It was as a 16-year-old drummer in Orlando High School’s cadet band that Sipho Mabuse attracted the attention of fellow scholar and guitarist Selby Ntuli. Ntuli approached Mabuse to team up with him and fellow students Alec Khaoli (bass) and Saitana (real name Monty Ndimande; guitar) to form the band The Beaters.
Live concerts as well as broadcasts on radio Sesotho quickly established the band’s popularity and in March 1969, The Beaters’ first album, “Soul-A-Go-Go”, was released.
Music.org.za
- The Beaters – Soul-A-Go-Go [LP] March 1969
- The Beaters – Hot Dogs [LP] 1969
- The Beaters – Lost Memories [LP] 1969
- The Beaters – Harari [LP] 1975
The Beaters – Soul-A-Go-Go [LP] March 1969
The Beaters – Hot Dogs [LP] 1969
The Beaters – Lost Memories [LP] 1969
The Beaters – Harari [LP] 1975
The Beaters is the name of the band, and “Harari” is the name of the album. After this album The Beaters changed their name and became Harari, named after a township outside of Salisbury (now Harare) in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe since April 1980).
In-between The Beaters and Harari an album named “Black Ink” was released in 1975.
Read more at Electric Jive.
Not long before an extended tour of Swaziland and Rhodesia in 1976 where “The Beaters” become “Harari“, Selby Ntuli, Alec Khaoli and Sipho Mabuse pulled together this above-average once-off soul-bump-jive recording.
Though responding to the huge mid-seventies public demand for bump-jive, the rock and soul roots of the Beaters are evident in five mellow but grooving tracks. The Beaters re-visited the bump-jive tradition with “What’s Happening” on their 1975 big-hit album “Harari” – which you can find here. You can also read more of “The Beaters” and the 1976 breakaway to form “Saitana”, and hear that album here.
Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse’s flute work floats melodically over unhurried base and rhythm riffs that invite you to put aside your worries and chill a little. In addition to the fore-fronted flute, the opening track, “Kugugsaothandayo” does feature some interesting snatches of vuvuzela-like interludes. “Bongo Bump” showcases guitar-led soul-rock influences, Enjoy!
1. Kugugaotahndayo (15:41)
2. Sipo’s Joint (2:43)
3. Selby’s Mood (5:01)
4. Our Children (2:49)
5. Bongo Bump (4:55)
