New Release of the Week: Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson - ‘From South Africa To South Carolina’

‘From South Africa to South Carolina’ is a 1975 studio album by the American vocalist Gil Scott-Heron and the keyboardist Brian Jackson.

It’s part of their incredible run of albums which began with 1974’s ‘Winter In America’ and concluded with ‘1980’ in that very year, where they married searing political commentary with some of the finest funked-up soul and jazz of the period.

The highlight of the album is anti-apartheid anthem ‘Johannesburg’, one of Heron’s greatest songs, and also includes another hit for the pair in ‘A Lovely Day’.

‘From South Africa To South Carolina’ has long been out-of-print until this Record Store Day Black Friday release this week.

This package includes four bonus tracks and comes pressed on gold and white-coloured vinyl in a double vinyl package with an OBI side spine, gatefold jacket with two pockets, and printed inner sleeves.

Sound Pick: Helmet - ‘Betty’

Also re-released for Record Store Day Black Friday and now considered a cult classic, ‘Betty’ originally came out on June 21, 1994, on Interscope Records.

Helmet and T-Ray produced all of the album’s songs, except for ‘Milquetoast’, which was produced by Butch Vig.

Rolling Stone would go on to hail it as ‘one of Helmet’s most beloved albums, as well as a landmark of mid-Nineties metal’ and note tracks like ‘Wilma’s Rainbow,’ ‘I Know’ and ‘Milquetoast’ (which had appeared earlier that year, as ‘Milktoast,’ on the soundtrack to the Brandon Lee film The Crow) continued the band’s riff-as-power-tool aesthetic, while also expanding on it.

It explores jazz (‘Beautiful Love’), blues (‘Sam Hell’) and oddball funk (‘The Silver Hawaiian’).