Now-Again Records Licensed WITCH’s Zamrock Masters From One Surviving Member. Its Own Two Credit Lines on the Same 2025 Release Disagree on Whether It Owns Them or Only Administers Them

Deal sheet

Status

WHAT THE LICENCE IS, IN THE LICENSEE'S OWN WORDS. Now-Again Records states on its own site that it "has licensed the WITCH repertoire from the ensemble's last surviving member, Emmanuel Jagari Canda," and that it did so "in conjunction with Zam Rock pioneer Rikki Ililonga." The same page records a parallel licence for a different Zamrock act, Amanaz's album Africa, taken "from the band's Keith Kabwe and Issac Mpofu." On the label's Bandcamp release notes for the 28 November 2025 compilation Fool's Ride, catalogue NA 5291, the credit reads "Licensed, and all photos, courtesy Emmanuel Kangwa 'Jagari' Chanda," with the compilation produced by Eothen "Egon" Alapatt and the original sessions produced by WITCH.

That is a grant from a natural person, not from a record company. It is the central fact of this record.

WHO WITCH ARE. The band formed in Zambia, took its name from the initials of We Intend To Cause Havoc, and is the best known act of the Zamrock scene that grew out of Zambia's post-independence years. Now-Again's own reissue notes name the line-up as Chris Mbewe, John Muma, Gedeon Mulenga, Boidi Sinkala and Emanyeo Jagari Chanda. Chanda is the surviving member who granted the licence.

THE ORIGINAL-ERA LABELS, CORROBORATED FROM TWO DIRECTIONS. MusicBrainz release data for artist 6fc531d2-9a47-496b-b4b5-01e2b17fe99d records: Introduction, 1973, Zambia, on WITCH Records, catalogue TW 006; In the Past, 1974, on WITCH Records; Lazy Bones!!, 1975, on Zambezi, catalogue ZTZ 1; Lukombo Vibes, 1976, on Zambezi, ZTZ 7; WITCH, 1977, on Teal Record Company, WIT 2; Movin'-On, 1980, on Shed, SHED 1002; and Kuomboka, 1984, on R.N. Music Promotions. Now-Again's own Fool's Ride notes corroborate the label names independently: three 1975 singles recorded in Lusaka issued on Teal Record Company / Zambezi Records, catalogues ZTZ 4, ZTZ 6 and ZTZ 9, and the single "Fool's Ride / Chifundo" produced by Teal Record Company, recorded at Sapra Studios in Nairobi on 21 September 1976, engineered by Detlef Degener, originally released on Teal Record Company under WITI. The label's Introduction notes state plainly: "Original session produced by Teal Record Company."

So the licensee's own documents name a South African record company as the producer and original issuer of the recordings it licenses from an individual.

THE GAP IN THE CHAIN OF TITLE. Chanda has given two on-record accounts of what happened to the master tapes, eleven years before and eight years before the most recent reissue. In an interview published 24 October 2012 he describes a dispute with an early manager, says "So we demanded our master tapes back," and then says: "We sold the master tapes to Mr. Khuzwayo and signed a 4 year recording contract with Teal Records." He identifies the buyer's company in the same interview: "Zambia Music Parlour, owned by Edward Khzwayo started as one of the first distributors of records." A second account published 19 February 2019 states independently: "The master tapes were later sold to Zambia Music Parlour."

Neither account says the master tapes ever came back. No document this desk located records any transfer of them from Zambia Music Parlour to Chanda, to the band, or to any estate. The licence Now-Again describes and the sale Chanda describes are not reconciled by any document in the public record reached here.

WHAT THE TEAL CONTRACT PAID. Chanda says the band took "a 15,000 kwacha (Zambian currency) loan from Teal Records Company to buy our own set of musical instruments" and that "all the royalties from the records under contract went to offset the loan." He names Lazy Bones as "The WITCH's first album under the Teal Records contract" and says it "actually sold over 7,000 copies." The 2019 account corroborates the loan: "The royalties from the last three albums went to redeem the loan the band got from Teal Record Company."

TEAL'S OWN IDENTITY IS NOT ESTABLISHED. Chanda says "Teal Records Company came from South Africa, not Zimbabwe," and adds "I believe its sister company is Gallo Records." The second clause is his stated belief and is not treated as established here. MusicBrainz carries Teal Record Company as a South African label and separately lists Teal Records, Teal Sound and Teal Trutone Music, the last typed as a Distributor, with no relationship stated between them in the data read. A 2015 trade history of Zimbabwe's recording industry records "Teal Record Company, a subsidiary label of EMI Records, was also established in Salisbury," and records that in 1980 "Teal bought shares in Shed Studios and changed its name from Teal to Gramma Records." WITCH's 1980 album sits on a label called Shed, catalogue SHED 1002. Whether that Shed and those Shed Studios are the same undertaking was not established and is flagged, not asserted.

THE LICENSEE'S OWN TWO DOCUMENTS CONTRADICT EACH OTHER ON THE SAME RELEASE. Fool's Ride, released 28 November 2025, carries on Bandcamp the line "NA 5291 (P)(C) 2025 NOW-AGAIN RECORDS." The same release, Apple album id 1857887077, carries the line "℗ 2025 WITCH, Exclusively Administered by Now-Again Records." One document claims the phonogram and the composition copyright for the label outright. The other names the band as phonogram owner and the label only as administrator. Owning a master and administering someone else's master are different legal positions, and both statements were delivered by the same company for the same product.

THREE INCONSISTENT OWNERSHIP STATEMENTS ACROSS EDITIONS OF THE SAME RECORDINGS. The full Apple catalogue for artist 533280448 was read on 2 November 2026. The 1970s albums carry, depending on edition: "℗ 1974 WITCH, Exclusively Administered by Now-Again Records" on Introduction, album 1861544051, and In The Past, album 1862786333; "℗ 1976 Now-Again Records" on Lukombo Vibes, album 1895248577; "℗ 2026 Now-Again Records" on Lazy Bones!!, album 1895258079; and "℗ 2012 Now Again Records" on the 2012 editions of Introduction and In The Past, album 525913628, Lazy Bones!!, 526787191, Lukombo Vibes, 526521543, and Including Janet, 526543758.

The "℗ 1976 Now-Again Records" line is an anachronism on the label's own evidence. Now-Again states on its founder page that "Now-Again started as a reissue imprint in 2002." A 1976 phonogram cannot have vested in a company that by its own account did not exist for another 26 years.

WHAT DID NOT CHANGE. The recordings themselves are from the 1970s and nobody disputes that WITCH made them. What this record documents is that the paperwork describing who holds them is inconsistent across the licensee's own storefronts, and that the step by which the rights left Zambia Music Parlour, if it happened, is undocumented.

THE NEW RECORDINGS ARE A SEPARATE STRUCTURE. WITCH's post-reunion albums are not part of this licence and are credited differently. Partisan Records announced in its own voice: "We're excited to announce a new label partnership with Desert Daze Sound!" and said "Zango is WITCH's first new album in 40 years, and will be available worldwide." The phonogram credit on Zango, Apple album 1783175211, reads "℗ 2023 Desert Daze Sound," and the same holds for SOGOLO, 1793580327, and the singles Waile, Message from WITCH and Ain't Nobody. Partisan is not the named phonogram owner on any of them, and Partisan's own WITCH artist page states no rights or label relationship at all. MusicBrainz lists Desert Daze Sound against the United States editions of Zango and SOGOLO and Partisan Records against the worldwide editions. The word the parties used is "partnership"; no document reached states whether it is an imprint, a joint venture, a distribution agreement or a licence.

OTHER PARTIES CLAIMING THE SAME ARTIST. Two further phonogram claimants appear in the same catalogue and are noted without being investigated here: "℗ 2021 Sharp-Flat Records" on the single Erotic Delight / Change of a Feeling, album 1596956711, and "℗ 2025 BBE Music" on the single Once In A Lifetime / Psycho Killer, album 1841401364. The 1980 and 1984 releases Movin' On and Kuomboka carry "℗ 1980 WITCH" and "℗ 1984 WITCH," with no company named at all.

Type

Licensing

Parties

Now-Again Records, Zambia Music Parlour, Teal Record Company

Amount

Not disclosed Not disclosed. No advance, fee, royalty rate or revenue split appears in any document reached, for this licence or for the original Teal Record Company contract. The only figure Chanda states anywhere is a 15,000 kwacha loan taken from Teal in the 1970s to buy instruments, which is not consideration for this licence.

Rights covered

MASTER RECORDINGS ONLY, AND EVEN THAT IS DISPUTED BY THE LICENSEE'S OWN PAPERWORK. Now-Again Records states it licensed the WITCH repertoire from Emmanuel "Jagari" Chanda personally. On Apple the credit names WITCH as phonogram owner and Now-Again as exclusive administrator; on Bandcamp the same release claims both the phonogram and the composition copyright for Now-Again outright. Nothing in any document reached establishes who publishes or administers the compositions: the ASCAP and BMI repertory searches were blocked to this server and no PRO registration was obtained.

Territory

NOT STATED IN ANY DOCUMENT. No contractual territory, term or renewal appears anywhere, and the licence itself is not public. What was established is reach, not grant: the phonogram credits on the five key albums are byte-identical across the United States, United Kingdom, Nigerian, South African, Zambian, German, French and Japanese Apple Music storefronts, read 2 November 2026. There is no visible carve-out for Zambia, the band's home market, and no separate African rights holder appears. The word "Exclusively" appears in the administration credit; no territory is attached to it.

Announced

2011-11-11

Primary document

Official newsroom

Sources

Now-Again Records' own site, Zambian Psych Rock page, stating that the label "has licensed the WITCH repertoire from the ensemble's last surviving member, Emmanuel Jagari Canda". Read 2 November 2026. · Now-Again Records' own release notes for the compilation Fool's Ride, 28 November 2025, read 2 November 2026. Source for "NA 5291 (P)(C) 2025 NOW-AGAIN RECORDS," for "Licensed, and all photos, courtesy Emmanuel Kangwa 'Jagari' Chanda," for the production credits, and for the original single catalogues ZTZ 4, ZTZ 6, ZTZ 9 and WITI on Teal Record Company / Zambezi Records, including the Sapra Studios Nairobi session of 21 September 1976. · Now-Again Records' own release notes for the Introduction reissue, released 11 November 2011, read 2 November 2026. Source for "Original session produced by Teal Record Company," for the band line-up, for the licence from Chanda, for "Additional coordination by Rikki Ililonga," and for the two earlier Shadoks reissues. · Apple Music catalogue metadata via the public iTunes Lookup API, artist 533280448, full catalogue of 25 releases read 2 November 2026. Source for every phonogram credit quoted, including the three inconsistent ownership statements on the 1970s albums, the Desert Daze Sound credits on the new recordings, and the Sharp-Flat Records and BBE Music credits. · The same five key albums read against the Zambian storefront specifically, 2 November 2026. Credits are byte-identical to the United States, United Kingdom, Nigerian, South African, German, French and Japanese storefronts, all eight of which were checked. No carve-out is visible in the band's home market. · Interview with Emmanuel "Jagari" Chanda published 24 October 2012, interviewers Klemen Breznikar and Kevin Rathert, read in full 2 November 2026. Direct statement from a named party. Source for "We sold the master tapes to Mr. Khuzwayo and signed a 4 year recording contract with Teal Records," for "So we demanded our master tapes back," for "Zambia Music Parlour, owned by Edward Khzwayo started as one of the first distributors of records," for "Teal Records Company came from South Africa, not Zimbabwe. I believe its sister company is Gallo Records," for the 15,000 kwacha loan and for the Lazy Bones sales figure. · Second interview with Chanda published 19 February 2019, read in full 2 November 2026. Independent corroboration that "The master tapes were later sold to Zambia Music Parlour" and that "The royalties from the last three albums went to redeem the loan the band got from Teal Record Company." Does not state that the masters were ever returned. · MusicBrainz release data for WITCH, 39 releases with label and catalogue number, read 2 November 2026. Source for the original-era labels WITCH Records TW 006, Zambezi ZTZ 1 and ZTZ 7, Teal Record Company WIT 2, Shed SHED 1002 and R.N. Music Promotions, and for the May 2022 Introduction reissue jointly credited to Now-Again Records and Zambia Music Parlour. · MusicBrainz label record for Zambia Music Parlour, read 2 November 2026: country ZM, type Publisher, no IPI, no label code, 24 releases from 1974 to 2022. · Now-Again Records' own founder page, read 2 November 2026. Source for "Now-Again started as a reissue imprint in 2002," for the self-description as "one of America's foremost independently-operated catalog management and music publishing concerns," for "tracking down artists, brokering licenses, researching and issuing anthologies," and for Zambia and Zimbabwe appearing among the scenes it reissues. · Partisan Records' own announcement, read 2 November 2026. Source for "We're excited to announce a new label partnership with Desert Daze Sound!" and for "Zango is WITCH's first new album in 40 years, and will be available worldwide." Names no imprint, joint venture, distribution or licence structure. · Fred Zindi, "The history of Zimbabwe's recording industry," 21 January 2015, read in full 2 November 2026. Trade press. Source for "Teal Record Company, a subsidiary label of EMI Records, was also established in Salisbury" and for "Teal bought shares in Shed Studios and changed its name from Teal to Gramma Records."

Read this before citing: READ THIS BEFORE CITING.

WHAT A PHONOGRAM NOTICE IS. It is an assertion made by whoever delivered the release to the store. It is not a contract, not a registry filing and not proof of a transaction. This record reports what the notices say, where they disagree, and what the parties have said in their own words. It does not treat any notice as a legal instrument.

WHAT IS ESTABLISHED.
1. That Now-Again Records states on its own site that it licensed the WITCH repertoire from Emmanuel "Jagari" Chanda, the band's last surviving member, in conjunction with Rikki Ililonga.
2. That the Fool's Ride compilation, 28 November 2025, credits the licence to Chanda personally.
3. That the same release carries "(P)(C) 2025 NOW-AGAIN RECORDS" on Bandcamp and "℗ 2025 WITCH, Exclusively Administered by Now-Again Records" on Apple. Both read 2 November 2026.
4. That the 1970s albums carry at least three mutually inconsistent ownership statements across editions, quoted in full in the status field above.
5. That Now-Again's own founder page gives 2002 as the year the imprint started, which makes the "℗ 1976 Now-Again Records" line on Lukombo Vibes impossible as written.
6. That Chanda stated on the record in 2012 that the band sold the master tapes to Mr Khuzwayo of Zambia Music Parlour, and that a separate 2019 account states the master tapes were sold to Zambia Music Parlour.
7. That Now-Again's own reissue notes name Teal Record Company as producer of the original sessions and original issuer of the 1975 and 1976 singles.
8. That the credits are byte-identical across eight storefronts, including Zambia.

WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED, AND WHAT WAS CHECKED.

A. WHO ACTUALLY OWNS THE 1970s MASTERS. The licence agreement is not public. No document reached by this desk records a transfer of the master tapes from Zambia Music Parlour back to Chanda or to the band. One web summary encountered during this work asserted that Teal returned the masters to the musicians when it left the Zambian market and that Chanda kept them as the only survivor. That statement could not be located in any document this desk fetched and read, including both Chanda interviews in full, and it is therefore not used and not published. Do not cite this record as establishing who owns the masters.

B. WHETHER TEAL RECORD COMPANY OR ANY SUCCESSOR RETAINS AN INTEREST. Not established. No South African company register document was obtained. Chanda's remark that "I believe its sister company is Gallo Records" is his belief, not a finding. A claim that Gallo bought the Teal Group's South African assets from Lonrho in 1976 traces to a user-maintained database and was not obtained as a primary document, so it is not asserted. Do not report Gallo as an owner of this company or of these masters.

C. THE COMPOSITIONS. Not established. No publisher or administrator for any WITCH composition was identified. What was checked: the ASCAP ACE repertory search returned HTTP 403 to this server; the BMI repertoire search returned a bot challenge rather than data; the United States Copyright Office public records interface served an application shell with no queryable JSON endpoint reachable from here. MusicBrainz carries a separate label entity "Now-Again Records, LLC" typed as Publisher, which evidences that the group operates a publishing arm, not that it publishes these particular works. Zambia Music Parlour is typed Publisher on MusicBrainz with no IPI recorded.

D. CONSIDERATION. No advance, fee, royalty rate or revenue split appears in any document reached, for the Now-Again licence or for the original Teal contract beyond the 15,000 kwacha loan Chanda describes. "Not disclosed" is the honest answer on every money question in this record. No figure has been inferred.

E. TERM, EXCLUSIVITY AND TERRITORY OF THE LICENCE. Not established. The word "Exclusively" appears in the Apple administration credit; no document states a term, a renewal, an expiry or a contractual territory.

F. THE DATE. No announcement of this licence was ever made. The announced date recorded here, 11 November 2011, is the release date Now-Again's own Bandcamp page gives for its Introduction reissue, and is used as the earliest dated public evidence of exploitation under the licence rather than as a signing date. Apple dates the box set Witch: We Intend to Cause Havoc! to 22 May 2011, which is earlier, but catalogue release dates in storefront metadata are routinely back-dated and that date is not relied on. The label's Zambian Psych Rock page, which carries the licence language, is undated on its face and refers to CD issues "planned for early 2010," so the licence was in place before 2010.

G. ZAMBIA MUSIC PARLOUR'S CURRENT STATUS. Not established. Zambia operates no public company register reachable from this desk. The name appears as a credited label alongside Now-Again Records on a reissue of Introduction dated May 2022 in MusicBrainz, which is the most recent evidence of the name in use that was found, and which this desk cannot explain against a licence said to run from an individual.

H. THE SHED QUESTION. Flagged, not chased. WITCH's 1980 album is credited to a label called Shed, catalogue SHED 1002. A 2015 trade history records Teal buying shares in Shed Studios in 1980 and renaming itself Gramma Records in Zimbabwe. Whether these are the same undertaking was not established.