Rhythm Records South Africa

Biography

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Rhythm Records South Africa was established in the year 2000. At the time its founder, Albert du Plessis, was looking for a record label to release and distribute live recordings he had made while working as a sound engineer at arts festivals. Since none of the approached labels were prepared to venture in this direction, Albert decided to establish his own label for this purpose. Rhythm Records then came about and released 'Tassenberg All Stars - Live @ Tassenberg Stalteater' as its first project.

Since the release of 'Tassenberg All Stars', most of the artists on that CD have released or distributed some of their own albums through Rhythm Records. These include Koos Kombuis, Piet Botha, Laurinda Hofmeyr, Valiant Swart, Delta Blue, Akkedis and Mikanic. Valiant Swart was the first artist to join Rhythm Records with his full catalogue of works. Other landmark productions on the Rhythm Records catalogue include the internationally acclaimed poet Breyten Breytenbach’s albums 'Mondmusiek' and 'Lady One' and blues singer/songwriter Eden Brent ‘s 'Something Cool'. Just before Christmas 2003, Rhythm Records took on the soon-to-prove notoriously provocative Afrikaans Rock band Fokofpolisiekar, a multi-award winning band that has irrevocably overturned the way the Afrikaans youth think and sound. Chris Chameleon joined Rhythm Records in June 2005. His solo project, 'Ek Herhaal Jou', in which he set the poetry of 60s poet Ingrid Jonker to music, has since reached gold status (more than 25 000 units sold) and his latest, '7de Hemel', has achieved platinum status (more than 50 000 units sold). In 2004 publicist Liny Kruger started Rhythm Promo and events, handling media relations and promotion. In 2006 Alex Fourie headed up Rhythm International, taking care of exporting Rhythm Records artists internationally.

The advent of the Rhythm Records digital downloading store opens up a new era of creativity in the development, marketing and distribution of musicians, with an ever-growing catalogue. Brian Currin, founder of the South African Rock Digest, and Petrus Theron, information technology specialist, have added their expertise to build, expand and manage this digital distribution platform.