WITCH's rare Zamrock 70s singles tracks collected on "Fool's Ride" comp

WITCH's tough-to-find Zamrock singles have been thoughtfully compiled by Egon Alapatt on the "Fool's Ride" album from Now-Again out now.   

Here's the scoop...

The last of WITCH’s Zamrock to finally see wide commercial release – their uber-rare 7″ singles collected as an album. Pressed on deep purple coloured vinyl – Now-Again’s officially sanctioned Black Friday Record Store Day 2025 Release!

Zamrock was a bona-fide rock scene, with albums released through independent labels based in Zambia. This music scene was complete, encompassing the genres of rock, acid folk, fusion, Afro-beat, South African jazz and traditional Zambian melodies. It quickly became a uniquely Zambian movement, befitting of its name. Chrissy Zebby Tembo, Paul Ngozi and Amanaz sound nothing like other rock music from the African continent or elsewhere.

WITCH issued five albums as a Zamrock band. With ‘Fool’s Ride,’ we have collected the band’s uber-rare 7″ singles and present them as the final, golden-age WITCH LP.

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. 

Get a copy of WITCH's "Fool's Ride" album on limited-edition purple wax while it's still available via Bandcamp right here.

WITCH - Fool's Ride

1. Talking Universe

2. Evil Woman

3. Sweet Sixteen

4. Up The Sky

5. Toloka

6. 81st Crowd Confusion

7. Fool’s Ride

8. Chifundo

“Toloka/81st Crowd Confusion” “Talking Universe/Sweet Sixteen” “Up The Sky/Evil Woman” 7″ singles produced and arranged by WITCH. Recorded at D.B. Applications, Lusaka, Zambia in 1975.

“Toloka/81st Crowd Confusion” 7″ originally released on Teal Record Company/Zambezi Records ZTZ 4.

“Talking Universe/Sweet Sixteen” originally released on Teal Record Company/Zambezi Records ZTZ 6.

“Up The Sky/Evil Woman” originally released on Teal Record Company/Zambezi Records ZTZ 9.

‘Fool’s Ride/Chifundo” 7″ single: Produced by Teal Record Company. Arranged by WITCH. Recorded at Sapra Studios, Nairobi, Kenya on September 21, 1976. Engineered by Detlef Degener.

Originally released on Teal Record Company WITI.

Rare 70s soul demos cut by Atlanta's Richard Marks are better than you'd think

Love Is Gone – The Lost Sessions: 1969-77 collects the unissued songs cut by Atlanta guitarist Richard Marks. Have a listen. 

Here's the scoop...

These songs, found on reels that Marks kept in his home, color Marks’ stylistic development – from his earliest work for the legendary Tuska label in the late ‘60s, through his more mature releases on smaller regional labels into the late ‘70s.

Marks’ story is that of an unsung soul and funk hero; he was a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter whose phone number was in Al Green’s, Barry White’s and Eddie Kendricks’ rolodexes, but his talents have only been heard in sporadic bursts. He and his music are unknown to the majority, but to an obsessive minority, he is a lightning rod: that singular point at which numerous Southern soul and funk musicians converged and exploded, spreading wondrous music in all directions.

Marks died of cancer in May 2006. His first album was our Never Satisfied anthology, released posthumously. He stands out as a most mysterious talent to originate from Atlanta, a city that birthed no shortage of genius, and Love Is Gone – The Lost Sessions 1969-1977 further makes the case for a reassessment of his talents and his place in the soul and funk canon.

Bonus second LP contains extra tracks and is available only to subscribers. It also contains an extensive booklet by Brian Poust detailing Marks’ story. Download card for WAV files included with LP. Check out a few tracks below. 

 

Also Known As: Dimitri Grimm, Dimlite, Hugo Sonia, Misel Quitno, etc

Swiss producer Dimitri Grimm recorded the 4-song My Human Wears Acedia Shreds EP for Now-Again at his creative peak way back in 2011.  

Here's the scoop...

If Dimlite’s Prismic Tops EP served as a stunning reintroduction to one of electronic music’s most underrated talents, then My Human Wears Acedia Shreds is a warning to listeners and peers alike: keep up or be left behind. This quartet of songs finds the Swiss producer creating wide-eyed and progressive music that synthesizes free jazz, prog and krautrock, and much more. 

While the enigmatic producer Dimitri Grimm (who records using various handles including Dimlite, Hugo Sonia, Misel Quitno, Kink Artifishul, Dym quell Holo, The Slapped Eyeballers, etc) built his reputation with a string of pioneering releases on Germany’s Sonar Kollectiv label that took hip-hop as their starting point, by 2011, Dimlite was more Soft Machine than drum machine, a kindred spirit of purveyors of avant-pop such as Panda Bear, and the playful prog giants of the past. This quartet of songs contains a richness that makes these some of the most satisfying compositions recorded under the Dimlite alias. Just check “Metal Snake Rider”, an expansive opus packed into just over three minutes of non-stop invention.

At times it’s even pretty, though Dimlite seems uneasy about the beauty he creates, never allowing anything too perfect to take shape before clipping its wings or trampling it back into the dirt. It’s this tension in his music that makes it so captivating: a constant tussle of wills between the dreamer and the cynic, the traveller and the trapped. Just check “Loins” (listen below) in which his drumming alter-ego Misel Quitno thumps out a brutish ode to Can while Dimlite’s celebratory harmonies are taunted by the anxious squall that lurks beneath. Though ask its creator and he’ll tell you simply, “it’s about loins and using them properly”.

By the time you have adjusted to the dream-world of My Human Wears Acedia Shreds, Dimlite will pull the plug, dropping you back into your monochromatic doldrums. It’s OK though. As you unravel the secret code in EP closer “Gone-O-Tron”, you’ll know it’s not forever. 

Since retiring the "Dimlite" handle in 2012, the mysterious sound designer has kept busy, releasing music digitally as "Dim Grimm" between 2013 and 2023 which you can check out here. Perhaps some shrewd label boss will see the value in compiling his finest moments from the decade on vinyl. In a surprise move, Mr. Grimm reverted to his passport name Dimitri Grimm for a series of "musical posters" collected under the title "For Beauty's Source" available digitally here. 

There's likely more to come. We've heard from a reliable source that even after the Dimlite name was mothballed, our man continued recording new Dimlite material at his secret home retreat, quietly stockpiling the experimental new work for some future release. Until then, we can still enjoy some of his finest work as Dimlite preserved for posterity on the 4-song EP, My Human Wears Acedia Shreds, available via Now Again right here. Listen to a few tracks below followed by a couple of Dimitri's more recent mixtapes from 2022. 

Midweek Mixdown: Egon from Now-Again

Now-Again Records head honcho Egon spins a heady 44-minute selection of Zamrock and psych from his own stash right here.

Check out Egon's 2013 interview with Eilon Paz for Dust & Grooves right here. 

Just out from Now-Again Reserve is a 3LP set from Del Jones' Positive Vibes "Court Is Closed"... get it right here while you can!

Whaddya mean you don't know Damon

Check out Andrew Gura's short film about the mysterious artist known as 'Damon' behind the psych curio Song of a Gypsy. 

Reflecting on legendary Brooklyn jazz venue The East

Recently, Juju's James "Plunky" Branch returned to the site of The East, once a thriving jazz venue and cultural center in Bed-Stuy founded in 1969.

Mtume at The East. 

Vinyl Me, Please releasing The Story Of Zamrock! anthology

This new compendium of psych rarities from Northern Zambia is an 8 LP set curated by Egon & Jason Connoy supported with a 4-part podcast series.

Here's the scoop...
VMP Anthology: The Story of Zamrock! highlights and celebrates one of the most intriguing and complete music scenes to arise in the latter half of the 20th century. Featuring 8 albums, 7 of which have never been reissued in their original form, The Story of Zamrock reflects a decade long journey that Eothan "Egon" Alapatt of Now-Again Records and Jason "MoSS" Connoy of Strawberry Rain Records have taken, delving into the Zamrock scene, finding the last musicians left standing, researching, documenting and legitimately reissuing the uber-rare albums originally released in Zambia’s cities in the 1970s. Get a copy right here. Check the promotional clip below.


Vinyl Me, Please: The Story Of Zamrock
WITCH – Introduction (Original Private Press Version)
5 Revolutions – Free Man
Amanaz – Africa
Ricky Banda – Niwanji Walwa
Ngozi Family – 45,000 Volts
Oscillations – I Can See It Coming
Fire Balls – Unreleased
Cross Bones – Wise Man

Host Mike D selected some rare Chardonnay to accompany his Echo Chamber chat with Egon & Madlib about hard-to-find recordings from Zambia.

Ethio-funk legend Ayalew Mesfin playing Los Angeles in February

Ayalew Mesfin will be backed by the Debo Band at L.A.'s Echoplex February 13 along with Ethio Cali and DJ Egon! 

Rob Thomsett's rare 70s Oz fusion curios reissued by Now Again

Yaraandoo (previously reissued by Roundtable) and Hara are part of the Now-Again Reserve subscription service.

Originally privately pressed in tiny numbers in Canberra in the mid-‘70s, Australian guitarist Rob Thomsett's Yaraandoo & Hara LPs have become sought after examples of the best in progressive jazz/rock, due, in part, to the enthusiastic support of Archdrude Julian Cope.

“Taking in impressionistic hazy instrumental jazz … muscular fusion moves, solo Mellotron pieces as heavenly as anything Beethoven or Handel ever concocted, extremely loose-limbed ethno-fusion soundscapes of the Don Cherry/Pharoah Sanders variety, film soundtracks … and electronic experimentalism … hair-raising, soul-searching beauty – with an overall dreamy, hazy quality that perhaps could only be written by an Australian fully conversant with the “Dreamtime” cultural feel for the myths and legends of the Outback.” – Julian Cope’s Head Heritage.


Tweeted Now Again label mastermind Egon: "LP #4 in the Now-Again Reserve subscription series: Australian guitarist Rob Thomsett's 'Hara', the second in a 2 LP set. The Reserve series has gone so well I'm extending it (at least) another year. I'll announce album #5 later this year. Hint: it's from America's Midwest and is previously unreleased." Listen to Rob Thomsett's explorations below.

Stones Throw Records documentary premieres at LA Film Fest June 21 & 22

Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton (This Is Stones Throw Records) is a feature-length documentary about avant-garde Los Angeles-based record label Stones Throw Records. Under the direction of founder DJ Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw has consistently released critically acclaimed, left-of-center albums since its founding in 1996.

Drawing on live concert footage, never-before-seen archival material, inner-circle home video and photographs and in-depth interviews with the folks who put Stones Throw on the map, Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton will delve deeper into the label's enigmatic artists, history, culture and global following. The world premiere is set for June 21 and 22 at the Los Angeles Film Festival with a launch party set for The Exchange (618 S. Spring St, Los Angeles) on June 20 (see flyer below). Watch for a brief cameo by a Canadian television chat show host in the trailer:

Madlib Medicine Show: The Aftermath

The Madlib Medicine Show dates with Freddie Gibbs, J Rocc Egon and of course Madlib in the US, Europe, Russia and Australia have wrapped up for 2012, one of which is hazily captured in in this video by Mochilla's Eric Coleman:

Now Again and Cultures Of Soul do reissues right

Stanton Davis photo by Richard Conde

Being based in Los Angeles, Now Again mainman Eothen "Egon" Alapatt was determined to make his compendium of California's best small label soul, funk and disco joints from the golden era the last word on the subject. And from the looks of it, the 15-track Soul Cal collection of rare and unreleased tracks (spanning 1971 to 1082) spread over 2 LPs that comes packaged with an 80-page book documenting each band’s unlikely-but-true story with period snapshots is as close to a definite survey as you'll ever get.

While other reissue operations seem to have no qualms about tossing off similar scene retrospectives in a weekend and then moving on to the next, Egon spent a full decade piecing Soul Cal together – tracking down tough-to-find group members, digging up master tapes and looking through dresser drawers for small fragments of photo evidence to complete the mammoth project.

The relatively obscure artists profiled – including Stanton Davis' Ghetto Mysticism, the UPC All Stars, Pure Essence, Anubis, Freedom Express and others – are the bands that kept the funky soul alive during the darkest days of pre-fab corporate disco. Recording and self-releasing their masterworks to an indifferent audience during the late 70s, most of this music would remain largely unheard until Egon came along with a plan to restore and recirculate these important lost artifacts.

Starting in 2003 with You Can Be A Star b/w To Be Free by the Luther Davis Group, Now Again began reissuing these choice jams on 12" vinyl with generic sleeves through their Soul Cal Records subsidiary and continued with 12 more through 2008 with the last being Mixed Feelings' Sha-La-La.  

Of course as we now know, that was merely the set up for the full-on Soul Cal experience – a gatefold double LP and CD with an 80-page perfect bound book printed on heavyweight stock. Here's the complete track listing:

Soul Cal: Disco and Modern Soul Masterpieces, 1971-1982

You Can Be A Star - Luther Davis 4:44
Don’t Get Discouraged - UPC All Stars 3.36
Wake Up - Pure Essence 6:10
Ecology - Anubis 3:57
Put A Smile On Time - Rhythm Machine 3:52
I’m Gonna Miss You Girl - Ellis and Cephas 2:53
Bad Feeling - Mixed Sugar 3.:04
Free Your Mind - Record Player 3:51
Sha-La-La - Mixed Feelings 3:28
Love Is (Full Version) - Leon Mitchison and The Eastex Freeway Band 4.40
Keep Running Away - Clifford Nyren 4:24
Things Cannot Stop Forever (Remix) - Stanton Davis' Ghetto Mysticism 4.46
The Stranger (Edit) - C. Henry Woods 8:35
Get Down - Freedom Express 3:26

Those intrigued enough by Egon's dope remix of the stellar Stanton Davis track Things Cannot Stop Forever to want to hear more from his Ghetto Mysticism ensemble really need to check out the recent Cultures Of Soul reissue of the Boston-based combo's incredible jazz-funk epic Brighter Days album from 1977.

Some may already be familiar with the Ghetto Mysticism's magic from the tune Space A Nova, a club spin of UK celebrity selecta Gilles Peterson who comped it on 2009's Freedom Rhythm & Sound: Revolutionary Jazz & The Civil Rights Movement 1963-82 (Soul Jazz) but unlike many indie jazz LPs of the period, every track on the album is a winner. From the furious paced original version of Things Cannot Stop Forever to the hard bumpin'Funky Fried Tofu and the majestic title track all the way through to the deep closer High Jazz, the whole Brighter Days album is exceptionally solid. And Cultures Of Soul head honcho Jeff Swallom has done a superb job of mastering the limited-run vinyl reissue – which sounds better than my original copy – and same goes for the first-ever CD release.

In quick succession over the last three years, Cultures Of Soul have knocked out an impressive assortment of soul and funk rarities on seven-inch vinyl in strictly limited quantities including a Northern corker from Kentucky garage crew Explosive Dynamiks. The topside screamer Whole Lotta Loving and the soul ballad flip I Need You were originally recorded in Lexington back in 1966 for the Lemco label also known for the swinging organ instrumental twin-spin Hush Puppies b/w Sweet and Sour by The Titans.

Using his Deano Sounds alter-ego, Swallom also curated the World's Funkiest Covers collection which brings together some old classics like Ray Barretto's version of Stevie Wonder's Passtime Paradise and Mongo Santamaria's percussion heavy blast through Cloud Nine along with more recent revisions like Nostalgia 77's jazzy swing at the White Stripes' Seven Nation Army.

Perhaps the most anticipated Cultures Of Soul project ever is their forthcoming Jungle Funk 7" set of unreleased vintage material from Ghanaian funk bashers the Afro Kelenkye Band. Assembled with the assistance of Frank Gossner of Voodoo Funk fame, the recordings date back to the peak period of Jagger Botchway's band, just after they put out their classic Moving World album in 1974. So the story goes, the group went back into the studio while still hot to record more tracks but ran out of money. The recordings were shelved and gathered dust for the next 40 years until they were brought to Gossner's attention who in turn tipped Swallom to the incredible find.

The double seven-inch Jungle Funk pack has been mastered from the original reel-to-reel tapes and comes housed in a period-appropriate sleeve designed by Gossner in the style of Augustus Kerry Taylor's dope original cover for Moving World. It's due out on May 8th but you may want to pre-order a copy directly from Cultures Of Soul (see LINKS below) because they're only pressing 1,000 copies and dealers will no doubt be stocking up to flog at ridiculously inflated prices once it sells out.


LINKS
Now Again http://www.nowagainrecords.com/announcing-soul-cal/
Cultures Of Soul http://culturesofsoulrecords.com/
Egon's Soul Cal podcast