witch: movin' on/kuomboka

Left out of our Zamrock investigation, for stylistic reasons as well as logistical concerns, were albums released after Zamrock's heyday, when the music of '80s Zambia came to be influenced by disco and rhumba from neighboring Congo. Bands that didn't adapt sounded outdated. Thus even Zamrock's greatest band, Witch, splintered, with a skeleton crew of core members embracing younger musicians to record and release two albums that found the band replacing fuzz guitars with whirling synthesizers and trying their hand at soul, disco and boogie. According to Patrick Mwondela, the keyboardist on these albums and the only member of the later Witch still living, the influences on the band had grown beyond the earlier pull of the Rolling Stones, Grand Funk Railroad, and Deep Purple to include the Bee Gees, Commodores, Earth Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang and Michael Jackson. The band privately issued these two albums -- Movin' On in 1980, Kuomboka in 1984 -- in small quantities before a dearth of gigs and the large ensemble's overhead caused them to disband, sometime in 1985. Zambian music researcher Leonard Koloko calls these later Witch albums 'of international standard and genius' and, superlatives aside, these recordings sound as good as anything coming out of London and Lagos' international recording circles of the time. Though but a decade separated the first and last Witch albums, the recording capabilities of most nations in sub-Saharan Africa by 1984 had caught up with the rest of the world. Finally, fans of the Witch's arch can listen to, and acknowledge, the breadth of this great band and assess for themselves the recordings of both of Witch's incarnations