Fac 278 Indambinigi Zimba 1990
Released by Factory in August 1990, Zimba is a 12-inch single, Fac 278, by Indambinigi. The single is a one-off collaboration between guitarist and DJ Steve Lima and Karl Denver. The cover erroneously reads ‘Indambinig’, Lima recalls “We were actually meant to be called ‘Indambinigi’ but someone at Factory mispelt it.”
Denver, a champion of World music had had a hit record with his 1961 version of Wimoweh with the Karl Denver Trio which showed off his falsetto yodelling register; Denver claimed to have discovered the song in South Africa during his days as a seaman but it had already been a hit, in 1951, in the hands of American folk group The Weavers, and in 1961, The Tokens had re-recorded it, with new lyrics, as The Lion Sleeps Tonight. The Karl Denver Trio version displayed Denver’s vocal gymnastics to full effect and its success propelled the group into the upper reaches of British show business.
Karl Denver yodelling
During the early 1960s Denver was a familiar figure on both radio and the concert stage, performing in what one reviewer called his “eardrum piercing, multi-octave range.” There were further small hits for the Trio in 1964, but their music sounded decidedly old-fashioned compared with that of the Fab Four and the numerous beat groups who now dominated the pop scene. Although The Karl Denver Trio faded from the media limelight, they continued to perform in cabaret at home and overseas.
Fac 228 Karl Denver Wimoweh 89 1989
There was a brief, unexpected return to the charts in 1989 when the Happy Mondays had Denver guesting on their track Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer), Fac 222. The single made the Top 50 but Denver contracted pneumonia whilst filming the video. He subsequently released a dance version of Wimoweh, Fac 228, on Factory which was produced by Mike Pickering and Graeme Park. Zimba with its b-side Shengali is a mixture of beats and ethnic vocals, it was produced by Steve Lima and written by Karl Denver and Steve Lima.
The artwork for Zimba, which was released on vinyl only, was by Central Station; the designers abandoned their trademark neo-psychedelic work that epitomised their ‘Madchester’ phase and adopted a more restrained style. The cover design has a muted colour scheme with a typeface (Gill Shadow) that is almost – but not quite – an echo of the early Factory sleeves.
