Witch - We Intend To Cause Havoc! (Deluxe vinyl LP box set, CD box set)

The complete works of Zambia’s legendary garage, psych, prog, funk, afro-rock ensemble, 1972-1977. Witch’s five albums and rare 7” tracks presented as a 6 LP box set, restored and remastered from the original tapes. Contains a 16 page booklet with never before seen photos and ephemera, extensive liner notes and annotation, and an interview with bandleader “Jagari” Chanda. By the mid 1970s, the Southern African nation known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard times: self-imposed, single party rule; a decline in prices for the country’s largest natural resource, copper; conflict in other countries on Zambia’s borders. This is the environment in which the Zamrock scene that flourished throughout that decade emerged. As Now-Again showed in their previous investigation into the genre (Rikki Ililonga and Musi-O-Tunya’s ‘Dark Sunrise’, NA 5067) fuzz guitars were commonplace,driving rhythms as influenced by James Brown’s funk as Jimi Hendrix’s rock predominated, musical themes were often bleak and bands largely sang in the country’s constitutional language, English. Although Witch is the best known Zamrock ensemble – and although they succeeded in releasing five albums in Zamrock’s golden years – they never made an impact on the global scale in, say, the way afro-beat maestro Fela Kuti did. Travel to – and within – Zambia is expensive and the markers for the Zamrock scene are now few. Only a small number of the original Zamrock godfathers survived the AIDS epidemic that decimated this country. Witch’s musical arc is contained to a five year span: The band’s first two, self-produced albums - 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 – recorded after the band toured with Osibisa – make use of traditional Zambian rhythms and folk melodies and are the most “afro-rock” of Witch’s oeuvre. This set presents each album as it was originally issued and groups together all the band’s 7” single tracks – regardless of the era in which they were recorded and issued – on a sixth disc.

TRACKLIST: 

Introduction / In The Past : A1. Introduction   A2. Home Town   A3. You Better Know   A4. Feeling High   A5. Like A Chicken   B1. See Your Mama   B2. Thatʼs What I Want   B3. Try Me   B4. No Time   C1. Living In The Past   C2. Young Lady   C3. Chance   C4. Itʼs Alright   C5. Iʼve Been Away   D1. I Like The Way I Am   D2. The Only Way   D3. Smiling Face   D4. She Is Mine   D5. Mushed Potatoe

Lazy Bones!! : A1. Black Tears   A2. Motherless Child   A3. Tooth Factory   A4. Strange Dream   A5. Look Out   B1. Havoc   B2. October Night   B3. Off Ma Boots   B4. Lazy Bones   B5. Little Clown

Lukombo Vibes : A1. Thou Shalt Not Cry   A2. Bleeding thunder   A3. Devilʼs Flight   A4. Blood Donor   B1. Nasauka   B2. Evening   B3. Kangalaitoito   B4. See – Saw

Including Janet : A1. Janet   A2. As Days Go By   AA3. Ntendelakumbi   4. In Flight   A5. Nazingwa   B1. Silverlady   B2. Anyinamwana   B3. Mama Feel Good   B4. The Way I Feel

Collected 7” Tracks : A1. Talking Universe   A2. Evil Woman   A3. Sweet Sixteen   A4. Up The Sky   B1. Toloka   B2. 81st Crowd Confusion   B3. Foolʼs Ride   B4. Chifundo

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