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The Otherwhite Album

by The Cherry Faced Lurchers

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1.
Detainees 04:13
2.
Heavy Ous 03:43
3.
D-Lux 03:43
4.
Barbed Wire 03:21
5.
Soon Be Over 04:00
6.
The Branch 05:04
7.
War Song 03:18
8.
The Kêrels 03:10
9.
Shout 03:36
10.
Better Way 05:15
11.
12.
13.

about

‘The Otherwhite Album’ was originally recorded in ‘86/87 and was destined to the definitive South African rock album. Originally only ever released as an elusive cassette tape release (1992), the album was unearthed in 2020 during the worldwide Covid-19 lockdown and remixed by Lloyd Ross with input from Lee Edwards, Richard Frost, Mark Bennet, Steve Howells & Jannie van Tonder.

Now, 34 years later, Shifty Records are thrilled to share the resulting album with the world. The release contains extensive liner notes edited by Shaun de Waal with contributions by original 'Lurchers' and friends close to the project.

THE FULL DIGITAL & CD RELEASE (WITH EXTENSIVE LINER NOTES) WILL DROP WITH THE RELEASE OF THE VINYL RECORD ... expected OCTOBER 2021.

WE WILL SHARE MORE TRACKS IN BUILD UP TO THE FULL RELEASE, FIRST UP 'HEAVY OUS'.

To order the vinyl record visit www.permanentrecord.co.za (ZA)
www.thegoodtimes.cc (EU)

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In 1986 I got The Cherry Faced Lurchers into the studio to record a follow-up to their 1985 live album release. It was supposed to be the first album released out of our new setup, just over the valley from the house in Rand Mines Properties where we originally parked our mobile studio caravan.

But things got complicated. Nothing was simple in those days. Living in an almost permanent state of emergency didn’t help. James’s songwriting changed within a year from the happy-go-lucky repertoire of Live at Jameson's, to songs reflective of the dark times we were living through.

The recording itself took a number of years and personnel changes. James was drinking heavily and his health suffered. I remember doing multiple takes of his vocal, literally over months, even years.

Then James and I went through a difficult period in which expectations and reality didn’t sync, so the finishing of the album became no one’s priority. So it sat.

In 1992, after James and I started getting along again, we did a quick mix of the Otherwhite sessions for a limited cassette release, without any fanfare, just to get it out there. Because of this, remixing The Otherwhite Album and giving it new life has always been in the back of my mind.

Then, in 2014, when Bill Botes began making it his mission to keep the Shifty flame alive, he kept regularly reminding me of the album’s importance. So, with the time-expanding effects of Covid-19, the final mix has eventually come to pass, 35 years after recording began.

Immersing myself in these songs again, I was constantly reminded of James’s immense talent – the melodic guitar phrases, the beautiful arrangements, the emotive vocal delivery (yes, we did get some fine takes), but ultimately it’s his compositions that articulated what many of us were feeling at a very specific time and place that make this collection of songs so important.

One of the ways for any person to survive tragedy is by not losing their sense of humour. Here, James remained his sardonic self. Take the album title, for instance, as he points out the surreal Kafkaesque nature of the apartheid regime’s attempts at racial classifications, as found in the South African ID book. He always found the classification “Other Coloured” extremely amusing, imagining the apparatchiks themselves kinda giving up in the realisation of the ridiculousness of their task. By their logic, he reckoned those whities that thought like us should have our own classification: the “Other Whites”.

Lloyd Ross, Producer

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credits

released October 1, 2021

James Phillips - Vocals, Guitars
Lee Edwards - Bass, Backing Vocals
Richard Frost - Drums on 'Detainees', 'The Branch' & 'Soon Be Over'
Steve Howells - Drums on the rest
Mark Bennett - Keys, Backing Vocals

Horn section:
Trumpet: Brian Thusi
Trombone: Jannie "Hanepoot" van Tonder
Tenor sax: Phil Holder

Music & Lyrics by James Phillips.

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Recorded by Lloyd Ross 1986 - 1987 at Shifty Studios.
Remixed by Lloyd Ross 2020 with input from Richard Frost, Lee Edwards, Steve Howells, Mark Bennet Willem Möller and Jannie "Hanepoot" van Tonder.
Mastered for CD & Digital by Willem “Meneer Volume” Möller
Mastered for vinyl by Ross Finck.
Design by Rouleaux van der Merwe.
Liner notes by Shaun de Waal

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all rights reserved

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about

James Phillips Johannesburg, South Africa

James Phillips, who died aged 36 in July 1995, was a composer, musician, bandleader and the voice and conscience of a generation of white South Africans.
His music was born at the same time as the Soweto Riots and then fused in a strangely comfortable way with the punk musical explosion. His songwriting bloomed through apartheid’s darkest years and into the dawning of the new era.
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