Month: November 2010

What does Zamrock godfather Rikki Ililonga have in common with Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones? His Dark Sunrise anthology is side-by-side box sets dedicated to those greats in the New York Times’ wrap-up of the best box sets and reissues of 2010. An excerpt from Jon Pareles’ review:

“Welcome to Zamrock, the psychedelic funk made in Zambia in the mid-1970s. “Dark Sunrise” collects music from the guitarist Rikki Ililonga: one disc from his band Musi-O-Tunya, a second from his own solo career. Musi-O-Tunya’s Zamrock is late-60s San Francisco gone to Africa, with wah-wah rhythm facing Afrobeat horns and percussion and soul-rock 4/4 trading off with six-beat African rhythms. Although it’s African rock, many of the songs are in English, Zambia’s constitutional language. Then Mr. Ililonga went solo, playing most of the instruments himself, and turning to a loose, woozy African spinoff of the Velvet Underground, folk-rock and garage-rock that still didn’t stint on the fuzz-tone. “I’m drowning in this crazy sensation,” Mr. Ililonga sings, appropriately.”

Read More: NY Times “Year’s Most Notable Box Sets And Reissues.”
Buy: Rikki Ililonga and Musi-O-Tunya Dark Sunrise at Rappcats.