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Hi, I'm C .D. Madea. Welcome

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to my podcast, Politricking. If a

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the podcast for you.

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And please rate this podcast wherever you

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listen to help others find Politricking with

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C .D. Madea. It's

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10 minutes to five o 'clock now.

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Statements issued by the African National

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Congress and the DA confirm that

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they have held a meeting. They

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don't say a great deal more

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than that. The DA

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delegation led by the

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party leader John Stearnhason on

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the ANC side, the

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delegation led by Secretary General

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Figele Mbalula. We'll

0:55

talk after five with with

0:58

Natasha Murray and

1:00

political analyst and

1:03

journalist at Business Day

1:05

about her take on what appears

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to be a kind of an as

1:09

-you -were, but things always come up

1:11

in talks. We're hoping that she managed

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to hear more than we're getting

1:15

from those statements. That's coming up a

1:17

little bit later. Nine minutes to

1:19

five. Which

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means it's that time of the

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week when we engage in some

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conversations about music with Randall Abrams.

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Randall always picks a song, we

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call it Randall's One Song, and

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talks about the music, what he

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likes about it, and of course,

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some of the really interesting things

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involved, either in its reception or

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its making or both. Randall, a

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very good afternoon to you. Welcome

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back. Thank you, John.

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How are you? Yeah, doing well. Thanks and you? Good

1:52

good Randall you often talk

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about collaborations and and

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you know either collaborations across

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genres or collaborations across countries

2:00

this one really is across

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continents I'm looking at the

2:04

artist credited on this and

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you're gonna tell us more

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about them a vocalist from

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Botswana a guitar player from

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Congo from the Congo another

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guitar player from Brazil we've

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got an artist sadly who's

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passed away from Cape Town

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and we've got people in

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Brooklyn in the United States.

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What did you pick and tell us about why

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you chose them? So

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the first thing, John, and let's talk

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about the reason for the collaboration. The name

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of the group is Taba, and

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the sounds are South African, but

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obviously by way of a lot

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of collaboration. And it's

2:42

a rather unfortunate story. Their

2:44

first album came out in

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2020. Eyes rest their feet.

2:49

And unfortunately, on the

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release of the album, the vocalist

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at the time, Koussi Serimani, sadly

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passed away. And the

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producer, Gabriel Sir, was then

3:00

left with kind of musical fragments

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that he believed he should

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work with and develop. And

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as I say, he was

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able to put together a

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list of Stuller international cast

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in order to get their

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new record together. The

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vocalist in question on the song

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is called Pale Hearts. is Lelisa

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Mb also had a great album

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art in 2024 but you know when

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we think about the internet and

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we think about what it can do

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we forget that what it's also

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allowed musicians to do is to have

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this form of collaboration where you

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can have you know guitar players from

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the continent and then a drummer

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or a bass player from Europe or

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the States are being able to

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you know to have similar musical tastes

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and craft something that is so

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wonderful. And again, I

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think I've said this many a

3:54

time. People who know music from

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the 60s or 70s or when

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they grew up in the 80s

4:00

or These will always say, oh,

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there's nothing out there that's that

4:04

great. But let me assure you,

4:06

I honestly believe this whole album and

4:09

the track Pale Hearts is really,

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to my mind, as good as it

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gets. And it's got

4:15

that framing, as I say, that

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it's maintained you degree of

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what I would call South Africanness,

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but it certainly, you know,

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in scope, in its kind of

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musical vision, it's taken on board

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a lot of very, very modern

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sounds from across the world. So

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let's take a listen then. The

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song is called Pale Hearts. The

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album is called December. Ceddi Montole

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and the collaboration is a group

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of artists who call themselves Taba.

4:43

Enjoy this. Hearts"]

5:19

There are rules

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on both

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sides of the

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sea There

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are rules on

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both sides the

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sea No

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one's worth the

5:40

time we live in

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I was blind

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but you

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deserve to be

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seen There

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are signs in the

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sea that you can go

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And I'm particularly enjoying the bass on

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that, if you're a fan of the

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bass, New Yorker Jonathan Granhoff responsible for

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that. Randall, you seem to

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be suggesting, and I hope I've

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understood it right, that modern music

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making in the era of connectivity,

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like the one we currently enjoy,

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can have artists all over the

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world producing their stuff in their

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own studio space while never actually

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getting together physically in a recording

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space at all. Is that what

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happened here? Yeah,

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to a large degree, this is

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what happened here. As I said,

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quite sadly, as I

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said, Kusi's ceremony passed

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away. But his vocals

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are actually featured on eight of the

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tracks on the album. And

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then Gabriel went out and got as

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the same musicians from around the

7:30

world to kind of full everything out

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and complete the record. But yes,

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that is the case. A lot of

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the work that is done not

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only on this album, but on many

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albums sees artists in bedroom studios. you

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know, putting, laying down their parts and sending

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out to one another. And there could even

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be a situation, we don't know that it's

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the case of this record, but certainly in

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the case of a lot of albums where

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three bass players may have supplied a bass

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line. And then the

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producer chose one of them. It's

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quite a different way of music making.

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It's quite a different feel And

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I know there are lots of people

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who long for the days of, you know,

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being able to

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think about, you know, a band

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like let's say the Beatles or

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the Motown Studio musicians in the

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studio together collaborating. don't

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think one is better than the

8:23

other. I don't know if

8:25

story that the Beatles almost recorded

8:27

at Stacks, but unfortunately it got

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to the press and it didn't

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happen. If they had this

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level of technology, you know,

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maybe you would have heard a James

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Jameson bassline on a on a

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Beatles song and a Paul McCartney

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bassline on a Stacks song. Yeah, something

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to consider. Something to consider and

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look forward to as we will look

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forward to the next edition of

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Randall's One Song on 702 Drive to

8:53

Randall Abrams.