Soundway has announced a new compilation collecting bubblegum soul and synth boogie from 1980s South Africa. Get a taste of the compilation above via The Survivals’ ‘My Brother’.
Entitled Gumba Fire, the compilation has been put together by Soundway’s Miles Cleret and DJ Okapi of Afrosynth Records. None of the tracks on the compilation have been reissued or made available digitally before.
"The music captures a period on the record in which the disco-boom was slowing and mutating and morphing into something else, something entirely new," a press release explains. "The sound that was forged was often ubiquitously described as bubblegum – usually stripped down and lo-fi with a predominance of synths, keyboards and drum-machines and overlaid with the kind of deeply soulful trademark vocals and harmonies that South African music is famous for."
The album takes its name from the band Ashiko’s track of the same name that features on the compilation. The music featured on the record precedes the Kwaito and house sounds that took over South African dancefloors in the 1990s.
You can pre-order Gumba Fire here. It’s out on March 9.
