* This is the band that modernised Zimbabwean music, and by doing so revolutionised the music industry in their country.

* 8 golden discs between 1974-1975

"I played the first cut, and from its opening stuttering guitar notes, I was hooked." #1 Editor’s Top 10 - Global Rhythm magazine
 
Esta es la banda que modernizó la música de zimbabwe, y al hacerlo, revolucionó la industria de la música en su país.
 
8 discos de oro entre 1974-1975.
 
En 1972; el país de Rhodesia, como se conocen entonces a Zimbabue, se encontraba en medio de una larga lucha por la independencia del dominio colonial británico. En los hoteles y Clubes nocturnos de la capital, las bandas podían ganarse la vida tocando una mezcla de afro-rock; cha-cha-cha y rumba congoleña. Pero a medida que el deseo de independencia se hizo más fuerte, varios músicos de zimbabwe comenzaron a buscar inspiración en su propia cultura. Comenzaron a emular el sonido staccato y las melodías en bucle de la mbira (piano de pulgar) en sus guitarras eléctricas, y a replicar los insistentes ritmos vibrantes del Charles, también comenzaron a cantar en el idioma shona y a agregar mensajes abiertamente políticos a sus letras (con la certeza de que el gobierno de la Minoría predominantemente blanca no los entendería).
 
La banda nació cuando un joven trompetista llamado Daram Karanga se ofreció a formar un grupo para entretener a los trabajadores de una Mina de cobre en la ciudad de Mhangura. La formación original, que incluía al legendario cantante Thomas Mapfumo, quien traería los sonidos de chimurenga al mundo a principios de la década de 1980 con su banda Blacks Unlimited, y Joshua hlomayi, uno de los pioneros de la guitarra estilo mbira, comenzó tocando los estilos de rumba y afro-rock populares en la capital. Aunque esto fue un éxito entre los dueños blancos de la Mina, los trabajadores lo recibieron con indiferencia. Pero cuando comenzaron a agregar arreglos eléctricos de música tradicional shona a su repertorio, la audiencia se volvió loca.

ENGLISH
In 1972, the country of Rhodesia – as Zimbabwe was then known – was in the middle of a long-simmering struggle for independence from British colonial rule. In the hotels and nightclubs of the capital, bands could make a living playing a mix of Afro-Rock, Cha-Cha-Cha and Congolese Rumba. But as the desire for independence grew stronger, a number of Zimbabwean musicians began to look to their own culture for inspiration. They began to emulate the staccato sound and looping melodies of the mbira (thumb piano) on their electric guitars, and to replicate the insistent shaker rhythms on the hi-hat; they also started to sing in the Shona language and to add overtly political messages to their lyrics (safe in the knowledge that the predominantly white minority government wouldn’t understand them). From this collision of electric instruments and indigenous traditions, a new style of Zimbabwean popular music – later known as Chimurenga, from the Shona word for ‘struggle’ – was born. And there were few bands more essential to the development of this music than the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band.

The band came into being when a young trumpet player named Daram Karanga offered to assemble a group to entertain the workers at a copper mine in the town of Mhangura. The original line-up – which included legendary singer Thomas Mapfumo, who would bring the sounds of Chimurenga to the world in the early 1980s with his band the Blacks Unlimited, and Joshua Hlomayi, one of the pioneers of mbira- style guitar – started out playing the Rumba and Afro-Rock styles popular in the capital. Although this was a hit with the white owners of the mine, the workers greeted it with indifference. But when they started adding electric arrangements of traditional Shona music to their repertoire, the audience went wild.

With the addition of “Zim” sounds to their arsenal, the HCR Band became unstoppable. Their reputation spread quickly and, in 1974, they were invited to the capital to compete in a national music contest organised by the South-African Teal label. Not only did they win the competition, but they also attracted the attention of famed producer Crispen Matema, who quickly organised their first recording sessions. On their first day at Jameson House studios, they recorded half a dozen songs, including “Ngoma Yarira” and “Murembo”, two singles that would alter the course of Zimbabwean popular music.

During the next five years, the band would relocate from their small mining town to the capital city, go through numerous line-up changes and pay a few more visits to the recording studio, without ever losing the raucous urgency that had transformed them from popular entertainers into titans of Zimbabwean culture. Take One collects the HCR Band’s biggest hits along with several rare tracks recorded between 1974 and 1979, all painstakingly remastered from original master tapes and vinyl sources; originally released on CD by Analog Africa in 2006, this essential music is now available on LP for the first time since the 1970s. 
 
A1 Mudzimu Ndiringe 3:16
A2 Kare Nanhasi 3:36
A3 Tamba Zimba Navashe 3:20
A4 Ngoma Yarira 2:14
A5 Sekai 2:45
A6 Manheru Changamire 3:37
A7 Gore Iro 3:23

B1 Mukadzi Wangu Ndomuda 3:28
B2 Alikulila 2:54
B4 Tinokmbira Kuziva 3:23
B3 Mutoridodo 2:12
B5 Ndopenga 3:34
B6 Mwana Wamai Dada Naye 3:26
B7 Chaminuka Mukuru 3:41