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(** - 2 Stars)
Homegrown - 19 of South Africa's Best Bands
(EMI)

Firstly, the sleeve design of this CD is very shit, immediately giving it negative marks. Surely someone somewhere along the production line must've noticed the same? SA artists make good music and deserve to be sold in a good package.

This compilation, being endorsed by SABC3, is a very good selection of our best pop bands, with the only real variation coming from Mandoza and dance acts Heatseeker, Ryan Dent and Roger Goode. The rest ranges from classic Henry Ate ('Just') to Grannysmith to Egyptian Nursery to Leery, with some harder rock from Saron Gas and some limp fudge from Danny K chucked into this virtual mirror of a 5fm playlist. It's therefore a bit unclear what the purpose of this compilation is, because an accurate reflection of the South African music scene it certainly isn't. But I see their point anyway, these are all very recognisable songs thanks to tons of radio play, so maybe the casual music fan might like to have this in their collections to play to foreign visitors.

In fact, this is probably the ideal gift for your friends overseas who miss Henry Ate and Just Jinger so much. Just remember to take the sleeve out first and tell them the dog ate it.

It's also a pity there're no Afrikaans tunes on this, and while Karen Zoid appears here with 'Southern Skies', it lacks some Valiant, BVK or Koos. But that's just personal grievances. And I'm a bit of a music snob, so don't listen to me.

A nice selection, but a missed opportunity to create a really special collection.