Malombo - Pele Pele

MALOMBO - PELE PELE (1976) Released on 12 July 1976 via Atlantic Records South Africa (ATC 8003), this landmark album stands as one of the most singular documents in the South African recording canon. Conceived and led by the visionary multi-instrumentalist Phillip Tabane, Pele Pele is not easily categorized and that is precisely its power. Phillip Tabane handles guitar, bass, flute, pennywhistle, and vocals across the album, composing and arranging every track and producing the sessions himself. Beside him: percussionist Gabriel "Sonnyboy" Thobejane, whose command of African drums and rhythm gives the record its beating, breathing pulse. Together, the two men forged a sound that drew equally from South African jazz, Venda folk tradition, and hypnotic ceremony; music that arrived from somewhere ancient and pointed toward something unclassified. Recorded at Videosound Studios, Johannesburg, the sessions were produced alongside Peter Davidson (who also managed Phillip Tabane), with executive production by Richard Sassoon and engineering by Nino Rivera. The studio environment was used deliberately; electronic textures and spatial effects were layered into the acoustic fabric, giving the album what writers have described as a humid atmosphere, dense and immersive. Despite the international recognition Phillip Tabane's work attracted through the 1970s, Pele Pele remained a specialist discovery at home for many years. The post-1994 era brought renewed visibility through reissues, and the title track has lived on in live performance most memorably documented on the 2010 Live at the Market Theatre recording. This is African creative music in its most self-determined form. No compromise. No translation for outside consumption. Just the thing itself.

Added 30 Sept 2026