The debut album Matjale sees Thabang Tabane take his rightful place in an illustrious lineage. Releasing a long-overdue debut album, he’s a percussionist and deep musical obsessive who shows the indelible influence of his father’s music. The son of the now late Philip Tabane, his father is a legendary guitarist regarded as the architect of South Africa’s malombo style. Thabang is guided by a fiercely independent ethos, informed by the African spiritual perspective which became  malombo music. Releasing it on newly-founded, independent South African label Mushroom Hour Half Hour, he works with labelmate Sibusile Xaba (who released 2017’s Unlearning / Open Letter to Adoniah) to pick up that musical baton: charting new, divergent directions for independent music made in a South African image.

Image by Lidudumalingani Mqombothi