Mike Nyoni & Born Free - Psych Afro Rock

Zambian guitarist and singer/songwriter Mike Nyoni’s music is Zamrock only because he came of age during the country’s rock revolution. His preferred wah-wah to fuzz guitar, James Brown to Jimi Hendrix. His 70s recordings – often politically charged, and ranging from despondent to exuberant – are amongst the funkiest on the African continent. He was also one of the only Zamrock musicians to see his music contemporaneously issued in Europe.

This anthology collates works from his three 70s LPs – his first, with the Born Free band, and his two solo albums Kawalala and I Can’t Understand You – and presents a singular Zambian musician on par with celebrated artists Rikki Ililonga, Keith Mlevhu and Paul Ngozi.

The latest release in Now-Again's deluxe Reserve Edition series: the first ever anthology of Zamrock musician Mike Nyoni's funky, psych-rock and folkloric 1970s recordings spread over 2 CDs. Zambian guitarist and singer/songwriter Mike Nyoni's music is Zamrock only because he came of age during the country's rock revolution. His preferred wah-wah to fuzz guitar, James Brown to Jimi Hendrix. His 70s recordings often politically charged, and ranging from despondent to exuberant are amongst the funkiest on the African continent. He was also one of the only Zamrock musicians to see his music contemporaneously issued in Europe. This anthology collates works from his three 70s LPs his first, with the Born Free band, and his two solo albums Kawalala and I Can't Understand You and presents a singular Zambian musician on par with celebrated artists Rikki Ililonga, Keith Mlevhu and Paul Ngozi. The package also features an extensive, photo-filled booklet contains an overview of the Zamrock scene and Nyoni's story.

Wonderfully trippy sounds from Mike Nyoni – one of the funkier talents in the Zamrock scene of the 70s – even though he also works with lots of the slight psychedelic touches of other contemporaries too! Mike's style on guitar is a bit too loose to be funk, but it's also got this nice rhythmic pulse that keeps things interesting – and some of the cuts pick up the rhythms a bit more, so that there's some snapping currents that make for a great contrast with his offbeat vocals and weirdly wobbly way of singing! As always with Now Again, the reissue of this material is a great lost treasure – handled perfectly, with great sound and detailed notes that really do justice to the music – on titles that include "I Don't Know", "Come Back To Me", "My Dear Girl", "Messed Day", "Mad Man", "My Own Thing", "Coming Home", "It's Only A Dream", and "Soweto". 2CD set features all three of Mike's rare albums – Born Free, I Can't Understand You, and Kawalala.  © 1996-2019, Dusty Groove, Inc.

My Own Thing

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African Head Charge - Psychedelic Dub (UK)

African Head Charge is a psychedelic dub ensemble active since the early 1980s. The group was formed by percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, and featured a revolving cast of members, including Prisoner, Nick Plytas, Crocodile, Junior Moses, Sunny Akpan, Skip McDonald, and Jah Wobble. The group released most of its albums on Adrian Sherwood's label, On-U Sound. Journalist David Stubbs, writing in The Wire, said "The notion of African Head Charge was hatched when Adrian Sherwood read Brian Eno's comment about his vision for a "psychedelic Africa"". Many of their early albums have been re-released as double albums on CD.

1981 - My Life in a Hole in the Ground

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Goom - Afrobeat, Funk, Psychedelic (France)

Freaky psychedelic glam Afrobeat recorded in France in 1972, the vocalist almost sounds like Marc Bolan or Roger Wooton from Comus.

This is the wyrd psychedelic Afro-beat, Zeuhl-acousto-funk of France's Goom - a sort of folk-driven Chrome Hoof of the early seventies that released some singles in 1972.

Massai (1972 - EP)

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Welcome To Zamrock! How Zambia's Liberation Led To a Rock Revolution (1972-1977)

How Zambia’s Liberation Led To A Rock Revolution. 1972-1977. An overview of the Zamrock scene, from its ascension to its fall to its resurgence, presented as two volumes, both as 2LPs and hardcover book/CDs.

By the mid 1970s, the Southern African nation known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard times. Though the country’s first president Kenneth Kaunda had thrown off the yoke of British colonialism, the new federation found itself under his self-imposed, autocratic rule. Conflict loomed on all sides of this landlocked nation. Kaunda protected Zambia from war, but his country descended into isolation and poverty as he supported rebel movements in neighboring countries Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique and stood up against apartheid South Africa.

This is the environment in which the 70s rock revolution that has come to be known as Zamrock flourished. It’s no wonder that the Zambian musicians taken by American and European influences gravitated to the dark side of the rock and funk spectrum. Fuzz guitars were commonplace, as were driving rhythms influenced by James Brown’s funk and Jimi Hendrix’s rock. Musical themes, mainly sung in the country’s constitutional language, English, were often bleak.

When Now-Again Records’s Eothen “Egon” Alapatt started his investigation into this scene, he found that Zamrock markers were few. Only a small number of the original Zamrock godfathers that remained in the country survived through the late ’90s, when the music recorded in ’70s Zambia became the final frontier for those global-psychedelic rock junkies searching for their next fix. AIDS decimated this country, and uncontrollable inflation forced the Zambian rockers that could afford to flee into something resembling exile.

This was not a likely scene to survive – but it did. Following Now-Again’s previous anthologies centered around Zamrock bands WITCH, Ngozi Family, Amanaz and Musi-O-Tunya, Welcome To Zamrock!, presented in two volumes, arrives; these two volumes highlight Now-Again’s decade-long investigation into this musical movement and present the definitive overview of its most beloved ensembles. Zamrock’s ascension, its fall and its resurgence is detailed in an extensive book written by Alapatt and Zambian music historian Leonard Koloko. Both Welcome To Zamrock! volumes are presented as 2LPs (with WAV download card and edited booklet) and also as a full 104-page hardcover book with CD. Bundles of both formats are available only via Rappcats, at a discounted price. Both anthologies contain rare tracks by WITCH, Amanaz, Paul Ngozi, Chrissy Zebby Tembo, Five Revolutions, Dr. Footswitch and every important Zamrock band. 

The popular music coming out of the South African nation of Zambia in the mid-'70s was loud, edgy, guitar-based, and often a far cry from the more festive Afrobeat sounds emerging out of countries like Nigeria and Ghana. Zambia's liberation from British rule had resulted in a tenuous government that brought its people into hard and impoverished times, leaving the landlocked nation quite isolated. The influence of imported American and British music remained strong, and the scene that emerged in the early '70s combined elements of hard guitar, psych, funk, and soul into a distinctive genre eventually coined Zamrock. On Welcome to Zamrock, Vol. 2, archival label Now-Again continues their exploration of Zamrock's major players including bands like Born Free, Salty Dog, and Witch. With lyrics frequently sung in English and reflecting social and political strife, tracks like Rikki Ililonga's dark bluesy "Stop Dreaming Mr. D," Ngozi Family's rallying cry "Hold On," and Chrissy Zebby Tembo's "I'm Not Made of Iron" are prime examples of Zamrock grit.

Welcome to Zamrock! Vol 1

Welcome to Zamrock! Vol 2

LINKS

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Newen Afrobeat - Latin Afrobeat (Chile)

"Newen Afrobeat " is the first Afrobeat Band in Chile, formed on 2009, is the answer from this part of the world to the style created by Fela Kuti.

Second LP from Newen Afrobeat that resume the research of the chilean orchestra with the masters of afrobeat and their visits to afrobeat´s homeland in Lagos, Nigeria. A extremely energetic album that talks about inequality, migration, female rol, indegenous cultures and more. 

Curiche (2019)

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The World Ends - Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria

The World Ends is the latest title from Soundway Records showcasing a wave of guitar driven and psychedelic groups that sprung up in Nigeria during the early 1970s. Featuring 32 electrifying and funk laden grooves, this is the sound of a generation attempting to pick up the pieces after the devastation of the Nigerian civil war. Spread over 2 CDs , this bumper collection is brimming with youthful exuberance, fuzzed out guitar and cosmic organ vibes and owes much to the psychedelic sounds of Jim Morrison, Santana, Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and James Brown. As the summer of love was blossoming in London and San Francisco, Nigeria was imploding into civil war. Also known as the Biafran war of 1967, it was a grisly conflict taking over three million lives yet at the same time as the country was being pulled apart there was a new world beginning. The tracks featured represent a forgotten chapter in Nigeria's musical history when the youth threw their varied morsels into the pot from hard rock to psychedelic soul when guitars were cherished instruments, symbolic of a new movement, when highlife and Afrobeat played second fiddle to 'the beat'.

The World Ends Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria (2007)

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Desert Blues Collection - Sounds of Saharan Peoples

The thriving Desert Blues sound of the Saharan peoples is the spiritual homeland of the blues. This collection explores the songs and stories of the Desert Blues, and features many of the continents best loved musicians... Enjoy! (From Butterboy)

Desert Blues I (Ambiances du Sahara)

"Desert Blues / Ambiances of the Sahara" in a voyage through the tradition of the Sahara, Sahel and payrolls with which they live. The double CD (because of the two heures and the demise of it) illustrates the story of three calms of the African musical and our present voice plus the merveilleuses. From here on the ensorcellent, the following on the moments of sadness and the jubilant moments of joie: "A chant that resembles the vagaries of the night" as I resented Bruce Chatwin. This is a music that you want to visit in the United States and Guérit, as well as not to talk about Touaregs. The Couples and the Ambiances of the Music in a Parent of Paying Splendids: Deserts, Step and Forces, The Various Cultures and the Small Things Who Live: Touaregs, Mandingues, Fulbes, Maures ..... , of the sublime chanters: the Sénégalais Baaba Maal and Youssou N'Dour as in our encore never understood. Du Mali, in our presence Ali Farka Touré, who wrote the Grammy, in the role of Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and the Chanteuses Oumou Sangare et Sali Sidibe. Du Maroc, the Gnawa music of Hassan Hakmoun. Dimi Mint Abba's "pure voice" "plus the great African chanteuse" (Ali Farka Touré), and Gambie's, the great virtue of the Tora Dindin. From Guinée, Kante Manfila, who is waiting for the Salif Keita années. Du Soudan, Abdel Gadir Salim and Hamza El Din. D'Ethiopie, Aster Aweke and Mahmoud Ahmed, who charters with arrangements inspired by Soul and blues. 

Desert Blues II (Reves D'oasis)

Desert Blues 2 starts off with strong selections from Majid Bekkas and Boubacar Traore, featuring melancholy guitars and vocals winding around nervously tapping percussion. Gradually, over the set’s two-disc length, the songs run a gorgeous course between bright and celebratory and solitary and very bluesy indeed. The same multiple facets as volume one are in evidence, along with the same balance of familiar and lesser-known names. Plenty of calabashes and n’goni lutes are heard, but there’s also bottleneck guitar spacing out alongside kora, Tuareg and Gnawa sounds that keep the journey a spiritual one, music that could’ve come from the Mississippi Delta if not for the growly non-English lyrics, ancient pentatonic scale riffs serviced by modern dance grooves and loads more of the same kind of diversity you’d expect to come from and area roughly the size of the U.S.

A fair number of the songs are by women, and the set is also reflective of their artistic emergence from certain countries and cultures where their role has been secondary. There’s a lot going on here, and anyone who bought the first volume with the thought that there must be much more will find out how right they were. Reves D’Oasis will refresh and rejuvenate you like bountiful flowing water found in the midst of barren desolation. 

Desert Blues III (Entre dunes et savanes)

The third element "Desert Blues 3," is no exception to this rule and is proposing 28 new pieces have in common their obvious similarities to the blues. A good twenty different artists more or less known (Cheb Khaled, Souad Massi, Malouma, Dhafer Youssef, Amadou & Mariam, Ali Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate, Oumou Sangare, Rokia Traore, Kronos Quartet, Tinariwen or Gigi Queen ' Addis Ababa and the Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew of Mekurya).

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