No Way to Go

Many a record containing messages of hope and unit was suppressed due to racist censorship during the South African apartheid era. Artists routinely had their recordings destroyed and were forced into obscurity. From Tsumeb, Namibia, Ben ‘Tukumazan’ Molatzi fell victim to this policy. Tree years after his death in 2016 No Way to Go is released by Bear Family Records' Cree label and has been showcased by a recent crowd-funded exhibition at SOAS, Stolen Moments: Namibian Music History Untold, which documented the underground Namibian pop scene of Molatzi's time.

A self-taught guitarist and singer, Molatzi composes music that draws heavily on his Damara and Sotho heritage, with distinctive melodic idioms; flurries of fast, clipped, syllabic notes are followed by resonant, drone-like ends of phrases, laid over a chugging, strummed guitar line. ‘Sida !hu (Our Land Damaraland)’, the opener, immediately commands attention. Here Molatzi sings a mournful ode to his faraway homeland. He sings, ‘we will return one day... Oh Damaraland.’

‘D:R:M:D’ is sung in solfège and therefore devoid of lyrics, but the song encapsulates Molatzi's sound. The rest of the tracks are helpfully written out and translated in the booklet, which also contains an interview with Molatzi about his life, his creative inspirations and his love for singing, whistling and playing guitar. In a market where previously-unreleased ‘world’ discs are consigned to DJ fodder with little artist recognition, I'm delighted to see such a well-researched and long-overdue release.