Shifty Records was a South African anti-apartheid

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

founded by Lloyd Ross and Ivan Kadey in 1982/1983, which existed for around ten years.

History

Lloyd Ross and Ivan Kadey founded Shifty records in 1983.) but Kontaktnätet a Swedish non-governmental cultural organization financially supported Shifty Records from 1986 to 1990. Hosted and held various events in Sweden for the company and the various artists associated with Shifty Records, also, investing in recording equipment for the musicians, and then moved into

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

making in the mid 1990s, including the award-winning feature film '' The Silver Fez'' (2009).

Description

Shifty records aimed at providing a platform for independent music with a social message, Shifty was an outlet for South African musicians opposed to

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. As a result, Shifty struggled to gain exposure on the radio stations of the

Broederbond The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merw ...

-controlled

South African Broadcasting Corporation The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations (Amplitude modulation, AM/Frequency modulation, FM) as well as 6 television broadcasts and 3 OTT Services to the general ...

. Its

anti-establishment An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958 by the British magazine ''New Statesman'' ...

stance was appealing to young and politically marginalised South Africans as seen in the success of Mzwakhe Mbuli's unadvertised album ''Change is Pain'' which went gold despite being banned by the apartheid regime.

Significance

The label helped establish boerepunk and the alternative

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

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.

Apartheid security campaign against Shifty (2002)

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. It is important to note that the scope of the amnesty application does not extend to other artists associated with Lucey or the Shifty label. In particular, Lucey's work can be found on Shifty compilation albums such as ''Forces Favourites'' and ''Anaartjie in our Sosatie''. Erasmus, as indicated in his biography, claimed to have waged a total war against the music industry. He is also one of Lucey's biggest fans, even going as far as seizing most of his albums from record stores. The entirety of this incident has been documented in the book “''Stopping the Music”: The Roger Lucey Story''.

Artists

Shifty Records frequently utilized a core group of versatile musicians, who contributed their instrumental talents to various 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. Artists appearing on the label included: * Vusi Mahlasela * Mzwakhe Mbuli * Koos Kombuis * The Genuines * FOSATU Workers Choirs * Isja * James Phillips & The Cherry Faced Lurchers *Bernoldus Niemand en Die Swart Gevaar, AKA James Phillips *Corporal Punishment * Jennifer Ferguson * Johannes Kerkorrel * Kalahari Surfers * National Wake * Noise Khanyile * Roger Lucey * Sankomota * Simba Morri * Tananas * Lesego Rampolokeng * Happy Ships * Winston's Jive Mixup * Robin Auld *KOOS

References

External links

Shifty
{{Authority control South African independent record labels Record labels established in 1983 Music in the movement against apartheid