ABOUT THIS ITEM

The complete works of Zambia’s legendary garage, psych, prog, funk, Afro-rock ensemble, 1972-1977. Witch’s five albums and rare 7” tracks presented as a 6 LP box set, restored and remastered from the original tapes. Contains a 16 page booklet with never before seen photos and ephemera, extensive liner notes and annotation, and an interview with bandleader “Jagari” Chanda. By the mid 1970s, the Southern African nation known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard times: self-imposed, single party rule; a decline in prices for the country’s largest natural resource, copper; conflict in other countries on Zambia’s borders. This is the environment in which the Zamrock scene that flourished throughout that decade emerged. As Now-Again showed in their previous investigation into the genre (Rikki Ililonga and Musi-O-Tunya’s ‘Dark Sunrise’, NA 5067) fuzz guitars were commonplace,driving rhythms as influenced by James Brown’s funk as Jimi Hendrix’s rock predominated, musical themes were often bleak and bands largely sang in the country’s constitutional language, English. Although Witch is the best known Zamrock ensemble – and although they succeeded in releasing five albums in Zamrock’s golden years – they never made an impact on the global scale 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 this country. Witch’s musical arc is contained to a five year span: The band’s first two, self-produced albums - released in unison with the birth of the commercial Zambian recording industry – are exuberant experiments in garage rock, and are as influenced by the Rolling Stones as they are 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, that relies as heavily on the stomping feel of hard rock as it does the syncopation of funk; the band’s last two albums – recorded after the band toured with Osibisa – make use of traditional Zambian rhythms and folk melodies and are the most “afro-rock” of Witch’s oeuvre. This set presents each album as it was originally issued and groups together all the band’s 7” single tracks – regardless of the era in which they were recorded and issued – on a sixth disc.

Introduction / In The Past :
A1. Introduction
A2. Home Town
A3. You Better Know
A4. Feeling High
A5. Like A Chicken
B1. See Your Mama
B2. Thatʼs What I Want
B3. Try Me
B4. No Time
C1. Living In The Past
C2. Young Lady
C3. Chance
C4. Itʼs Alright
C5. Iʼve Been Away
D1. I Like The Way I Am
D2. The Only Way
D3. Smiling Face
D4. She Is Mine
D5. Mushed Potatoe

Lazy Bones!! :
A1. Black Tears
A2. Motherless Child
A3. Tooth Factory
A4. Strange Dream
A5. Look Out
B1. Havoc
B2. October Night
B3. Off Ma Boots
B4. Lazy Bones
B5. Little Clown

Lukombo Vibes :
A1. Thou Shalt Not Cry
A2. Bleeding Thunder
A3. Devilʼs Flight
A4. Blood Donor
B1. Nasauka
B2. Evening
B3. Kangalaitoito
B4. See – Saw

Including Janet :
A1. Janet
A2. As Days Go By
A3. Ntendelakumbi
A4. In Flight
A5. Nazingwa
B1. Silverlady
B2. Anyinamwana
B3. Mama Feel Good
B4. The Way I Feel

Collected 7” Tracks :
A1. Talking Universe
A2. Evil Woman
A3. Sweet Sixteen
A4. Up The Sky
B1. Toloka
B2. 81st Crowd Confusion
B3. Foolʼs Ride
B4. Chifundo