When the South African band Jivara released their album »Saturday Fever« in 1989, apartheid still existed in the country. At that time, however, music had long since found a way to rebel hedonistically. Bubblegum in the eighties was an electronically produced style based on Disco-Funk, Boogie and South African Mbaqanga, to which people celebrated during the last decade of ethnic separation. With their six tracks Jivaro mark the transition from Bubblegum, which also clearly reverted to Dancehall, to Kwaito with its dominating House influences. The sounds are kept simple, which finds an echo today in styles like Gqom or Amapiano. While the B-side reveals mainly Jamaican echoes, Jivaro point more strongly to the future of South African club music on the A-side. »What Next« and the title track »Saturday Fever« are house appropriations, where the beats set noticeably different accents from the US-American models and also the voices with their melodies held in a kind of singsong stand out from the »catchier« ways of the other side of the record. This also applies to the dub version of »What Next«, in which Jamaica at best forms an echo. The message of the refrain “What next is coming / We want to celebrate”, aiming at change, is of course preserved.
Saturday Fever
