No Filler Music Podcast - Sidetrack: Zamrock

Episode Date: July 23, 2019

On this week's Sidetrack we take a quick peak at 1970's Zambia and the emergence of its Africa-tinged rock n' roll scene, affectionately named "Zamrock". We dive into the circumstances leading up to its creation, and play some tunes from three of our favorite acts out of Zambia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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As much as we want to play rock from the Western world, we are Africans. So the other part is from Africa, Zambia. So it's Zambian type of rock. Zamrock. And welcome to No Filler. the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Quentin. I got my brother Travis with me, and we are covering Zamrock today for our sidetrack. So our last full-length was on Tame Impala, and I was hoping to do another full-length on this band Amines,

which was a song you heard in that intro clip with their full-length album, Africa, which came out in 1975. But I don't think we have enough material to do a good hours' worth of coverage on this band. So we're going to dive a little bit into the history of Zamrock, which is a style of rock and roll that emerged out of Zambia,

which is a country in Africa. So for a long time, Zambia was a British colony. And then they gained their independence in 1964. And their first president was a guy named Kenneth Konda. And he was a guitar player, a huge music lover. And in the same year as they gained independence, he declared that he wanted the majority of the music played in their radio waves to be Zambian in origin, 95% in fact.

So it was kind of like a encouraging of the arts kind of thing, like trying to encourage people start playing music and so that's cool. Exactly. I can get behind that. Yeah. Yeah. But this made it really hard for DJs because, you know, their audiences were craving, you know, the popular international songs.

And because they were, you know, a British colony, they were getting all the, you know, all the rock and roll that we were getting, you know. So they heard Jimmy Hendricks. They heard Zeppelin, the Stones, the Who, Cream, all that. So musicians in Zambia, who were active at the time, you know, picked up on this 95% quota. And so they started experimenting with their sounds. and they started to mix, you know, blend traditional African sounds with, you know, more modern rock and roll. And they would bring in traditional instruments alongside, you know, electric guitar and all that, you know, and fuzz pedals and wawa pedals and all that cool stuff.

So that is how Zamrock started. And it was actually pretty short-lived as well because, you know, so they had this economic bloc. shortly after their independence with copper mining. But it was kind of uneasy, or I don't know if that's the right word to use. It was unstable. So, you know, this boom only lasted for a few years. And on top of that, they had neighboring countries that were at war with each other. And then this AIDS epidemic just fucking ravaged the country.

and a lot of these musicians died. And on top of that, they didn't have the money to record, you know, high-quality stuff. So a lot of this stuff got lost and none of it really reached the ears of, you know, anyone in America at the time or other countries. But luckily, we have people, you know, that knew about this stuff and wanted to hear it again. And back in 2008, a lot of these bands got reissued on vinyl. So again, we're lucky to even be able to hear any of this stuff at all. So I think it's really great. Just a little slice of rock and roll that, you know, should have been forgotten entirely.

So real quick, I'm going to talk about this band called Osabisa. I think that's how you say that. And this was a band that inspired one of the first bands under the Zamrock label. They were, so Osabisa was one of the first African groups to combine African sounds with rock and roll before, you know, Zamrock was a thing. So I'm going to play a song from one of their albums from, I believe, 1971. This song is called Ikeo Iko

Bia Bia fuck they say it in like the very beginning of the song so I think I butchered it but you'll hear how it's pronounced again this is a song by a band called

Osibisa This might sound like you know dumb but I'm reminded of the what are they called man on Black Panther, the Rekondas.

Their chant that they say before they run into battle. Yeah, sure, sure. Now, again, like, you know, that's probably not a battle chant that they're singing on that song, but I'm just, I'm reminded of that. It could be. Could be.

So one of the first bands, like the quote unquote first Sam rock band is a band called Museo Tunya, which is a play on a Tonga phrase that is Mosio Tunya, which translates to the smoke that thunders. Zambia has the world's largest waterfall. It's called Victoria Falls, and the smoke that thunders was kind of its nickname. So I thought that was cool, paying an homage to their great waterfall. Musio Tunya. And again, they were heavily inspired by this band, Osibisa. And I'm going to play,

let's see, I got a couple songs there to play. The first one is called Pandolo. There's an M before that P, but I sure as hell don't know how to say that. Mapondolo. It kind of reminds me of like sort of that Afro beat kind of stuff, like the music of like Antibalis, who we've talked about before. Yeah.

Yeah, I love it, dude. So the thing about Zamrock, and for this sidetrack, I'm kind of focusing on the ones that have the more heavy, traditional African sound on it. But like, for as many, for all these songs,

you know, featured on these albums that these artists release, they have just as many songs on there that are just purely, you know, rock and roll, you know, almost no African flare at all. But that's what I think is so cool about it. You know, they're paying homage to their, you know, their origins. But then from one song to the next, you know, you can have one that's just straight up Rolling Stones, vibes, you know.

I mean, that's what makes it. that's what makes it interesting. It's like we get to hear rock music through the, through the lens of, of this other culture, you know. Yeah. They're putting their flare on it, their spin on it. And, you know, that's what, that's what makes like the, you know, rock and roll. That's how it evolves to, you know, all the different spin-off genres and stuff that we hear of today, you know, like. Yeah. Because, you know, somebody from, from the U.S. or some other country could hear these guys and get influenced by the African influence that's, that's, you know, that they bring to the table and could incorporate that to their sound, you know.

Yeah, like Antebalis. So I'm going to play another band and just kind of show you more of that just straight up rock sound. So this is a band called Witch, and that is an acronym for, we intend. to cause havoc. They're another one of the first bands in the Zamrock scene to emerge. This is a song of theirs

called Strange Dream. Fucking great. Yeah, man. That guitar riff is fantastic, man. It's very like, you know, a more British jangly guitar. pop, you know?

Yeah, yeah, I really love that track. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, so let's wrap this up, make it short and sweet. I mentioned that I was hoping to have enough content to cover this album by a band called Amines, an album called Africa. But actually, we tried to record it, and we lost it because my laptop sucks. but we were only like half an hour in and we're already done so I just figured let's just do a side truck instead. These guys were another one of the you know the bands that came out of this

Sam Rock scene they all kind of played around the same time. Amines is an acronym for Ask Me About Nice Artists in Zambia. That's funny they all like they have all these acronyms for their names. So I'm just going to play my favorite song on the album and this is another one of those that has this great traditional African sound, you know, mixed with rock and roll. And we'll just fade out with this song and wrap up. And we'll come back at you next week with another full length. Not sure what we're going to cover, but we'll figure it out. So yeah, so this is the title track from that record. Again, it's called Africa. It came out in 75. And until next time, my name is Quentin.

My name is Travis. All right, all take care.