Witch "Lukombo Vibes" LP

Part of Now-Again’s Zambian Archival Reissue series, this LP (and digital) release covers Zamrock legends WITCH’s fourth album. Packaged in an exact duplication of the original Zambian issue of this album, WITCH’s unique blend of American and UK rock and native Zambian folk rhythms and melodies shines through their most progressive album.

WITCH’s first two, self-produced albums – Introduction and In The Past, released in unison with the birth of the commercial Zambian recording industry – are exuberant experiments in garage rock, and are as influenced by the Rolling Stones as they are James Brown. Their third album, Lazy Bones!!, is the band’s masterpiece – a dark, brooding psychedelic opus that makes equal use of wah-wah and fuzz guitars, that relies as heavily on the stomping feel of hard rock as it does the syncopation of funk. The band’s last two albums – Lukombo Vibes and Including Janet, recorded after the band toured with Osibisa – make use of traditional Zambian rhythms and folk melodies. They are the most “afro-rock” of WITCH’s oeuvre.