The ReviewEdition 01 · August 2026An earlier edition · the current one is Edition 03, Empty Buildings →
Africa
A continent the algorithm files under one word. This edition takes the long way in: a fuzz-pedal boom in the Copperbelt mining towns, state-payroll jazz in Addis Ababa, highlife cut on a film studio's desk in Accra — and then the bedroom software that rewired the South, from Durban's taxi ranks to Pretoria's backyards. Start with one record. The rest argue among themselves.
In this editionZamrock, and 11 more ↓
ZAMBIA · LUSAKA ↔ KITWE · 1972–1979 · FOUND AGAIN 2010–
Zamrock
The heaviest rock scene Africa ever produced — nearly erased, then found again.
Read the story →Listen first — the edition’s track
Amanaz — ‘Africa’ · 1975The gentlest way into the heaviest scene Africa ever made. Three minutes in, the title track turns into something closer to a hymn than a rock song — and once you have heard it you will want the other eleven records around it.Play on SpotifyWhen it mattered
1972
–79
–79
The blaze
Fuzz pedals and packed Copperbelt halls. WITCH, Amanaz, Ngozi Family — the loudest records the continent had heard.
31
Years dark
Curfews and the copper collapse strangle the circuit. Out of print on every continent, including its own. The silence is data.
2010
–now
–now
Found again
Now-Again’s licensed reissues, the anthologies, a documentary, WITCH re-formed — and Zango (2023), cut 44 years after the scene ended.
The canon, in its own colours
“The Zambian press named it themselves, while the records were still coming out — ‘Zambia’ welded onto ‘rock,’ nothing cleverer than that.”
On the name · ZamrockAlso in this edition 11 scenes
ADDIS ABABA · 1965–1974Ethio-jazzAddis Ababa, where the players were state employees, the law forbade making records, and one man went to India to get around it.Read →Getatchew Mekurya — ‘Negus of Ethiopian Sax’
DURBAN · 2011–2019GqomBass music built for the one speaker that would carry it: a subwoofer bolted into a Durban minibus taxi.Read →DJ Lag — ‘DJ Lag EP’
ACCRA · 1970–1982Ghana Film SoundHighlife cut on a state film studio's desk, pressed at home, closed by curfew.Read →Marijata — ‘This Is Marijata’
LAGOS · 1971–1977Lagos Afro-RockA label war, two studios, and a tariff meant for somebody else.Read →Ofege — ‘Try and Love’
JOHANNESBURG · 2012–2019AmapianoTownship bedrooms in Gauteng, cracked software and a log drum under an electric piano — a music named from inside after the instrument it chose.Read →Kabza De Small — ‘Avenue Sounds’
CAIRO · 2006–2016MahraganatStreet weddings, cracked FruityLoops, and a record given away to sell the night.Read →Oka, Ortega & Weza — ‘Ana Aslan Gamed’
ABA · 1970–1976The East-Central CircuitArmy instruments, one transmitter, and a recording room that arrived halfway through.Read →The Funkees — ‘Dancing Time: The Best of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77’
PORT LOUIS · 1971–1982Port Louis Séga ZeklerShop-financed 45s, one arranger, a four-track: the fuzz séga collected on Soul Sok Séga and Moris Zekler.Read →Claudio Veeraragoo — ‘Qui Fine Arrivé’
JOHANNESBURG · 1993–1997KwaitoSoweto slowed the imports down and built the labels to own what came out, until a radio station took over the choosing.Read →Boom Shaka — ‘It's About Time’
The machinery — what moved it
law regulationThe Kaunda radio quotaThe quota was import substitution, not art policy — the same economic nationalism Zambia applied to copper processing and retail, pointed at airtime: why send royalties abroad when the foreign exchange was needed for oil? Kenneth Kaunda played guitar and wrote hymns, and it is tempting to read the directive as a musician's gift to musicians.industry structureNow-Again RecordsNow-Again's mechanism is unglamorous: contracts.industry structureAmha RecordsThe first Ethiopian record Amha Eshete released had a B-side aimed at Sudanese listeners.marketCracked FL StudioThe 909 became cheap because nobody wanted it.industry structureThe Durban minibus taxiRadio would not play it, so the story goes, and the taxis did.
Other editions 2
Edition 03 · October 2026 · currentEmpty BuildingsNobody in this edition owned the room.6 scenes · lead Detroit Underground Party CircuitEdition 02 · September 2026The Sound System LineFrom a fenced yard in Kingston to a Croydon record counter: one inheritance and five handovers.7 scenes · lead Kingston Lawn Dance