This latest installment in the on-going, ever-awesome Love, Peace & Poetry compilation series of rare psych rock music from around the world features tracks from African bands. While not as far-fetched as the Extreme Music From Africa comp we used to stock some time back, some might still be surprised by this. Of course, previous volumes in the LP&P series have conclusively demonstrated the all-pervading influence of the Western '60s rock revolution on the rest of the world, and we've stocked lots of cd reissues of LPs by acid-rockers from such 'exotic' locales as Turkey, Brazil, and the Phillipines. Not to mention all those Cambodian Rock collections! So of course there's gonna be African bands for Shadoks to compile. And in fact, we think they maybe included more South African (i.e. white) bands here than they really needed to -- not that the chosen tracks aren't worthy, just that they give the impression that Shadoks couldn't find enough stuff from the rest of the continent. Maybe their definition of "psychedelic music" is a little narrower than ours, but we'd have thought some Ethiopian groove stuff, or early Orchestra Baobab, would do nicely here. Too funky maybe? But already this collection boasts a wide range of styles from jazzy to spacey to folkish to heavy, hard rock. There's room here for both fuzz guitar fests (Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family's "Oh Ye Ye") and Beatles-esque balladry (Quentin E. Kolpjaeger's "Weatherman"). 17 tracks total, with several standouts including Nigeria's Blo (now that's some authentic African psych rock there) and South Africa's Freedoms Children (who managed to land three cuts on here) and the proto-metal of fellow countrymen Suck, among others. Perhaps not the strongest of the series (heck, that preceeding Mexican volume was a tough act to follow) but as always, well-stocked with gems -- stuff you're unlikely to hear elsewhere, either!
Originally recorded and released on LP in 1970, "Ancient Strings" was the first recording devoted solely to the art of playing the Kora. Though it has been around for centuries in various shapes and under different names, the Kora -- a bridged lute with a large
How could anyone not be obsessed with this? We originally thought the title was just a catchy turn of phrase whipped up by MISSISSIPPI RECORDS, who originally put this out on cassette, but as we did some digging, we discovered that the title was in fact literal, this is indeed a collection of songs found on cellphone memory cards in the Saharan desert. It's not nearly as strange as it sounds once you realize that in Africa, much like in the US, people use cellphones for everything, including of course collecting and trading music, often swapping songs person to person via bluetooth. So here is a sort of best of, a collection of tracks which were super popular in the African mp3/cellphone network, but have essentially never been released commercially or really heard at all outside of these mp3 traders until now.
Obviously, anyone who's a fan of Sublime Frequencies, or Mississippi records is gonna go nuts for this stuff. The sound, besides reflecting a sort of African underground, also chronicles a new era of personal music production, with many of these tracks recorded in people's homes, on computers, using commercial software, synths, autotune and other things previously unavailable outside a proper studio. The sound is super varied: many tracks are classic sounding African music, with some of that desert blues vibe found on a lot of Sublime Frequencies releases, call and response vocals, warm buzzing melodies, simple skeletal rhythms, very hypnotic and mesmerizing, while others are far out takes on commercial pop, or Afro-hiphop, or African electro, all seemingly underpinned by classic African rhythms, but with way more modern elements woven in, some with super autotuned vocals, creating a strange soulful autotuned afro-pop hybrid that is pretty amazing, the record continues to slip back and forth from those classic sounds, to more modern takes on African music, some lush and layered, others super lo-fi, some obviously loose street jams (occasionally peppered with weird recording/cellphone storage/transfer glitches, which only adds to the sound), others are obviously meticulously composed and arranged, and those crazy autotuned vox continue to pop up throughout (obviously very popular with the mp3/cellphone music traders), and are definitely the strangest element.
And according to the label, since the original cassette release, most of the previously mysterious artists (the original tape featured very little in the way of artists and titles) have been tracked down and now get a majority of the royalties.
So totally recommended!
Second volume in this amazing series of compilations, which gathers up all manner of music from discarded memory cards from cellphones, these memory cards and cellphones collected from throughout Northern Mali since 2010, even more relevant now that extremists in Mali have banned music on cellphones. A sad state of affairs for the people of Mali, who, like everyone else in the world, use cellphones for everything - including, collecting, trading, and listening to music.
Like the first volume, the music here offers a glimpse of some of the weird and wonderful music that doesn't often make it on to world music compilations, even comps on Sublime Frequencies and the like. Like the first one, maybe even moreso, the focus here is on the home produced DIY jams, heavy on the autotuned vocals, a modern hybrid of traditional African music, and modern pop. The opening track is the perfect example, sans vocals, and drums, it's a beautiful bit of deserty blues, all intricate melodies and warm steel string buzz, but then add the skittery lo-fi drum programming, and the woozy autotuned vocals, and you've got a strange bit of 'futuristic' Afro-pop. Even the songs that sound more traditional, like the second track, still display subtle elements that give the sounds a unique twist, in this case, more of that programmed Casio style drum machine, which gives the dreamy high life a strange propulsion.
There's an uncredited track here, that's a sort of reggae groove, which sounds like it's sung by a child, is laced with some crunchy guitar and groovy synths, not to mention the occasional bleat of a goat! After that the comp continues to swing wildly from the groovy desert blues of Hasso Akotey, to the moody percussive club music of Lakal Kaney, replete with rapping, to the handclap driven, fuzz guitar, horn flecked high energy of DJ Mopao, even the recently deceased Koudede shows up, with a gorgeous track of that warm languid, hypnotic guitar grooves. There's more autotuned pop in the form of Pheno S.'s laid back Afro-soul funkiness, although our two favorites might be Iba One's horn driven Afro-hop banger, which weaves majestic synth horns around skittery beats and strident anthemic vox, a huge American hip hop influence for sure, but filtered through classic African pop, and the crazy closer from Cheba Wassila, another high energy groover, that has a serious Bollywood vibe, soaring autotuned vox, and wild rhythms, lots of horns, squiggle synths, even some killer fiddle solos (also seemingly run through the auto-tune for good measure!).
Founded in 1900 by Carl Stumpf, The Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv is a repository devoted to archiving the musics of the world before their eventual destruction by encroaching modernization brought about by global capitalism. Case in point is presented on page two
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Here resides the electic half of the "Before Benga" recordings. Unlike Ghana's high life, Kenya's Benga did not exist expressly for dance; Instead it focused more on lyrics. Most of the musicians heard here were certainly not superstars and could not even afford their own instruments. Because of this most wrote their songs while jamming in studios located conveniently enough in the back rooms of record shops.
There is absolutely no doubt as to the importance Strut Records' 2001 compilation, Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970s Funky Lagos, played in bringing about the current flood of interest in afrobeat, highlife, disco, soul and (of course) funk from Nigeria and other West African nations. It was the first compilation to really pay homage not only to the songs of that era but to the entire culture that allowed the music to come into being. By doing so, it laid the blueprint for the kind of lavishly packaged, meticulously researched, insanely detailed reissues coming from labels like Sound Ways, Honest John's and Analog Africa. It's hard, even just 7 years later, to remember how mysterious the world of Nigerian funk seemed at the time; it was a an entire world of sound that outsiders had access to only through bootleg LPs and traded tapes with giant question marks next to everything from song titles to the performers themselves. Now sadly out-of-print, the original triple cd Nigeria 70 comp was a revelation - an unparalleled wealth of sights and sounds that showed how much more there was to Nigerian music than just Fela.
If, like many of us here at aQ, you are still reaching for the original every time you make a mix tape, then you'll be happy to hear that Strut Records has not only risen from the grave but issued Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump, a second installment to the Nigeria 70 series (no doubt spurred on by the massive success of its many imitators). Rather than try to outdo the first volume, Strut have taken a decidedly lower-key approach to this single disc of astoundingly funky cuts from Nigeria's finest. The liner notes are slim but densely packed: John Collins' introductory essay traces the evolution in Nigerian popular music alongside the changes in the country's cultural and political climate, while the liner notes provide brief but informative notes for each cut. Musically, the collection is an immaculately compiled and sequenced mix of everything from the traditional highlife bounce of Ashanti Afrika Jah's "Onyame" and Rex Williams' soulful "You Are My Heart" to the swaggering afro-rock of The Immortals' "Hot Tears" and the afrobeat/ju-ju mashup of the leadoff track, Sir Shina Peters and His International Stars' "Yabis." Furthermore, we'd be remiss if we failed to mention Chief Checker's "Ire Africa," which manages to balance riddims cribbed straight from Studio One with proto-Rick James disco funk (check out the bassline!) and straight up afro sounds. Amazing!
If you've heard the original comp, it's a safe bet that you've already deemed Lagos Jump an essential purchase. If you missed out but have been loving the Nigeria Special comps even half as much as we have, then this disc will freak your beak. If your exposure to Nigerian music of the '60s and '70s subsists solely of the odd Fela Kuti song slipped in between segments on Democracy Now!, then this compilation could be the jump off point for a new musical obsession. This is raw, soulful Nigerian funk compiled by a label with an obvious reverence for the music as well as the culture and people that made it happen.
Yes! Just in time for the bright sunshine and actual summer vibes we've been basking in this last week comes the latest offering from Strut's awesome Nigeria 70 series. A collection of smoking Afro-funk, highlife, and juju from Lagos, Nigeria. Such spirited and body moving tracks drenched in so much soul and infectious energy. It's so awesome to discover lots of new-to us artists, we love when great comps get us searching for more from groups we can't believe we haven't heard from before. Who knows how likely it is to actually find more recordings from some of these folks, which makes thick comp invaluable, as Strut always digs so deep and complete in their curatorial excellence. We're going to be blasting this all summer long and beyond!
An ambitiously titled new collection from Afrostrut, the premiere label of Afro-Funk reissues. It's a lot to call a cd set the "definitive" story of funk from Lagos, but Strut really went above and beyond the call of duty on this one. Sure you've got all
Y'all went crazy for Sound Way's Nigeria Special compilation a few lists back, and we expect Nigeria Disco Funk Special -- the second installment in a 3-part series -- to be just as enticing a proposition. Whereas the first Nigeria Special was a sprawling collection of sounds and styles intended to show the sheer diversity of Nigeria's musical output in the early '70s, this volume is far more musically concise, consisting of mostly instrumental cuts that are heavily indebted to the American funk and disco being imported into Nigeria at the time.
This collection of deep funk, Afro-boogie and serious disco will transport you (and your booty) to the sweat-soaked discos of Lagos, where native sounds shimmy up next to imported grooves bringing the dancefloor to a fever pitch of go-go bells, funky drums, wah wah guitar, popping bass and blasting horns. This is tight, dirty funk being filtered through afrobeat and highlife.... the results are absolutely AMAZING!
Like all things from Sound Way, Nigeria Disco Funk Special comes with gorgeous packaging, extensive liner notes, archival photos and repros of original album artwork. Take your pick between a super slick digipak for the cd version and a gorgeous gatefold sleeve for the 2LP. This is heavy shit. Don't miss out!
NOW AVAILBLE ON VINYL!
It's appropriate that Nigeria Rock Special kicks things off with a supremely heavy slab of organ/bass/drum groove by Ofege called "Adieu," as this is the third and allegedly final installment in Sound Way's incredible Nigeria Special series. We were skeptical that this volume would be able to live up to the high standards set by the first two, but honestly this is probably the best of the three. No joke, it's so effing good that when we put it on in the store all of us just look at each other and kind of do that squinty head bobbing groove thing where you're kind of like, "holy crap how good is this? SO GOOD!" In fact this is one of those rare compilations that manages to transcend its genre and appeal to people who may not normally be into African music -- it's not every day that you see some of the serious blackened noisemongering customers digging stuff from the "international" section!
First thing, the title might be a little misleading... if you're coming to this expecting to hear stoned out proto-metal clomp or extended blues riffage, you might be a bit disappointed. While there are fuzzed out guitar explorations aplenty on this disc, the overall feel definitely leans more towards the funky side of things. If you're a fan of the Boscoe lp we reviewed a few lists back, or the Skull Snaps record, or even Black Merda (or anything from the now sadly out of print Chains and Black Exhaust compilation) you are going to LOVE this record: imagine blown out, psychedelic instrumental passages layered over heavy, heavy, heavy bass and drums with no shortage of traditional highlife and afrobeat flourishes and you're in the ballpark. In fact, with the exception of a few tracks (most notably, Question Mark's "Freaking Out," which, believe it or not, sounds kind of like Can covering something from the Nuggets box), the western influence is actually less present in this collection than it was in the last volume.
There are too many standouts to list them all, but we would be remiss not to mention that Mono Mono's "Kenimania" comes on like Fela tackling a Booker T jam; or that Ofo The Black Company's "Enario" is a simmering pot of mid-tempo funk and call and response vocals that holds up as a worthy successor to their mighty "Allah Wakbarr" (a song you might remember from two other essential compilations: Nigeria 70, and World Psychedelic Classics Vol. 3); or that the treble-kicking guitars of Colomach's "Cotocun Gba Gounke" create a mind-blowing hybrid of Middle-Eastern-tinged desert blues and Hendrix-ian pyrotechnics; or that Joe King Kologbo & His Black Sounds' "Another Man's Thing" is a frenetic polemic that switches gears from hyperactive shuffle to deep funk throb-n-stab in the blink of an eye!
Look, we know we've been pushing these Nigeria Special comps hard for the last few months but it's for good reason: the three volumes together form a meticulously curated, beautifully packaged collection of songs that spans two decades and demonstrates the intense creativity and musical diversity in post-revolution Nigeria. Taken by itself, Nigeria Rock Special is a gripping, exuberant, and infectious listen from start to finish and definitely comes with as high a recommendation as we can dish out!
It's appropriate that Nigeria Rock Special kicks things off with a supremely heavy slab of organ/bass/drum groove by Ofege called "Adieu," as this is the third and allegedly final installment in Sound Way's incredible Nigeria Special series. We were skeptical that this volume would be able to live up to the high standards set by the first two, but honestly this is probably the best of the three. No joke, it's so effing good that when we put it on in the store all of us just look at each other and kind of do that squinty head bobbing groove thing where you're kind of like, "holy crap how good is this? SO GOOD!" In fact this is one of those rare compilations that manages to transcend its genre and appeal to people who may not normally be into African music -- it's not every day that you see some of the serious blackened noisemongering customers digging stuff from the "international" section!
First thing, the title might be a little misleading... if you're coming to this expecting to hear stoned out proto-metal clomp or extended blues riffage, you might be a bit disappointed. While there are fuzzed out guitar explorations aplenty on this disc, the overall feel definitely leans more towards the funky side of things. If you're a fan of the Boscoe lp we reviewed a few lists back, or the Skull Snaps record, or even Black Merda (or anything from the now sadly out of print Chains and Black Exhaust compilation) you are going to LOVE this record: imagine blown out, psychedelic instrumental passages layered over heavy, heavy, heavy bass and drums with no shortage of traditional highlife and afrobeat flourishes and you're in the ballpark. In fact, with the exception of a few tracks (most notably, Question Mark's "Freaking Out," which, believe it or not, sounds kind of like Can covering something from the Nuggets box), the western influence is actually less present in this collection than it was in the last volume.
There are too many standouts to list them all, but we would be remiss not to mention that Mono Mono's "Kenimania" comes on like Fela tackling a Booker T jam; or that Ofo The Black Company's "Enario" is a simmering pot of mid-tempo funk and call and response vocals that holds up as a worthy successor to their mighty "Allah Wakbarr" (a song you might remember from two other essential compilations: Nigeria 70, and World Psychedelic Classics Vol. 3); or that the treble-kicking guitars of Colomach's "Cotocun Gba Gounke" create a mind-blowing hybrid of Middle-Eastern-tinged desert blues and Hendrix-ian pyrotechnics; or that Joe King Kologbo & His Black Sounds' "Another Man's Thing" is a frenetic polemic that switches gears from hyperactive shuffle to deep funk throb-n-stab in the blink of an eye!
Look, we know we've been pushing these Nigeria Special comps hard for the last few months but it's for good reason: the three volumes together form a meticulously curated, beautifully packaged collection of songs that spans two decades and demonstrates the intense creativity and musical diversity in post-revolution Nigeria. Taken by itself, Nigeria Rock Special is a gripping, exuberant, and infectious listen from start to finish and definitely comes with as high a recommendation as we can dish out!
Just when it seems like the well of quality West African reissue compilations is about to run dry, the Sound Way label returns with another outstanding collection of rarities. This time the focus isn't on a particular style (as previous compilations on the label such as Afro Baby or Ghana Soundz have tended to do) so much as on the artists, styles and scene that thrived in Nigeria during the cultural moment that followed the Biafran war. The three years of civil war left millions dead and displaced, but also injected Nigeria with a sense of newfound optimism and self-determinance -- just as Nigeria itself had once been a colonial creation, the nation was free to reinvent itself in the wake of brutal conflict.
What makes Nigeria Special a compelling listen is the way it reflects this period of expansion and transition by seamlessly placing traditional sounds side-by-side with afro-funk and psychedelic-tinged rock. Similarly, it contrasts the hybrid styles emerging from rapidly expanding urban centers such as Lagos with the rural sounds of their non-Yoruba countrymen. The musical diversity displayed on this collection reflects the growth and upheaval in Nigeria itself - tellingly, some of the most exciting tracks are the result of cross-pollination between old and new.
As with all things Sound Way, the 2cds are beautifully packaged with a detailed introductory essay, reproductions of original cover art and detailed annotations for each track. The vinyl version is split over two 2lp sets. The selections run deep enough to please even the most die-hard African music aficionados, while still being a great introductory collection for those unfamiliar with Nigeria's amazing musical output.
Just when it seems like the well of quality West African reissue compilations is about to run dry, the Sound Way label returns with another outstanding collection of rarities. This time the focus isn't on a particular style (as previous compilations on the label such as Afro Baby or Ghana Soundz have tended to do) so much as on the artists, styles and scene that thrived in Nigeria during the cultural moment that followed the Biafran war. The three years of civil war left millions dead and displaced, but also injected Nigeria with a sense of newfound optimism and self-determinance -- just as Nigeria itself had once been a colonial creation, the nation was free to reinvent itself in the wake of brutal conflict.
What makes Nigeria Special a compelling listen is the way it reflects this period of expansion and transition by seamlessly placing traditional sounds side-by-side with afro-funk and psychedelic-tinged rock. Similarly, it contrasts the hybrid styles emerging from rapidly expanding urban centers such as Lagos with the rural sounds of their non-Yoruba countrymen. The musical diversity displayed on this collection reflects the growth and upheaval in Nigeria itself - tellingly, some of the most exciting tracks are the result of cross-pollination between old and new.
As with all things Sound Way, the 2cds are beautifully packaged with a detailed introductory essay, reproductions of original cover art and detailed annotations for each track. The vinyl version is split over two 2lp sets. The selections run deep enough to please even the most die-hard African music aficionados, while still being a great introductory collection for those unfamiliar with Nigeria's amazing musical output.
Just when it seems like the well of quality West African reissue compilations is about to run dry, the Sound Way label returns with another outstanding collection of rarities. This time the focus isn't on a particular style (as previous compilations on the label such as Afro Baby or Ghana Soundz have tended to do) so much as on the artists, styles and scene that thrived in Nigeria during the cultural moment that followed the Biafran war. The three years of civil war left millions dead and displaced, but also injected Nigeria with a sense of newfound optimism and self-determinance -- just as Nigeria itself had once been a colonial creation, the nation was free to reinvent itself in the wake of brutal conflict.
What makes Nigeria Special a compelling listen is the way it reflects this period of expansion and transition by seamlessly placing traditional sounds side-by-side with afro-funk and psychedelic-tinged rock. Similarly, it contrasts the hybrid styles emerging from rapidly expanding urban centers such as Lagos with the rural sounds of their non-Yoruba countrymen. The musical diversity displayed on this collection reflects the growth and upheaval in Nigeria itself - tellingly, some of the most exciting tracks are the result of cross-pollination between old and new.
As with all things Sound Way, the 2cds are beautifully packaged with a detailed introductory essay, reproductions of original cover art and detailed annotations for each track. The vinyl version is split over two 2lp sets. The selections run deep enough to please even the most die-hard African music aficionados, while still being a great introductory collection for those unfamiliar with Nigeria's amazing musical output.
Soundway has been building quite the amazing catalog with their brilliant Nigeria Special series. A collection of sounds that truly demonstrates that there is an endless wealth of amazing music made in Nigeria during the 1970's. This is volume two in the Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues series and somehow it manages to meet or even beat the excellence of the first outing. What makes the collection so cool is how while still sharing a similar sound and pedigree, there is so much diversity in the sounds and instrumentation. Worth it all alone is the mind blowing track by Twins Seven, complete with otherworldly vibraphones and entrancing call and response vocals. We love how these comps turn us on to specific artists that then send us off on crazy hunts to try to find more songs and records by those artists. But then, that's exactly what a great mix is meant to do.
As a whole, Nigeria Special: Volume 2 has such a perfect sunshiny, laid back yet triumphant spirit. It's been our go-to record on Sunday afternoons when people are relaxing on a beautiful day, visiting the store, carefree after a leisurely stroll though the Mission, and the second we throw this on, we always see people casually swaying and tapping their feet as they make their away around the store, and they inevitably ask what's playing so they can grab a copy and hold on to that unbeatable feeling for the rest of the day, and for every weekend to come...
We've raved about the amazing Dust-To-Digital label before, their releases are always incredible, from the recordings to the liner notes to the packaging, few can touch these guys when it comes to elaborate and over the top packaging. But let's take a second to gush again a bit about aQ pal Jonathan Ward, who besides having one of the most incredible collections of industrial music (not industrial as in Throbbing Gristle, but as in music created by and for corporations, commercials, etc), also runs the amazing Excavated Shellac blog, which is a treasure trove of lost recordings, and Ward writes beautifully about the records and their provenance. Ward curated the amazing Excavated Shellac: Strings lp on Parlortone a while back, which we can't recommend enough, but this long in the works boxset does that compilation one better. Or maybe four better. Four discs overflowing with incredible sounds, all gathered from 78rpm shellac phonograph records, most of which have never been heard outside of Africa, as these discs were not recorded for ethnomusicologists or as the liner notes suggest "curious Westerners", but for the local population, and thus were much more difficult to track down, but as we stated above, Ward's collection of 78s is stunning, and essentially, this boxset is like a physical version of his blog, with his extensive liner notes on each of the ONE HUNDRED (!) tracks here, totally fascinating and informative, not just discussing the song, but offering an overview of the time, the culture, and more extensively going into the hunt for, and discovery of these records, as well as the reasons behind their limited distribution and the difficulty of tacking down records from different regions. It's as good a read as it is a listen (like the blog!), but the music, so divine, so varied, from pretty much every region of Africa: Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Congo, Cameroon, Malawi, Burundi, Seychelles, Namibia, Angola, Niger, Somalia, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and beyond� The tracks range from celebratory, almost high life sounding folk music, all tribal drumming and call and response vocals, to hushed intimate solo performances of just voice and buzzing strings, some songs are wild and chaotic and full of joy, others are mournful and melancholy, we could go track by track, but pretty much everyone who's heard this has been immediately smitten, and if you're a fan of that Excavated Shellac lp (or the blog), any of the other Dust-To-Digital comps or anything on Sublime Frequencies, this is a must have.
And as mentioned above, the packaging is incredible, a book sized red and yellow cloth slipcover, inside the 4 cds housed in a fold out 8 panel full color dvd style gatefold sleeve, alongside a massive soft cover book, filled with tons of photos, as well as Ward's extensive liner notes. So totally recommended!!
While there has been no shortage of awesome collections of sounds from West Africa in the '70s, this collection somehow steps ahead of the crowd as it fantastically focuses on the much overlooked sounds coming from Burkina Faso, between the years 1974-1978. Combining heavy psych grooves, Afro-funk, rich orchestration and rock, into a sound that is warm, warbly and infectious. The recordings sound quite lo-fi, not an aesthetic decision as is the style these days, instead, a result of resources in the region during this era being extremely limited. But luckily it suits the music perfectly, as the songs jump out on their own without the need for fancy studio polish. And the echo, reverb and understated production really would make so many of today's lo-fi hipsters drool in envy. Another strength of the compilation is how well it works from start to finish, really feeling like a unified album and not just a random mix of songs from a singular time and place. Some tracks burn while others melt, some smolder, and others swing. With an overall vibe and sound that falls somewhere between The Psych-Funk 101 compilation we've been digging so much, and some of the recent comps from labels like Soundway and Honest Jons that have also done much to shed light on so many of the amazing sounds coming out of Africa in the '70s.
'Ouelele' is a wonderful collection of early 70s Afrobeat rarities (with the earliest track being from 1967) with with tracks by Letta M'Bulu, Philip Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, J.M. Time & Foty, Manu Dibango, Smahila & the S.B.s, Marius Cultier, Ginger Johnson & His African Messengers, and more!
Looking at the cover of this comp, what catches our eye? Well, of course the words PSYCH and FUNK in big electric pink letters. Pretty much had us right there, we're easy like that. But then the fine print on the sticker on the front adds an extra tingle of excitement: "None of these tracks have ever been reissued"! So what we have here is a survey course on some obscure shit, an international collection of freaky, fuzzy, funky jams from the golden years, circa 1968-1975 or so, mostly from groups we'd never heard of before. The ones did know were a good sign, being super groovy and decidedly eccentric. (Though we do have to point out that at least a few of the cuts here actually have been reissued before, that's how we knew 'em!). Here's the lineup: Hunsu Ozkartal Orkestrasi (Turkey), Kukumbas (Nigeria), Mulatu Astatke feat. Belaynesh Wubante and Assegedetch Asfaw (Ethiopia), Kim Sun (South Korea), Petalouda (Greece), Mehr Pooya (Iran), Staff Carpenborg and The Electric Corona (West Germany), The Group (Italy), Armando Sciascia (Italy), Wadih Essafi (Lebanon), Omar Khorshid (Egypt), Metin H. Alatli (Turkey), George Garanian with The Melodiya Jazz Ensemble (Russia), and Eskaton (France). 14 tracks in all, all of 'em b to the a to the d to the ass. Get ready for plenty of percolating percussion, infectious bass lines, analog synth buzz, chicken scratch guitar, greasy organ, drugged out FX, and in many cases Middle Eastern or African or other 'exotic' ethnic elements as appropriate to their nation of origin. Highlights are almost impossible to pick. All the African stuff is killer (Ethiopiques fans take note), so are the Turkish tracks (you want weird? check out how the Metin H. Alatli cut somehow segues from Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith music to stoned cocktail bellydance improv!!), so is everything else. We dig how eerieness and jazziness are combined on "The Feed-back" by The Group (aka Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, featuring Ennio Morricone), and also Armando Sciascia's suspenseful "Circuito Chiuso" is pretty eerie too. Both are from Italy, where it seems that it's hard NOT to sound like you're scoring a phantasmagoric horror flick a la Goblin. Also, we love love love the grandiose extended electro-funk from Magmoid progsters Eskaton that closes out the disc. But why keep writing about this, you know you need it - unless your record collection already includes all these rarities, and there's no way it does.
Lovingly compiled with the help of DJs like Cut Chemist and Stone's Throw's Egon, Psych Funk 101 is truly a lesson in, well, a variety of awesome vintage funkiness, in the tradition of other cool comps like Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, Obsession, Trap Door, and the Afro-centric Love's A Real Thing. Housed in a handsome digipack, it boasts a thick, 36 page booklet featuring a two-page spread on each track, with full color repro of the original LP or 45 sleeve from whence the cut originated, along with a page of text giving more info than you'd expect.
FYI this also came out on vinyl, but was gone so fast, we don't have any to list. However, we are told it is being repressed, soon we hope...
Of all the Sublime Frequencies releases, we'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite. We've made a BUNCH of them our Records Of The Week, and rarely does a couple lists go by without some new fantastic world music obscurity for us to rave about. But if we had to, we'd probably have to go with the series of 'Radio' releases. They're essentially recordings straight off the radio, the Sublime Frequencies guys traveling all over the world, sitting in their hotel room, or at someone's house, and just recording the radio. The results are fantastic and fascinating, and pretty excellent sampling of the culture, not just the music, cuz you get songs and bands and singers of course, but also advertisements, talk shows, politics, DJ's, and often, it's kind of dizzying, almost like someone's just flipping through the stations. But every one so far has been a blast.
For Radio Niger, the pace is not so frenetic, but the sonic breadth is as expansive as ever, with some of the coolest music we've heard, but liberally laced with all manner of diverse sounds and sonics, as the liner notes describe, some of what you hear: shout-outs to girlfriends, drunken storytellers who just wander into the studio, comedy skits, lots of amazing Tuareg desert blues, news snippets in English from the BBC, lo-fi marketplace cassettes, auto-tuned Nigerian pop, DJ's sing along with songs on the air, there are super avant cut up collages, classic African folk...
It's all pretty fantastic, but unlike the other installments in the 'Radio' series, this one is much more musically fleshed out, with almost full songs getting played, and lots of it amazing, from dirgey desert blues to wild psychedelic guitar buzz, cool, groovy new wave pop to wild drum heavy, high life, some minimal vocal/hand drums, and some seriously twisted juxtapositions, a jam that sounds like an African Steve Miller, bumped up next to wild, spastic tribal drumming, and rapid fire vocalizations, or more modern radio pop nestled right next to cool soundtracky, horn flecked funk! Like the other comps, Radio Niger is another fascinating sonic travelogue, and a glorious glimpse into the music, the culture, and the people of Niger.
Includes a booklet with liner notes, and lots of photos! (Oh, and did we mention the awesome song titles? "Sahel Drum-Machine Gun", "Moussa Poussy Galore", etc.)
**SALE **SALE* *SALE** (was $23.00, now $15.98)...
RECORD STORE DAY 2015!!
Record Store Day 2015 brings us another batch of special vinyl installments in the burgeoning Rough Guide series! And as international genre/subgenre samplers go, the Rough Guide comps are usually pretty good. This year, we managed to get enough of most of 'em to list (sold out on RSD: Psychedelic Cambodia and Psychedelic India).
This one is certainly pretty great, it would be tough to come up with a bad comp of African rare groove after all, there's so much good stuff. This is touches on only some of it of course, and it's a broad spectrum, with tracks from the '70s, '80s, and today, everything from Nigerian highlife to Ethiopian R&B. It's got aQ fave Francis Bebey on it, it's got a great track from Ayalew Mesfin which adds some surprisingly garagey, fuzzed out guitar to the usual Ethiopian groove sound, it's got a neat, previously unreleased collaboration between Congolese singing group Les Mangalepa & Afro-oriented UK production duo Yam Yam... among other fine cuts.
180 gram vinyl, includes download with the album plus extra tracks.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
When we first got wind of this comp, for some reason, we just assumed it was gonna be another amazing Soul Jazz reggae comp, it didn't even occur to us that it would be a collection of killer classic jungle jams from the early nineties. But we threw it on, and were just knocked on our asses, transported back to '93/'94 when we first discovered jungle, particularly, ragga-dancehall-jungle or whatever you wanted to call it, a killer blend of traditional Jamaican dancehall, and this new breed of sped up hip hop that had grown out of the rave scene in the UK.
The history and genealogy is complex, but there's been plenty written about it, the liner notes here are particularly informative, tracing the development of ragga-jungle from the early Reggae sound systems, through the rave scene, UK hardcore hip hop, and beyond. Ragga jungle was a flash in the pan, existing for 3 or 4 years before most of the folks making it moved on to two-step, garage, drum and bass and on an on. But for our money, this was it. This was THE music we had been waiting for. We have loved dancehall forever, the harder and faster the better, so here was the toasting and melody of dancehall, draped over chopped up stuttering and pounding hip hop beats, all sped up into a rhythmic frenzy.
If there's one track that sums it up for us, it's DJ Zinc's "Super Sharp Shooter", with its interminable vocal and squelchy synth intro, the loping creeping reggae groove, the buzzing melody, the simple shuffling drum beat, the slowed down Method Man sample, and that's all before the track actually even drops, and when it does... Whoooowheee. We remember hearing this for the first time in one of the few clubs in SF that played jungle back in the day, and it nearly knocked us out of our seats. We ended up buying a DJ mix tape from one of the DJs spinning, and thankfully it had "Super Sharp Shooter" on it, and from that point on, we listened to it over and over every day, in the car, cranked as loud as it would go, bass pumping (as much as the bass could be said to pump in a crappy old van). So fucking heavy and hooky and funky. When the track finally kicks in, it's massive, relentless serpentine pass line, ultra complex drums, funky and groovy but so tangled and dense, every once in a while the bass line locks on a single not and just hooooooooolds steady until it drops, hard, and we're off on another junglistic jam. As far as we're concerned this would be worth it just for this track, but thankfully, the rest of the disc is just as kick ass.
Lots of familiar reggae and dancehall names, Ninjaman, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Cutty Ranks, and for those in the know, the rest of the names read like an early nineties jungle all star lineup: Ragga Twins, Poison Chang, Ragga Twins, DJ Zinc, Shy FX... but even if you don't know any of these names, the music speaks for itself. Check out "Original Nuttah" by UK Apachi & Shy FX, beginning with some super hooky sing songy reggae vocals before the track launches into a maddeningly dense rapid fire snare workout underpinning a raw and tongue twisting flow. Furious and intense and so goddamn good. Then there's tracks like Ragga Twins' "Illegal Gunshot", with its playful and circusy melodic loop, but juxtaposed with some seriously aggro toasting, some Bomb Squad like production, and some outrageously funky drumming.
Pretty much every track on here is a killer, never has a record so much made even us non-dancers want to head for the dancefloor and go fucking nuts. The cool thing about this stuff, is even if you're dancefloor phobic, is that these tracks are so dense and multi layered, full of convoluted rhythms and mad drumming and rapid fire rhymes and wild toasting and strange melodies and killer grooves, that they're almost as fun to listen to as they are to dance to. Almost.
Like all Soul Jazz stuff, gorgeously packaged and extensively researched. Tons of liner notes, track notes, photos, all wrapped up in a full color slipcase.
With the abundance of amazing comps and reissues of lost gems from all over Africa in the 1970s, it can get easy to forget that there is the here and now, and that there is equally damaged, brilliant, fucked up and contagious sounds being made throughout the globe RIGHT NOW! Don't get us wrong we love all the reissues of '70s psych glory that's being dug up and rediscovered all over the world, including so much from Africa, but damn it's so refreshing and invigorating to get a set of brand new sounds from across the globe being created at this very moment that grabs a hold of our imagination in such exciting ways. Shangaan is a new form of dance music coming out of Soweto that merges the sounds of traditional mbira (thumb piano) music with hyperactive synthesizers. It really is like nothing we've heard before. Call and response glory wrapped in 180 bpm craziness!
In some ways this feels like the spazzy cousin to the great Congotronics compilation from a few years ago, as that also showcased a new form of charged and body moving sounds coming out of Africa. But this is even more dance minded. You have to make sure you go online to YouTube and check out the actual dances that are performed to this music, so spirited, full of a new folklore and such a psychedelic aura. The sound of the songs is kind of like some early Nintendo game getting hijacked by Omar Souleyman armed with a karaoke machine and a troupe of boys, girls, men and women all ready to move on their feet as fast and furiously as possible. There are parts of the music that sound like Fever Ray played on the wrong speed, or what we imagine M.I.A. would blast at an afterparty. Forget about the World Cup, this may be the most mind blowing cultural phenomenon going down in South Africa that we are lucky enough to get to hear and appreciate NOW. Beyond recommended!
Here we have a fantastically frenetic compilation from the always SO SO killer Honest Jons Label. Shangaan Shake compiles all of the releases from the "MEETS" 12" series in which current electronic heavy hitters and aQ faves like Actress and Demdike Stare took on the "Shangaan" dance music sound of South Africa (a genre celebrated by Honest Jon's great Shangaan Electro compilation 2 years ago, as you hopefully are aware). We didn't ever list any of the 12"s, they flew out of here too fast, but we were looking forward to listing this collection, which ends up being a high powered, schizophrenic double disc set of ass shaking dance floor BLISS! But this ain't yer typical floor fodder...oh no. True to form, Honest Jons only asked the best of the truly far out electro experimentalists to contribute to the series...fucked up foot work, abstract drifty dream techno, stripped down long form minimal workouts, spacey ghost vibez DUB, and super-future slo-mo ELECTRO!
The Oni Ayhun (alias of Olof Dreijer of aQ faves, The Knife) Meets Shangaan Electro is the first tune to really set it off for us, a super frantic and hypnotic electro shuffle, the original vox from the Shangaan source being endlessly pitch bent into some truly bizarre yet catchy as hell melodies, while the hi-hats and claps stutter and fall out of phase, resulting in an hallucinatory funky freak out! Peverelist follows suit, but somehow ups the WTF quotient with his take on Tshetsha Boys. Starting with some industrial sized hi-hats, drifting in a syncopated haze, before a simple mid tempo electro drum pattern enters on an unexpected beat. It chugs along like this for a minute before yet ANOTHER hi-hat pattern enters bringing the track into a subtle yet transcendent groove, the sound design of which is seldom heard on this planet. Excitingly NEW sounds for sure. Actress, of course you know by now, will not bring something to light unless it is of the utmost quality, and here he does not disappoint. His take on Shangaan is truly mesmerizing, a jam that starts out as a sort of blissy dubby techno groove, albeit with some seriously deranged synth squelches and disassociated Shangaan vox atop, is all of a sudden transformed into something entirely different with the introduction of some discordant, Liquid Sky meets Rinse Dream meets Badalamenti sounding cyber-skronk keys! These chords are the twist yr ears up element, ultimately subverting your expectations and leaving you with something that feels entirely FRESH! Old Apparatus (whose Tapeworm cassette was a big highlight last list), turns the tempo down a bit, and treats us to some spooky ass Shangaan rub-a-dub! Pristine synths and that killer xylophone sound stretched and reverberated through a vast cave of FAR-I DELAY. We COULD go on and on...the rest of this double disc comp maintains this top shelf quality, with highlights ranging from the legendary Theo Parrish's ruff neck cut-up Mancingelani remix, to Demdike Stare's haunted house dubwise fraidy-pants minimal Soweto soundscape...not to mention forward thinking contributions from aQ faves Villalobos/Loderbauer and Hype Williams, as well as a funky ass Detroit style electro BBC mix from the venerable Afro-Futurist, Anthony "Shake" Shakir!!!
Ahhhh!!! Too much good stuff! Honest Jon's have outdone themselves, by first of all sharing this Shangaan goodness with the world, and then following it up with a perfectly concise and meaningfully curated remix series, by some of the best, brightest, and down right weirdo-futurist producers of the now! Essential!
"Shrine of Afrodigital" is sort of a sequel to the "Shrine of Afro-funk" that Ocho released last year. This compilation presents tracks from urban African artists exploring the future of afro-beat, drawing from legendary artists to up and coming afro-house
This is one of those records that reminds us of how totally powerful and intense music can be, affecting people in such deep and meaningful ways. Faced with how the HIV/AIDS crisis has devastated so much of Africa, a movement in Uganda has arisen to use music, dance and performance as a means to address, educate, empower and raise awareness in the community about all aspects of the epidemic. While there are many records made for good causes, and plenty of projects with the best of intentions, this is one with music as raw, true and intense as the cause and the people it serves. The sound is mostly vocal driven a capella numbers accompanied only at times by hand claps, raw percussion, and sounds of nature. So cool. This is not some feel good watered down benefit record, the songs are powerful and have titles that translate to "Death Killed All The People", "The Graveyard Is Our Home", "AIDS Finished Us" and "Is Someone There?". The intensity and raw honesty is felt so directly in the tone and resonance of every one of these songs. Comes with a 36 page booklet filled with information and translation of all the songs, this whole collection is proof that music does have the ability to enlighten, educate and empower.
Another new disc from Locust's Latitude imprint. This one, recorded by Yayehe Smon, documents a trip he and his brother took along with their father to Ethiopia. Being good documentarians they brought their recorders and started rolling tape (well, more likely they brought their mini-disc recorders and burned a lot of discs, but it doesn't slide off the tongue as well.) Five of the eight tracks here are from children and teens, some of them singing as they play in the streets, either spontaneously making up songs or singing a capella cover versions of local hits. The first track, sung by a nine year old girl, is reason enough to own the cd. She has to have the most insane vocal chords and singing technique in the world. We certainly haven't heard anything like it before. Imagine if Buffy Saint Marie (ie: super fast and intense vibrato) took up yodelling and you kind of get the idea. Except that she's singing this soulful Amharic tune with a melody that leaps all over the place. Never heard anything like it. The other songs by children, whether singing solo or in groups, are accompanied by fiddle. Of the non-children tracks, there's a nice solo flute piece performed by a blind beggar, a peasant singing as he threshes wheat, and one of a professional itinerant male/female duo with accordian accompaniment.
Another fantastically curated collection of magical and mysterious and mostly unheard songs from Honest Jon's, these vintage recordings from East Africa, recorded between the years 1938 and 1957, and categorized as 'native records', in that this was music that was intended for sale to native Africans, not the white colonialists or various traders or laborers, and these recordings helped capture and preserve popular music, the various styles popular before the influence of imported sounds from abroad and various immigrants. These sounds were specific to various villages and represented many different languages and styles. The other cool thing about these performances, is that they were specifically by non professionals, since earning a living making music was nearly impossible, instead these were regular folks, who were often called upon to entertain, at weddings or parties, at markets or for various rituals. The liner notes, like all Honest Jon's liner notes, go into incredible detail, about the various styles of music, the difficulties in translating the languages, the musicians, the performances, the recording processes, it reads like a primer on East African music, and like it should be part of a college course, in fact, we often think smart schools would be snapping these guys up to teach courses in world music, but beyond the background, it's the sounds that count, and the sounds here are incredible, so strange and lovely and mysterious and at once warm and intimate and emotional and totally alien and fantastical.
The first track is the perfect example, a super hypnotic stretch of relentless vocalizing over a barely audible string melody, the sound distorted, the vocals more like testifying, it's not until the very end of the track where the vocals drop out that you can hear how strangely frantic the string playing really is. And from there on out, there's never a moment that's less that totally wonderfully lovely, whether the sound is super melodic and folky, or minimal and rhythmic, buzzy and droney, moody and emotional, we lack the vocabulary to truly describe these sounds, other to say that they move us, and that they're so absolutely beautiful, sometimes haunting and mournful, other times effusive and celebratory, always breathtaking.
The cd comes in a beautiful hardcover style book, with a massive booklet inside, filled with extensive liner notes and vintage photos. The vinyl version is spread out over two double lps, the first with the same title as the double cd contains all the music from the first disc, while the second, containing the music from the second disc, is titled Bellyachers, Listen!
Here's a double cd compilation of Angolan shantytown pop from 1965-1975, with a similar lineup of artists as the "Angola '60s" and "Angola '70s" comps we've already been carrying: Artur Nunes, Os Kiezos, Urbano de Castro, Oscar Neves, Jovens do Prendo, Os
We didn't know much about the music of the Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) islands, heck, we barely knew where they were (in the Atlantic, off the coast of Africa, a former Portuguese colony, fyi). Like, we knew that Cesaria Evora was from there, but that's about it. We did NOT know about such Cabo Verde artists as Antonio Sanchez, Dionisio Maio, Abel Lima, and their unique Cosmic Sound - a super groovy kind of heavily synthesizer-fueled tropical funk. But now we do and man are we ever happy!!!!
Good grief this compilation is good, 15 tracks from almost as many artists, packed with percolating percussion, soulful vocals, echoing FX, a few doses of psychrock fuzz guitar (on Joao Cirilo's "Po D'Terra" in particular) and SO much synth, electric piano, and organ all over the place, wild and woozy. So yeah, synthed-out tropical funk, a special Cape Verde style of dreamy dance music mixing Afro-grooves with the latest in keyboard technology (circa the '70s), for fans of cumbia, Afrobeat, etc. All the tracks are great, we aren't gonna attempt to describe 'em all, maybe one will suffice - we were really wowed by Pedrinho's "Odio Sem Valor", when it breaks into a disco gallop and the flanged synths get a groove on that will keep you nodding 'til the morning light. But EVERYTHING here is catchy & fun & loaded with cool sounds, underpinned by insistent, irresistible rhythms.
And the mystery behind this cosmic sound that's finally been revealed? Well, we're still not really sure if we're fully in the picture, facts-wise, as the label's blurb for this consists of a fanciful tale (even less believable than the Swedish band Goat's origin story) about how a container ship packed with Moogs and Korgs and other synthesizers mysteriously fell from the sky and landed in a field near a remote Cabo Verde village one day in 1968, with its cargo eventually being distributed to schools across the country, magically making musical prodigies out of schoolchildren and modernizing local dance rhythms like the once-banned Funana... believe it or not... but that's just 'cause we haven't yet delved into the big 42 page booklet that comes with this slipcased cd, which (leafing through) appears to contain LOT more information about these artists, along with vintage photos and record graphics in full color, all of which presumably supports (or at least, adds to) the story. In any case, the music will make you believe.
Another winner from Analog Africa!! FYI, a double vinyl version is forthcoming soon as well...
Originally released as part of a cd / dvd / book combo, this incredible musical document, compiled by photographer/filmmaker Olivia Wyatt on a recent trip to Ethiopia, is now available sans dvd and book, as a super deluxe (and yeah, of course very limited) double lp!
Staring Into The Sun was planned to coincide with a music festival - which the government abruptly cancelled for fear of the musicians being exploited. So instead, Wyatt travelled into the bush, to compile a sonic/visual travelogue of the music and musicians, the people and places of the various tribes of Ethiopia, and it's of course breathtaking. The music, which is obviously the focus here, is heady and hypnotic, joyous and emotional, the sounds varying dramatically from tribe to tribe, but music being ubiquitous, weddings, ceremonies, rituals, drawing water from the well, on television, in living rooms, very rhythmic, mostly vocal driven, but with lots of hand clapping, wildly bowed stringed instruments, vocals chanted, shouted, call and response, super mesmerizing, many of the tribes utilize whistles and panpipes, and the music they make is incredible, otherworldly and impossibly lush, sounding like some modern 20th century classical composition in many cases, while actual bands do rock out occasionally, and get surprisingly soulful and funky. A compilation like this must have been so impossible to put together, how on earth to whittle down what must have been days of recordings to just an hour? But the tracks chosen are amazing, and make us want to hear so much more.
Even minus the visuals, so incredible, and easily some of our favorite Sublime Frequencies sounds so far for sure.
Housed in a super deluxe, ultra heavy full color gatefold sleeve, featuring reproductions of some of Wyatt's striking Polaroid photos...
