Orang Outang – Hawk

Orang Outang – Hawk (Primate Scream)

Orang Outang - Hawk

A few entries back in this blog when talking about Magic Man by Neill Solomon, I said that that was one of the few songs that featured an mbira. Well, here’s another one. Hawk (known internationally as Joburg Hawk), used the instrument to have a quiet-ish start to a song that quickly begins to pound to the rhythm of African drums while Dave Ornellas’ powerful vocals battle with Audrey Motaung for supremacy. The result of the vocal battle is a draw with both singers coming out top.

The song was written by Freedom Children’s Ramsay Mackay and recorded by Harambee when he was in that group. Their version is also worth a listen if you can get hold of it. It’s less pounding, but features a nice sax. Margaret Singana also wrapped her vocal chords around the song for another worthwhile effort and Brian Finch’s version features a nice Zulu harp. I’ve yet to find a bad version of the song, but I still keep coming back to Hawk’s version for its sheer force of delivery.

Where to find it:

Africa She Too Can Cry (Official CD re-issue) (2004) RetroFresh, freshcd137

Video: