4260126061408
4260126061415

Take One

Hallelujah Chicken Run Band

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Format: CD

Cat No: AACD0062

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

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Mudzimu Ndiringe
      • 2. Kare Nanhasi
      • 3. Tamba Zimba Navashe
      • 4. Ngoma Yarira
      • 5. Sekai
      • 6. Manheru Changamire
      • 7. Gore Iro
      • 8. Mukadzi Wangu Ndomuda
      • 9. Alikulila
      • 10. Tinokumbira Kuziva
      • 11. Mutoridodo
      • 12. Ndopenga
      • 13. Mwana Wamai Dada Naye
      • 14. Chaminuka Mukuru

    Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Mudzimu Ndiringe
      • 2. Kare Nanhasi
      • 3. Tamba Zimba Navashe
      • 4. Ngoma Yarira
      • 5. Sekai
      • 6. Manheru Changamire
      • 7. Gore Iro
      • 8. Mukadzi Wangu Ndomuda
      • 9. Alikulila
      • 10. Tinokumbira Kuziva
      • 11. Mutoridodo
      • 12. Ndopenga
      • 13. Mwana Wamai Dada Naye
      • 14. Chaminuka Mukuru