Description
Mastered from the original analog tapes for the very first time,
SHARP-FLAT brings you the WITCH DISCO SINGLES as you’ve never heard
them before. WIT 5 hosts a single edit of “Erotic Delight” from the
band's 1984 album Kuomboka backed with “Change of a Feeling,” an unheard
WITCH track released for the very first time.
By the end of the 1970s, WITCH was a Zambian music institution.
Active since 1972, they had survived the Zamrock years and left an
impressive garage, psych and prog discography in their wake. But at the
outset of the 1980s, the band was ready to embrace the modern sounds of a
new era. Undertaking personnel changes and relocating to Zimbabwe, they
were primed by the independence celebrations of their neighbouring
country to undertake their mythical transformation into an African disco
powerhouse.
With access to a state of the art recording studio in Harare, WITCH
produced two exquisite albums in the early 1980s. Appearing in
1980, Movin’ On was preceded by the single “My Desire,” which featured
new member Christine Jackson on lead vocals. With an upfront funky
bass-line, falsetto backing vocals, swirling synths and tight horns, it
was a searing hot disco offering that made no bones about the fact that
the WITCH was ready to get down. Composer/vocalist Stanford Tembo’s
mid-tempo burner “You Are My Sunshine" was the perfect fit for
the flip.
Documenting the band’s drift from disco into boogie, WITCH’s final
album Kuomboka was released in 1984 without an accompanying single. New
lead vocalist Patrick Chisembele injected youthful energy and a modern
soul edge, most notably on “Erotic Delight” with its crisp drums, slinky
keys and intoxicating bass groove. Pop reggae was also within the
album’s stylistic purview by way of the closer “Jah Let the Sunshine” as
well as “Change of a Feeling,” the flip side of a recently discovered
single that wasn’t originally released.
