National Wake: South African New Wavers Who Fought The Power
Multi-racial angry brigade’s groundbreaking contribution revived by Light In The Attic. Watch the film.
NATIONAL WAKE WEREN’T messing around. A multi-racial group forged in apartheid South Africa whose records melded punk spirit with African, funk, jazz, ’60s rock and R&B influences, their mere existence spat in the eye of authorities who sought to keep their homeland divided. Even the name enshrined a fascinating dichotomy. National Wake: an elegy for their country’s hopes. National Wake: a startling reveille, bringing all right-thinkers to their feet, and thence to the dance floor. Next week, October 7, Light In The Attic release Walk In Africa, a compilation of the work the group recorded 1979-1981, and although some of it sounds a bit like The Police, most of it’s groovily, unquantifiably great, and as the following mini-doc reveals, theirs is a fascinating and heartening tale.