244: Samora Machel, by Shalawambe

Shalawambe (Zambia)
Samora Machel (1989)
9 tracks, 44 minutes
YouTube playlist

Zambia is one of those countries whose music doesn’t really get much attention from the rest of the world – not helped in this case by being surrounded by musical powerhouse neighbours such as Zimbabwe and the DR Congo. In cases like that, I’m always keen to dive into their musical culture with my ears; I really believe that there is no place that good music cannot be found.

I’d actually known about Shalawambe for a long time before I heard their music. That’s because of this (click to enlarge):

Yep, a poster for the WOMAD festival at Carlyon Bay in Cornwall in 1988. Unfortunately, being born when I was and with the linear nature of time in the dimension on which we exist, I didn’t get to attend this one – the poster is actually my mum’s but it’s been on my wall ever since I left home. What a great line-up though. Bit pricey at £24 for the weekend, mind, but then you do get to see Ali Farka Touré AND Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and camping is included, so fair enough really. But the poster itself has fascinated me, and I always catch myself studying it. Yes, there are the big names on there and even some that still wow festival crowds 31 years later, but it’s the ones that either didn’t survive or otherwise dropped off the radar that interest me the most: who are Lo Jai from France? Or Yemaya, a group obviously named for the goddess of the sea, but what were they about, and why are they listed as being from the very vague ‘S. America’? And since when did the Proclaimers play with dub-hip-hop syndicate Tackhead Sound System?

As I mentioned at the top, music from lesser-heard countries always intrigues me, and so it was always Shalawambe from Zambia that stuck out to me. Who were they and what did they sound like? All I knew was that they’re not around anymore. And that’s as far as I got until I found this album while digging through my work’s archive. I soon as I saw the name I snatched it up and…yup, it sounded brilliant, because of course it does – a band from the heart of Africa who played at WOMAD in the late 80s, they couldn’t not be brilliant.

They sound…pretty similar to how I expected them to sound actually, considering their geography, a bit like a mix of the guitar pop styles that were big in Zimbabwe, DR Congo and Tanzania at the time. I’d say it’s most like the jit made famous by the Bhundu Boys, but with less influence from the traditional Shona mbira style in the guitars and a more obvious 4/4 beat. Like all of those guitar pop styles, Samora Machel (the album, not the first president of Mozambique for whom it is dedicated) is a delightful collection of bright, springy guitars, carefree vocals and tight harmonies, and enough Vitamin D to keep you going for days.

In researching this album last night, I found out that Shalawambe were actually one of John Peel’s favourite bands, and that 1988 was a bumper year for them: they recorded a Peel Session a few days before WOMAD and it ended up being voted by listeners as one of the ‘Festive 50’ for that year. What a great time for African music in the UK it was.

I don’t know what became of Shalawambe, but it seems like they dissolved at some point in the early 1990s. They remain the Zambian band to have had the most success in the UK, and to be honest, very little has come to challenge them in the intervening years. Let’s always hope for more, but at least Samora Machel is, and will always remain, a beautiful album to jive to in the sun…or anytime, really.