{
  "slug": "zamrock",
  "name": "Zamrock",
  "aliases": [
    "zambian rock",
    "zam rock"
  ],
  "description": "Zambia in the seventies, a few years after independence and briefly rich on copper: heavy psychedelic rock played on cheap equipment, sung in English and Bemba, with a broadcasting quota that required Zambian records on the radio.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Lusaka and Kitwe, Zambia",
    "year": 1972
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "psychedelic-rock",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/psychedelic-rock/",
      "inherited": "Hendrix, Cream and Black Sabbath, arriving on records and reproduced with what was available. The fuzz here is often an overdriven cheap amplifier rather than a pedal, and it is better for it."
    },
    {
      "genre": "funk",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/funk/",
      "inherited": "The rhythm sections, which swing where their British models plod. James Brown records circulated in Lusaka alongside the rock ones, and Zamrock's drummers clearly preferred them."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 100,
    "max": 150
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-31",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/zamrock/",
  "trackCount": 6,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "witch--introduction",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/witch--introduction/",
      "title": "Introduction",
      "artist": "WITCH",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/witch/",
      "year": 1975,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "From Lazy Bones, and the best-known Zamrock record by some distance. Emanuel Chanda's voice is playful over a band playing considerably harder than he is.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/WITCH%20Introduction",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OqFhpe3ZBlg",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "amanaz--khala-my-friend",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/amanaz--khala-my-friend/",
      "title": "Khala My Friend",
      "artist": "Amanaz",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/amanaz/",
      "year": 1975,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "From the only album they made. A guitar figure of real melancholy, and a lyric about a friend who has died, recorded in Kitwe on the copper belt.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Amanaz%20Khala%20My%20Friend",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=2QxeDecgNWg",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "ngozi-family--nizakupanga-ngozi",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/ngozi-family--nizakupanga-ngozi/",
      "title": "Nizakupanga Ngozi",
      "artist": "Ngozi Family",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/ngozi-family/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Paul Ngozi, the scene's most prolific figure, threatening the listener over a riff that does not let up. The heaviest thing Zambia produced.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
          "name": "1976",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Ngozi%20Family%20Nizakupanga%20Ngozi",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OTNuku4mjis",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "witch--waile",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/witch--waile/",
      "title": "Waile",
      "artist": "WITCH",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/witch/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "From Lukombo Vibes, and the point where the band start folding local rhythms further in. Less indebted, more itself.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
          "name": "1976",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/WITCH%20Waile",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=2HCNRBnI4PA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "amanaz--africa",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/amanaz--africa/",
      "title": "Africa",
      "artist": "Amanaz",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/amanaz/",
      "year": 1975,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A slow, sung plea about a continent, and completely unembarrassed. Zamrock was made in a country that had been independent for eleven years and it shows in the writing.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Amanaz%20Africa",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=x1yP_1Vm0B0",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "ngozi-family--day-of-judgement",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/ngozi-family--day-of-judgement/",
      "title": "Day of Judgement",
      "artist": "Ngozi Family",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/ngozi-family/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Apocalyptic, distorted and recorded at what sounds like the edge of the tape. The scene collapsed shortly after, as copper prices fell and AIDS arrived.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Ngozi%20Family%20Day%20of%20Judgement",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=AzwFtRaB4Fk",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}