The Bench

Pantsula dancers in a circle on a tarred township street, knees high, spectators ringed around them, shot in black and white.

How Kwaito Was Made: The Pitch Fader, the Speed Switch and a Tempo Nobody Chose

How Kwaito Was Made: The Pitch Fader, the Speed Switch and a Tempo Nobody Chose

Focusrite Studio Console number 5 in The Focusrite Room at Platinum Underground, Arizona, restored after being rescued from the shuttered BOP Studios

BOP Studios: A Neve, an SSL and a Focusrite, in a Country That No Longer Exists

BOP Studios: A Neve, an SSL and a Focusrite, in a Country That No Longer Exists

Fela Kuti playing tenor saxophone in the studio with two singers of Africa 70 beside him

Fela Never Had a Studio: Where Afrobeat Was Actually Recorded

Fela Never Had a Studio: Where Afrobeat Was Actually Recorded

A restored Soundtracs CMX4400 analogue console, sixteen VU meters across the bridge and the routing matrix at the right

How Africa Got Multitrack: A Continental Timeline in Track Counts

How Africa Got Multitrack: A Continental Timeline in Track Counts

A plywood shipping crate on a pallet base with steel corner brackets, the packing standard heavy vintage studio gear needs for international freight

What It Actually Costs to Land a Vintage Synth in Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi or Accra

What It Actually Costs to Land a Vintage Synth in Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi or Accra

A highlife band on stage, the bandleader holding a guitar and pointing off-mic, singers beside him with a shaker and a gong-gong

Two EQ Knobs and a Fader: How the Golden Age of Highlife Was Actually Recorded

Two EQ Knobs and a Fader: How the Golden Age of Highlife Was Actually Recorded