Zambian Psych

There's some other blogs out there covering this stuff, most notably http://seaneverdry.blogspot.com which has a great rundown of bands I'd never heard of, let alone heard. I have always had an interest in African music, because my family lived in Zambia for a long time (I was born in Luanshya, Zambia), although I left when I was 3 so was unable to to dig for any records! In later years John Peel always played stuff from Zimbabwe (Four Brothers, Bhundu Boys) and Zambia (Shalawambe), which was fantastic. It wasn't until I stumbled upon this LP by The Peace in Aquaruis records that I found there was a thriving psych scene in Zambia! who would of thought. Even though the LP was a whopping 30 bones, I just had to have it.... Just look at the cover! Luckily the music is just as good as the cover - tweaked out psych with hints of the Cream and the Stones filtered through cheap home-mad amps. Stunning stuff. Whats interesting about these bands is that unlike bands like Freedom's Children who were white kids, these Zambian bands were all African's, playing to Africans. No-one I have talked to who lived in Zambia during the 70's had ever heard of any of these bands before.
After sending these tracks to my uncle who was equally blown away, he kindly tracked down this LP by Amanaz- an absolute psych monster hidden in an unassuming sleeve. This LP is a reissue limited to 450 from the German label Shadoks, who have also dug up some Indian and Indonesian psych!. Amanaz was formed in 1973 and recorded this gem in Kitwe Zambia. The sound has fuzzed out guitar and tribal rythmns, mixed with stomping 70's rock. 9 of the tracks are in English, and 3 in the Bantu language Bentu. Once I have worked out how to post up sounds to this blog thing I will drop some of theses on you. I managed to slip a track by Amanaz and the Peace at the last 'Bricks And Mortar' night and they went down a storm.

The Peace - Black Power