The 6 best Zamrock tracks of all time

Zamrock

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.

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1. 01

   WITCH / Introduction

   1975

   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.

2. 02

   Amanaz / Khala My Friend

   1975

   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.

3. 03

   Ngozi Family / Nizakupanga Ngozi

   1976

   Paul Ngozi, the scene's most prolific figure, threatening the listener over a riff that does not let up. The heaviest thing Zambia produced.

4. 04

   WITCH / Waile

   1976

   From Lukombo Vibes, and the point where the band start folding local rhythms further in. Less indebted, more itself.

5. 05

   Amanaz / Africa

   1975

   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.

6. 06

   Ngozi Family / Day of Judgement

   1976

   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.