An understandably politicized Joburg blend of punk, new wave, reggae and hard rock (check "It's All Right"'s surprisingly downright Rush-like ascending riff!), National Wake are a must-hear for any fans of The Clash, The Police and The English Beat, as well as such pre-punk acts as Detroit's Death and Zambia's WITCH and Amanaz (as especially heard on "Time And Place").
"The South Africa of the late 1970s was neither the right place nor time to launch a mixed-race punk band. Yet, following the student-inspired Soweto Uprising of 1976, it was also exactly the right conditions to foster a band like National Wake, one formed in an underground commune and one whose very name exists in protest at the divisive, racist apartheid regime. Never before collected together, Light In The Attic has now released National Wake’s full body of work as Walk In Africa 1979-81.
Featured heavily in the recent documentary Punk In Africa, National Wake played punk, reggae and tropical funk, equally at home in the city’s rock underground and the township nightclub circuit. Ivan Kadey started the band with two brothers, Gary and Punka Khoza. [...] Later joined by guitarist Steve Moni, the whole band grew up against a backdrop of township unrest, social upheaval and suburban tedium that characterized apartheid-era South Africa." - Light In The Attic