Ford V6 truck, the Shifty studio produced an album every two months until 1993.[ citation needed ]
In 2002, notorious Bureau of State Security agent, Paul Erasmus, was granted amnesty by the Truth & Reconciliation Commission for his overzealous campaign against Shifty Records artist, Roger Lucey, a campaign which ended his career. The amnesty application does not apply to other artists, appearing with Lucey, or released on the Shifty label. In particular, Lucey appears on Shifty compilation albums such as Forces Favourites and Anaartjie in our Sosatie. Erasmus claims in his biography to have waged a total war against the music industry. He is also one of Lucey's biggest fans, having confiscated most of his albums from record stores. The entire episode is documented in Stopping the Music: The Roger Lucey Story.[ citation needed ]
Shifty Records often made use of a core group of musicians who appeared on different artists' recordings as support instrumentalists, e.g. drummer Ian Herman and trombonist Jannie "Hanepoot" van Tonder who can both be heard on many albums from the Shifty Catalogue.[ citation needed ]
Artists appearing on the label included:
The South African music scene includes both popular (jive) and folk forms like Zulu isicathamiya singing and harmonic mbaqanga. Other popular genres are marabi, kwaito,house music, isicathamiya, gqom, rock music, hip hop and amapiano.
Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers GCOT is a British musician who was a founder, keyboard player and primary songwriter of the Coventry-based ska band The Specials and later The Spatial AKA Orchestra. Through his foundation of the record label Two Tone, his work blending political lyrics and punk with Jamaican music, and his incorporation of 1960s retro clothing, Dammers is a pivotal figure of the ska revival. He has also been acknowledged in his work for racial unity.
Johannes Kerkorrel, born Ralph John Rabie, was a South African singer-songwriter, journalist and playwright.
Mzwakhe Mbuli is a South African poet, Mbaqanga singer and former Deacon at Apostolic Faith Mission Church in Naledi Soweto, South Africa. Known as "The People's Poet, Tall Man, Mbulism, The Voice Of Reason", he is the father of Mzwakhe Mbuli Junior, also known as Robot_Boii.
Cape jazz is a genre of jazz that is performed in the very southern part of Africa, the name being a reference to Cape Town, South Africa. Some writers say that Cape Jazz began to emerge in 1959 with the formation of The Jazz Epistles, many of whom were from Cape Town, including Abdullah Ibrahim, then known as Dollar Brand. Cape Jazz is similar to the popular music style known as marabi, though more improvisational in character. Where marabi is a piano jazz style, Cape Jazz in the beginning featured instruments that can be carried in a street parade, such as brass instruments, banjos, guitars and percussion instruments.
James Phillips was a South African rock vocalist, songwriter, and performer. He was best known for his rebellious and satirical political music that spoke out against the South African government during Apartheid.
Paul Erasmus was a South African Security Police officer who testified to the Goldstone Commission, and later the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about police dirty tricks and violence during the apartheid era. This testimony revealed the existence of a unit in the Security Police called STRATCOM that specialised in misinformation and propaganda against opponents of the regime. Erasmus also testified on the police efforts to discredit Winnie Madikizela-Mandela by spreading false rumours about sexual affairs and drug use.
Roger Lucey is a South African musician, journalist, filmmaker, actor, and educator. In the late 1970s and early 1980s his early career as a musician was destroyed by Paul Erasmus of the Security Branch of the South African Police, because the lyrics to Lucey's protest songs were considered a threat to the Apartheid State. Although already aware of his anti-apartheid songs, the South African Government's security apparatus only swung into action to destroy Lucey's career after he performed a radical song in a programme on Voice of America radio. The criminal methods used against Lucey formed part of the testimony given by Paul Erasmus in front of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Eet Kreef is the first studio album by Johannes Kerkorrel and the Gereformeerde Blues Band. Released in 1989 on the now-defunct Shifty Records label, the album was a commercial success despite its tracks being banned from radio airplay by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Sello "Chicco" Twala is a South African musician and producer who has collaborated with many well known artists in the music industry, including Nkosana Kodi and Brenda Fassie. He has created some of South Africa's hit songs. In the 1970s he played in soul bands including Umoja, Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse's Harari, and formed his own band, Image.
Jaiva, Township jive (TJ), Soweto jive, Soweto sound or Soweto beat is a subgenre of South African township music and African dance form that influenced Western breakdance and emerged from the shebeen culture of the apartheid-era townships.
Matthew van der Want is a South African singer, songwriter and recording artist.
Robin Morton Auld is a South African singer-songwriter, guitarist, poet and writer. He has released twenty albums to date, along with a novel and poetry collection.
The Silver Fez is a 2009 South African documentary feature film directed by Lloyd Ross.
Warrick Swinney, more commonly known as Warrick Sony, is a South African composer, producer, musician and sound designer. He is the founder and sole permanent member of the Kalahari Surfers. They made politically radical satirical music in 1980s South Africa, and released it through the London-based Recommended Records. During this time the Surfers toured Europe with English session musicians.
Phendula ("Answer") is the second studio album by South African singer Zahara. It was released by TS Records on September 13, 2013. The album's production was primarily handled by Robbie Malinga and Mojalefa Thebe. It features guest appearances from Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Anele & Neliswa, Mzwakhe Mbuli, Mukengerwa Tresor Riziki and 2 Face Idibia. It was supported by three singles: "Phendula", "Impilo" and "Stay". Upon its release, the album was made available for purchase on iTunes and Musica.
The Voëlvry movement in South Africa was a genre of anti-apartheid music sung in Afrikaans. The term Voëlvry means both "free as a bird" and "outlaw". This movement has been said to have started on April 4, 1989 in Johannesburg in a packed club. This marked the beginning of what some have called a rock and roll uprising. The Voëlvry movement used music in the Afrikaans language to show pride. The movement focused on Afrikaner youth. The main goal of the movement was to get Afrikaner youth to see the changes that had to occur in the “authoritarian, patriarchal culture”.
The apartheid regime in South Africa began in 1948 and lasted until 1994. It involved a system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and placed all political power in the hands of a white minority. Opposition to apartheid manifested in a variety of ways, including boycotts, non-violent protests, and armed resistance. Music played a large role in the movement against apartheid within South Africa, as well as in international opposition to apartheid. The impacts of songs opposing apartheid included raising awareness, generating support for the movement against apartheid, building unity within this movement, and "presenting an alternative vision of culture in a future democratic South Africa."
Songololo: Voices of Change is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Marianne Kaplan and released in 1990. An examination of South Africa in the earliest days of the transition from apartheid to democracy, the film explores the power of music and art as tools of activism and social change, focusing primarily on writer Gcina Mhlophe and musician Mzwakhe Mbuli.
Resistance Is Defence is an album by the South African musician Mzwakhe Mbuli. It was released in 1992. Some of its songs were banned from South African radio.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
