Press Play, Press Record by Mary Singh

Local resident Leon Moodley has begun work on a compilation album that will collect highlights of the vibrant cassette tape subculture that existed in Chatsworth twenty years ago. Moodley said that in the late eighties and early nineties teens in Montford were creating original content cassettes and exchanging them in a network of around 50 people. “The home-recorded cassettes consisted of amateur music, rapping, poetry, comedy, plays and sound art. The tapes were called “Sixties” because they were predominantly recorded on C60 cassettes,” Moodley said. Moodley, who is better known by his stage name of Max Moodley, is a Chatsworth-based magician and comedian and was himself part of the “Sixties” subculture. He said that the, as yet untitled, compilation will document an important part of Chatsworth’s alternative cultural history: “In all, over a hundred tapes were distributed. The sound quality on most wasn’t very good and the content itself was often insubstantial but there was a great deal of enthusiasm amongst the tape-makers.” The subculture took off when one of Moodley’s friends fathers, a Durban dock worker, brought home a handful of bootleg tapes that he received from an American sailor: “The tapes contained material like rapping, prank phone calls and standup comedy. They were an immediate hit in Montford and a sort of ‘cargo cult’ grew around them. They were treated almost as talismanic objects. As we listened to them more, we began to imitate them and soon the first tape was recorded.” According to Moodley, the honour of recording the first “Sixty” belongs to Lal Naidoo. Naidoo’s tape was a compendium of jokes that were popular at the time. Naidoo, a welder who lives in Bayview, said that he was proud of the distinction: “I collected the jokes I’d been hearing, mostly ones about Indians or ones told with an Indian accent and read them into my father’s tape deck. I was trying to make a standup tape but I didn’t have my own jokes. I showed it around, and then everybody wanted a copy.” Moodley said that Naidoo’s tape catalyzed the tape-making. “What was interesting was that people soon grew tired of imitating the content and form of the American tapes. That’s when very interesting work began to appear.” “One of my personal favourites is Marcus Govender’s “Tabla”. Marcus is a classically trained tabla player and created a 30 minute solo that was really mesmerizing, and very modern. He was about 13 when he made it. I plan to use a 10 minute section of his solo in the compilation. Other interesting work includes Ash Maharaj’s sound collages. Ash owned a portable recorder and would make these very clever sound juxtapositions. He used the pause button in a unique way.” Chatsworth writer Pravasen Pillay is another of the tape-makers collected in the compilation: “Pravasan and I are good friends but I don’t think he’ll mind me saying that some of his tapes were a bit weird for a 12 year old. The one I’ll be sampling is called “Pillays Not Me” where he read out all the Pillays listed in the Durban telephone directory, which, as you can imagine, took a while.” Pillay said he was pleased to be included in the compilation. “Leon was the glue that held the entire Sixties network together and no-one is better placed to curate a compilation of it.” Moodley said that 20 different tape-makers will be represented in the compilation. He is currently raising funds to produce the album. First published in The Chatsworth Mirror, 6 August 2010