Peace
Now-Again Rec. Peace: Black Power (re.2017)****’
This album for me really is what African Rock music is about and makes it also so original and collectable. The songs are clear, direct and powerful, the balance in the production is perfect, the rhythms attractive, the electric guitar rhythms and psych organ tunes a perfect finishing touch. There’s here and there a Rolling Stones touch. But elsewhere you can also here a sweet 60s Element or elements hat still provoke an Africa touch with a few times a spiritual (black power) message, even though in general it’s more a voice of wherever in the world this could have been expressed, for which the English language helps to get into it’s recognisable messages. There’s a powerful and groovy blues-rock power in it as well, with great fuzz guitars over it. Some songs are more emotional witnesses of experiences. Two of the later tracks count over 7 minutes. The first one contains more complex rhythmic and groovy explorations, with an improvised jam, including some funny vocal noises. The last one is a more slowly building up, emotionally building up jam with psychedelic elements, turning into a more groovy song-based rocker with harmony vocals. A perfect alum and for me one of the best and most successful albums of the African Rock scene.
“The Boyfriends, from Kitwe's Chamboli Mine Township, supplied the founding members for Zamrock's most famous band, Witch, and kick started one of Zamrock's best bands, Peace. Their sole Zamrock entry, Black Power, recorded at Malachite Film Studio circa 1973/4 and issued circa 1975, sounds like nothing else in the Zamrock canon: a lost message drifiting from the flower power era, imbued with a fiery Zambian voice."
