Valvulado: Can’t You Hear Me? 70's African Nuggets & Garage Rock from Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Globetrotter of parallel subcontinents and digger of rare, forgotten records, Eothen “Egon” Alapatt tracks sounds from the dawn of time to the four corners of the world. On the other side of the globe, French designer Christophe Lemaire stays forward thinking and audacious in his choices: far from our deified present, he cultivates a love of timeless designs and mixed influences; a passion for iconoclastic music hidden in the dark corners of a global cultural industry.

This extraordinary openness has been at the heart of their friendship since 2007. Their exceedingly eclectic, fierce rock discoveries gave birth to a first anthology, Where Are You From? (Now-Again, 2010), the fruit of Lemaire’s excavating Alapatt’s archives. That was a post-geographic exploration in psych, rock and funk territories from 1968 to now; this second anthology celebrates their impressionist vision and explores garage rock from the 1970s, voicing the struggles of independence in Zambia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Can’t You Hear Me comes from a track by charismatic Zamrock icon Paul Ngozi, a Lemaire favorite. Ngozi’s title track sets the tone for a drastic selection of seventeen songs with rebellious undertones, riddled by an infectious groove, the forsaken writing about a forgotten chapter in the history of music. Ngozi, WITCH, Chrissy Zebby Tembo, Amanaz, Wells Fargo, Eye Q and the Funkees represent a generation fighting for their freedom, armed with fuzz guitars, symbolic objects of a new movement. They played in Fela’s kingly shadow, were influenced by Hendrix’s psychedelic solos, Jefferson Airplane’s penetrating chords and Cream’s repetitive melodies. The music of their colonial oppressors they reassembled and reinterpreted with pure energy, without nod to hymn or flag.

Tracks 1 through 9, 11, 12, 16 and 17 from Zambia; Tracks 13 and 14 from Nigeria; Tracks 10 and 15 from Zimbabwe. All tracks licensed courtesy the artists, with the exception of tracks 1, 8 and 16 licensed courtesy Strawberry Rain. This compilation produced by Christophe Lemaire and Eothen Alapatt.

Original tracks produced by the respective artists; Track 17 with edits and additional production by Pilooski. Additional production and coordination by Axel De Novion and Sarah-Linh Tran. Mastered by Dave Cooley for Elysian Masters. Artwork by Sanghon Kim. Art Direction by Errol F. Richardson.

Tracklist:

01 - Keith Mlevhu The Bad Will Die

02 - Paul Ngozi Can't You Hear Me

03 - Amanaz Amanaz

04 - Witch (3) No Time

05 - Peace* Black Power

06 - Peace* Peaceful Man

07 - Chrissy Zebby Tembo I'm Not Made of Iron

08 - Blackfoot (5) Poor Connection

09 - 5 Revolutions I Had A Dream (Instrumental)

10 - Eye Q Making Life Out Of Music

11 - Witch (3) Like A Chicken