ABOUT THIS ITEM

Zambia based WITCH is the best known Zamrock ensemble – and although they succeeded in releasing five albums during Zamrock’s golden years – they never made a global impact in, say, the way afro-beat maestro Fela Kuti did. Travel to and within Zambia is expensive, and the markers for the Zamrock scene are now few. Only a small number of the original Zamrock godfathers survived the AIDS epidemic that decimated the country.

WITCH’s musical arc is contained in a five-year span. The band’s first two self-produced albums were released in unison with the birth of the commercial Zambian recording industry. They are exuberant experiments in garage rock, as influenced by the Rolling Stones as by James Brown. Their third album, Lazy Bones!!, is the band’s masterpiece: a dark, brooding psychedelic opus that makes equal use of wah-wah and fuzz guitars and relies as heavily on the stomping feel of hard rock as it does the syncopation of funk. WITCH’s last two albums were recorded after they toured with Osibisa and make use of traditional Zambian rhythms and folk melodies - these are the most “afro-rock” of WITCH’s oeuvre.

We’ve grouped together WITCH’s albums stylistically. Thus, the band’s first two self-produced albums appear on Disc One; Lazy Bones!! and its related 7” single tracks appear on Disc Two; Lukombo Vibes and its 7” single tracks appear on Disc Three, and With Janet (Hit Single) appears on Disc Four.

Disc 1 - Introduction/In The Past

1. Introduction
2. Hometown
3. You Better Now
4. Feeling High
5. Like A Chicken
6. See You Mama
7. Thatʼs What I Want
8. Try Me
9. No Time
10. Living In The Past
11. Young Lady
12. Chance
13. Itʼs Alright
14. Iʼve Been Away
15. I Like The Way I Am
16. The Only Way
17. Smiling Face
18. She Is Min
19. Mashed Potato

Disc 2 - Lazy Bones!!

1.Black Tears
2.Motherless Child
3.Tooth Factory
4.Strange Dream
5.Look Out
6.Havoc
7.October Night
8.Off My Boots
9.Lazy Bones

Disc 3 - Lukombo Vibes

1.Thou Shalt Not Cry
2.Bleeding Thunder
3.Devilʼs Flight
4.Blood Donor
5.Nasauka
6.Evening Of My Life
7.Kangalaitoito
8.See – Saw
9.Chifundo
10.Foolʼs Ride

Disc 4 - Including Janet

1.Janet
2.As Days Go By
3.Ntedelakumbi
4.In Flight
5.Nazingwa
6.Silver Lady
7.Anyinamwana
8.Mama Feel Good
9.The Way I Feel