Moses Mchunu’s Indestructable Beat (1975)

Moses Mchunu’s style of music is said by musicologists such as Charles Hamm to fall into the neo-traditional form of Mbaqanga - infectious and complex four-bar sequences of acoustic guitar, vocals and harmonies, strong baselines, drums and usually an accordion and/or a fiddle.

To many readers Mchunu’s music will be familiar from his hit track "Qhwayilahle" on the Indestructible Beat of Soweto album in 1985. The CD album of the same name can be bought from Kalahari.net for ZAR40. To me, the roots of this music echo and resonate deep in my 60’s and 70’s youth psyche where lone maskandi musicians would commune with guitars or concertinas while they walked the white suburbs and industrial areas of Durban.

Today’s share is believed to be Mchunu’s first LP, produced on the Motella label in 1975. Entitled “Black Bull” (Enkunzi Emnyama) Mchunu’s records bought mostly by migrant workers sing of matters and moments in rural traditional African life – cattle, religion, harvest, praising clans and chiefs, marriage and death – but not too obviously close to the social conditions pertaining to apartheid at the time.

In the track Amagama, Mchunu gives a shout-out to Noise Khanyile who is most likely playing the fiddle on the track.

Born in 1953, Moses Mchunu hails from the village of Nkandla in the Province of Kwa-Zulu Natal – the same village that President Jacob Zuma was born in.

Mchunu was quite prolific in his output . It seems however that a discography is nowhere to be found. Below is a very limited listing of some of his other Motella releases. If readers have details of other Mchunu releases, please do share:

Moses Mchunu and Nabafana Bengoma; Senzeni Madoda. Motella BL 69 (Gallo) 1976.
Moses Mchunu; Sigiya Ngengoma. Motella BL252 (Gallo) 1980
Moses Mchunu; Babulala Umuzi Ka Baba Motella BL320 (Gallo) 1981

Tracklisting
1. lnkunzi Emnyama
2. Magugu Omhlaba
3. Emzini Bakhala Ngawe
4. Lishonile llanga
5. Sambamba
6. Ekhweni Lami
7. Amagama
8. Ngizula Nomhlaba
9. Sibongile
10. Kuhle Ukuzenzela
11. Qinisa Mkhize
12. Ngibuyile Baba

RS here
MF here