Kalahari Surfers – Own Affairs

Kalahari Surfers was a South African studio project led by Warrick Sony, a composer, producer, musician and sound designer. The group released politically radical satirical music exploring a range of sonic influences from art rock to dub to post-punk to African traditional music. The group’s sophomore album Own Affairs is a dub-post-rock oddity featuring sampled political & religious speeches in various languages, Zappa-esque guitar, drum machines, DX7, and saxophone. Apparently the album was taken to EMI to press but rejected by the cutting engineer for being “political, pornographic and anti-religious.” From the liner notes: “This is an album made during a crucial period in South Africa’s history during which there was a palpable feeling of a slow turning towards the collapse of the apartheid state side by side with an increasingly well-organised culture of resistance through the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and various affiliated bodies. However, as a result, there was increased pushback from the state security establishment, a turning to dirty tricks and the formation of hit squads whose members murdered and tortured many of our friends and created chaos throughout South Africa as well as neighbouring countries.” – Warrick Sony