Release Date: 11 December 2020
Label: Analog Africa
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 4260126061408
Genres: World Music Africa
Release Date: 11 December 2020
Label: Analog Africa
Packaging Type: Gate Fold Vinyl
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 4260126061415
Genres: World Music Africa
Description
In 1972, the country of Rhodesia - as Zimbabwe was then known - was in the middle of a long-simmering struggle for independence from British colonial rule. In the hotels and nightclubs of the capital, bands could make a living playing a mix of Afro-Rock, Cha-Cha-Cha and Congolese Rumba. But as the desire for independence grew stronger, a number of Zimbabwean musicians began to look to their own culture for inspiration. They began to emulate the staccato sound and looping melodies of the mbira (thumb piano) on their electric guitars, and to replicate the insistent shaker rhythms on the hi-hat; they also started to sing in the Shona language and to add overtly political messages to their lyrics (safe in the knowledge that the predominantly white minority government wouldn't understand them). From this collision of electric instruments and indigenous traditions, a new style of Zimbabwean popular music - later known as Chimurenga, from the Shona word for 'struggle' – was born. And there were few bands more essential to the development of this music than the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band.
The band came into being when a young trumpet player named Daram Karanga offered to assemble a group to entertain the workers at a copper mine in the town of Mhangura. The original line-up – which included legendary singer Thomas Mapfumo, who would bring the sounds of Chimurenga to the world in the early 1980s with his band the Blacks Unlimited, and Joshua Hlomayi, one of the pioneers of mbira-style guitar – started out playing the Rumba and Afro-Rock styles popular in the capital.
Take One collects the HCR Band's biggest hits along with several rare tracks recorded between 1974 and 1979, all painstakingly remastered from original master tapes and vinyl sources; originally released on CD by Analog Africa in 2006, this essential music is now available on LP for the first time since the 1970s.
Description
In 1972, the country of Rhodesia - as Zimbabwe was then known - was in the middle of a long-simmering struggle for independence from British colonial rule. In the hotels and nightclubs of the capital, bands could make a living playing a mix of Afro-Rock, Cha-Cha-Cha and Congolese Rumba. But as the desire for independence grew stronger, a number of Zimbabwean musicians began to look to their own culture for inspiration. They began to emulate the staccato sound and looping melodies of the mbira (thumb piano) on their electric guitars, and to replicate the insistent shaker rhythms on the hi-hat; they also started to sing in the Shona language and to add overtly political messages to their lyrics (safe in the knowledge that the predominantly white minority government wouldn't understand them). From this collision of electric instruments and indigenous traditions, a new style of Zimbabwean popular music - later known as Chimurenga, from the Shona word for 'struggle' – was born. And there were few bands more essential to the development of this music than the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band.
The band came into being when a young trumpet player named Daram Karanga offered to assemble a group to entertain the workers at a copper mine in the town of Mhangura. The original line-up – which included legendary singer Thomas Mapfumo, who would bring the sounds of Chimurenga to the world in the early 1980s with his band the Blacks Unlimited, and Joshua Hlomayi, one of the pioneers of mbira-style guitar – started out playing the Rumba and Afro-Rock styles popular in the capital.
Take One collects the HCR Band's biggest hits along with several rare tracks recorded between 1974 and 1979, all painstakingly remastered from original master tapes and vinyl sources; originally released on CD by Analog Africa in 2006, this essential music is now available on LP for the first time since the 1970s.
Tracklisting
Tracklisting
Various Artists
The Good Samaritans
Various Artists
Sonido Verde de Moyobamba
Ernesto Djedje
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Kanazoe, Clotilde Rullaud, Abdoulaye Traore, Boubacar Djiga & Achille Nacoulma
Osibisa
K.O.G
Seckou Keita
Vis-A-Vis
N'gola (Sao Tome)
Dobet Gnahore
Madala Kunene
