At the centre of everything is the songs â creations that still resonate when heard a decade or so after they first arrived in our lives.

16 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk Pop, POP: Pop/Rock

Details:
It's hard to believe that it's been more than a decade since a 21-year-old singer and songwriter (in the real sense of that overworked description) offered up her broken-hearted folk pop for audiences in Johannesburg to fall in love with.

We didn't know it in the way we came to later, but anyone who was in the crowd when Karma-Ann Swanepoel first stood in front of a mic must have had a sense that she was something special. Maybe it had something to do with her particular combination of part-punk looks, self-depracating smile and an acoustic guitar that always seemed a little clumsy on her. Or perhaps it was to do with her see-sawing relationship with Julian Sun â who provided Karma with a creative foil that at times brought out the very best in her and, at others, seemed to do her in.

Whatever it was, it soon became clear through a raft of albums â starting with 'Slap In The Face' (recorded in Willem Moller's Yeoville studio and featuring Karma memorably framed by a swish of water on the cover) â and electric live performances that Henry Ate's folk-pop was just about the most authentic homegrown sound we'd heard in a while. Emerging into the democratic era, Karma's clarity of sonic purpose; her unadorned musical style was easy to adore. And when she and Sun found some seriously good players to augment their coupling â among them Max Mikula on guitar, Brendan Ou Tim on bass, Kaolin Thompson on keyboards and flute, and Peter Cohen on drums (which he now plays for Freshlyground) â it added a propulsive energy to the records and live work that earned Henry Ate fans around the country.

But at the centre of everything was the songs â creations that still resonate when heard a decade or so after they first arrived in our lives: the longing that suffused 'Tuesday Afternoon', the quirkiness that gave 'Henry' its transcendent quality, the spare production and beautiful vocal phrasing on 'Finally' â all of these and more became the soundtrack to the lives of fans in search of something more than swiftly discarded music that leaves no imprint.

The release of 'Henry Ate 96-03: The Singles' is a reminder of a group that revealed just how easy it is to create genuine music that nonetheless can find space on the airwaves or get a serious party going or help make sense of times when love seems to slip off the edge of the world.

Diane Coetze

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