VA - Can't You Hear Me? 70's African Nuggets & Garage Rock from Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe [2016]

 

AFRICAN NUGGETS

VA - Can't You Hear Me? 70's African Nuggets & Garage Rock from Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe [2016]

Globetrotter of subcontinents and digger of rare, forgotten records, Eothen 'Egon' Alapatt tracks sounds from the dawn of time to the 4 corners of the world. On the other side of the globe, French designer Christophe Lemaire stays forward thinking and audacious in his choices. He cultivates a love of timeless designs and mixed influences; a passion for iconoclastic music. This extraordinary openness has been at the heart of their friendship since '07. Their eclectic, fierce rock discoveries gave birth to a first anthology, Where Are You From? (Now-Again, 2010), the fruit of Lemaire's excavating Alapatt's archives. That was a exploration in psych, rock and funk territories from 1968; this 2nd anthology celebrates their vision and explores garage rock from the 1970's, voicing the struggles in Zambia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Can't You Hear Me comes from a track by charismatic Zamrock icon Paul Ngozi. Ngozi's title track sets the tone for a drastic selection of 17 songs with rebellious undertones, riddled by an infectious groove. Ngozi, WITCH, Chrissy Zebby Tembo, Amanaz, Wells Fargo, Eye Q and the Funkees represent a generation fighting for their freedom, armed with fuzz guitars, symbolic objects of a new movement. They played in Fela's kingly shadow, were influenced by Hendrix's psychedelic solos, Jefferson Airplane's penetrating chords and Cream's repetitive melodies.

The first inkling that you have stumbled upon a really terrific collection of music is by noticing that the Now Again label put this out. They have a great track record for unearthing some truly wonderful vintage music (mostly old soul and some reggae, from what I've heard so far) and now they dug into the 1970's African scene and given us some vibrant music from Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe. (Amazon)

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Track lists

01 Keith Mlevhu The Bad Will Die 3:50

02 Paul Ngozi Can't You Hear Me 4:03

03 Amanaz Amanaz 2:39

04 Witch No Time 4:32

05 Peace Black Power 3:25

06 Peace Peaceful Man 3:06

07 Chrissy Zebby Tembo I'm Not Made of Iron 3:15

08 Blackfoot Poor Connection 4:37

09 5 Revolutions I Had a Dream (Instrumental) 3:22

10 Eye Q Making Life Out of Music 2:53

11 Witch Like a Chicken 3:08

12 Born Free Mad Man 2:36

13 Funkees Breakthrough 3:24

14 Founders 15 Don't Take Me for a Ride 4:40

15 Wells Fargo Coming Home 2:31

16 5 Revolutions Fwe Bena Zambia 4:24

17 Witch No Time (Pilooski Edit) 5:03

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