Amanaz - Africa (2023 repress)

16 page book contains extensive essay detailing the story of
the Zamrock scene and this album, with notes from Amanaz’s Isaac Mpofu and Keith Kabwe and rare photos. 2 LP set contains both
released versions of the album: a dry, drums-up mix and reverb-drenched fuzz-guitar dominated mix. Download card included. Issued
in 1975, this is the articulation of Zambia’s Zamrock ethos. While other albums - Rikki Ililonga’s Zambia, WITCH’s Lazy Bones!! - are
competitors, it’s hard to best this album as it covers each major quadrant of the Zamrock whole: it came from the mines; its musicians
were anti-colonial freedom fighters, it envelops Zambian folk music traditions, and it rocks - hard. Amanaz were serious, and they made
a serious stab at an album. They titled their album Africa, according to original band member Keith Kabwe, “because of how it was
shared and how its inhabitants were butchered and enslaved, its resources stolen… all the atrocities slave drivers committed. “ Thus,
their “Kale,” a blues sung in Nyanja, that traced the continent’s arc from slavery to Zambia’s independence closes the album. Kabwe
and rhythm guitarist John Kanyepa have a winsome softness to their vocals, which sit politely aside the feral growl of drummer Watson
Baldwin Lungu, bassist Jerry Mausala and bandleader/lead guitarist Isaac Mpofu. Africa’s vibe ranges from anxious (“Amanaz”) to
escapist (“Easy Street”) to straight-up pissed-off. On the “History of Man,” his voice whiskey-burned, his distorted guitar buzzing like
swarming hornets, Mpofu indicts his species. There’s a darkness to Africa not found on any other Zamrock records, and a melancholy
drifts throughout, specifically on Mpofu’s more restrained “Khala My Friend,” which stands as an effective, bleak situation for the
Zambian everyman, the average citizen of a struggling, new nation, who might have had relatives in conflict-torn countries on the
horizon, who might have been struggling to find his next meal, who might have seen a bleaker future than his president promised. Then
there’s the clear Velvet Underground-influence on the nostalgic “Sunday Morning,” which, as Kabwe recalls, was the first song written
for the album, back in 1968, when Velvet Undergound and Nico was a new release - and the underground funk of “Making The Scene.”
The album also tackles traditional Zambian music and early-‘60s rock punctuated, of course by Kanyepa’s wah-wah and Mpofu’s fuzz
guitars. But every time Amanaz get too deep, too violent, they come back with an accessible song and woo their listener back to the
groove. “Green Apple” is a civil song, featuring Kanyepa’s sighing guitar. It is a perfectly arranged album, from the dichotomy of
Mpofu’s and Kanyepa’s lead and rhythm guitars, to the vocal harmonies, to the rhythm section’s sense of space and time, which allows
Africa’s funk to build. Inexplicably, Africa was given two separate mixes and two separate presses: one version is dry, with the vocals
and drums mixed loud, the other slathered in reverb, with the vocals and drums disappearing into the mix, and with the guitar solos
mixed much louder. We’ve presented them both here as they each have their appeal: it’s up to the listener to pick the one he or she
prefers. This is a highpoint of the Zamrock scene and we hope that this can be seen as its definitive reissue. SIDE A: 1. Amanaz 2. I
Am Very Far 3. Sunday Morning 4. Khala My Friend 5. History Of Man 6. Nsunka Lwendo SIDE B: 1. Africa 2. Green Apple 3. Making
The Scene 4. Easy Street 5. Big Enough 6. Kale SIDES C & D: Reverb Mix