Some of the heaviest work to come from the African scene of the 70s – the initial offering of the Ngozi Family – a group who clearly take strong inspiration from the Cream years of the UK scene, but who also come across with a grittier, punkier vibe overall – thanks to lean, stripped-down instrumentation and some very sharp drums! The drums rattle out underneath the magnificent fuzzy guitar lines in the lead – almost with this compressed quality that recalls Thin Lizzy at their funkier moments – but much more raw, stripped-down, and unpolished – so that the English language lyrics burst out with a really biting sound! The record's one of the first in the Zamrock tradition, and is still one of the best – a set that deserves to be in any collection of hard rock, proto-punk, and even funk rock from the 70s. Titles include "I Wanna Know", "Day Of Judgement", "We Wonna Give It To Her", "Tikondane", and "Let Me Know". CD comes in a great book-style cover – and features the bonus tracks "We Were Not Told", "She Looks So Crazy", "I've Been Looking For You", and "Sunka Mulamu". CD

A treasure trove of funky soul and trippy grooves from Eye Q – a group who hail from the same scene in Zimbabwe that gave us Witch and Ngozi Family, but who are maybe even groovier overall! There's some really wonderful guitar on most of these cuts – more funk-styled than some of the rockish work of the Zimbabwe scene of the period – but still with those great trippy elements around the edges, and the kind of heady production that can make even familiar aspects of these records sound surprisingly powerful overall. The tunes are plenty catchy, too – maybe in part because the collection draws heavily on the group's rare singles for the Afro Soul label, before moving into territory of their rare Beginning album. Titles include "Please The Nation", "Angel Face", "No More Crying", "Making Life Out Of Music", "Worthless Woman", "Lonely", "Looking For The Day", "Widow", "Waiting For The Chance", "Rock & Roll Soul", "Are You Satisfied", "Eniweth", and "Good Turning Bad". CD