Usic on roads less travelled
north or east/ Are you man, are you slave, did you birth the world/ … Ancestral amphibians, turn reptile indigenous, to flesh.
But it is River of Love that stays with me long after its rhythmic hook and guitars have been muted.
That I have travelled across two borders to get acquainted with a stage act to me signifies the lack of plurality almost inherent in South Africa’s music scene. From the outside in, South Africa seems little more than a homebase for Lapetus (her record label), a place where they can plan their careers with their sights set on the globe at large.
What the success of labelmate Yugen Blakrok proves is that, regardless of the label’s relative lack of attention these days (a snubbing that is oblivious to its illustrious past), a collective can always regroup, especially with the momentum of like-minded individuals.
The Black Freddy songs that Fifi has worked on with members of Mr Freddy represent the expansion of her sonic palette, something that, for those who have checked out her sound since she emerged, was already in progress with Black Matter.
Kissakye, born of Ugandan parents in Swaziland, says the momentum of Mr Freddy has been so brisk that in only a year they have been able to play some of South Africa’s major festivals. “It has been amazing,” he says. “We’re playing Bushfire this year and that’s the fun of it. The highlight of it is that we’re playing with a visual artist from Pretoria, Keneiloe. She is amazing.”
As for Fifi, the Black Matter Collaboration tour has been fruitful, despite the ambivalence of a preoccupied audience in Mozambique. Swaziland, which she is playing for the second time, has been something of a revelation for me. Your art will always find its audience. No matter the numbers, no matter the time it takes. For all the stops and starts her career has taken, the sheer quality of Black Matter is a statement in and of itself.