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Rock Town Express
There was a time in the 1970s when the best band in the Nigeria was actually from Cameroon. Rock Town Express, formed out of the ashes of Wrinkar Experience by Yaoundé boys Edjo'o Jacques Racine and Ginger Forcha, hit it hard, hit it loud and hit it funky. Racine and Forcha had been recruited from Cameroon by Dan Ian and after only six months, left them stranded in Nigeria's troubled east. Their first album as Rock Town Express was released on Ginger Baker's ARC label in 1974. This, their second…
We Can Get It On
By the mid 1970’s in Nigeria, the Biafran War was a distant memory and the music scene in the eastern city of Aba was booming again. Bands like The Funkees, The Wings and The Apostles grabbed the headlines, but the more interesting stuff was coming from smaller groups like the Friimen. The Friimen, or the Friimen Muzik Company to use their official name, were influenced as much by pre-Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees as Jimi Hendrix and James Brown. In Beni Tudumey they had the best keyboardist in …
Coming Home
In 1977 Jake Sollo returned to Nigeria to record his first solo album, Coming Home. His long-term band, The Funkees, had imploded in London. And his big break with the Afro super band, Osibisa, was cut short when he went on strike with Kiki Gyan and promptly got sacked. Rather than sit at a bar and feel sorry for himself, Jake returned to Nigeria and got his mates together – including the aforementioned Mr. Gyan – and headed into the EMI studios in Lagos. The result was Coming Home, a triumphant…
My Good Friends
Set up by producer Ben Okonkwo in 1973, the BEN label, and its offshoot Clover Sounds, broke some of the biggest bands outside of Lagos. The Apostles, Akwassa, The Doves, Mary Afi Usuah and Aktion all got their start in the cramped studio in the commercial heart of Aba. The least known – and arguably one of the best bands on the label – was The Visitors. For a short, sweet time between 1975 and 1978, The Visitors were creating the most righteous sounds in the East. We’re talking deep afro-funk w…
In The Groove
First official reissue ever! Nigeria had an utterly strong popular music scene in the 1970s, “Afro Beat” and “Afro Funk” were the hottest musical creations of the day and garage rock oriented bands like Ofege or funky monsters Akwassa were at the forefront of the movement. I deliberately call it their second album despite three albums that were released under the monicker Heads Funk Band with exactly the same line up as Akwassa from 1975 to 1978. However, the main difference between “In the groo…
Girls For Sale
Before he was Nigeria's self-proclaimed Mr Lover Boy, Felix Lebarty was an upcoming musician in the country's Edo-Delta region. His big brother, Aigbe, was a legendary Highlife bandleader, but Felix paid his dues playing guitar with Thony Shorby Nwenyi and the Collection of Stars, along with fellow 'star' Mighty Flames bassist, Willy Nfor. Perversely, Girls For Sale was released after Lover Boy, the slick disco album that cemented his place in Nigerian music history. It is a collection of tracks…
Devil Woman
The eastern Nigerian city of Calabar in Cross River State was colloquially known as Canaan City – a place of lush landscapes, alluring women and delicious cooking. When the Biafra War ended it became a land of milk and honey for bands as well, with jumping venues like the Taj Mahal and Luna Nite Club and a label called Clover, set up local entrepreneur Ben Okonkwo, releasing albums by bands like The Doves, The Visitors, Aktion and The Apostles. The youngest band on the Clover roster was Mansion,…
Live In Europe - Fonk Afrika
OFO The Rock Company (originally known as OFO The Back Company) were Nigeria’s first acid-rock band. Blending Hendrix and Deep Purple with shamanism and a pro-black philosophy, they cut their teeth at Fela Kuti’s Afrika Shrine, developing a fearsome live reputation that intimidated every other band in Lagos. No one wanted to follow the guys from OFO, not even Fela himself. Lead by the charismatic Larry Ifedioranma, OFO The Rock Company considered themselves a musical cult. Their live shows were …
Segun Bucknor
Segun Bucknor fell in love with American soul music as a student at New York’s Columbia University. Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles hadn’t made much of a splash in Africa at the time and when Bucknor returned to Nigeria in 1968, he was determined to bring the sound to a wider audience. The result was brand of Afro-Soul that in turn became a proto-type of Afrobeat. With his bands, The Assembly and The Revolution, he released a few politically charged tracks, but even with …
Village Boogie
After starting his musical carrer back in 1968, the Nigerian artist, drummer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Steve Black released his fantastic and unique album "Village Boogie!" in 1979. "Village Boogie!" really deserves the status of a legendary rarity and holy grail for fans of afro funk music. The original album is incredibly rare today and fetches prices of 800,00 and more USD! On this unique album Steve Black presents a new version of the smasher "Brand new wayo“, originally pl…
Sonny's Time Now
Only a few months after recording "Ghosts“ with Albert Ayler - Sonny Murray released his first album as a leader. „Sonny's time now“ is one of the holy grails for collectors and aficionados of free avant garde jazz music from the 1960s and while original vinyl copies fetch prices up to 270,00 US$ and more ,even the first Japanese reissue from 1986 on vinyl and CD is rare as stardust these days and goes up to 100,00 US$ for a mint CD copy. Well, we will take a closer look at this album due to thi…
Let's Have A Party
It’s no exaggeration to say that Geraldo Pino and his band the Heartbeats kickstarted the whole soul/funk/afrobeat scene in West Africa. Mixing highlife, funk and jazz, and using the latest equipment, they laid waste to all before them. In 1966 Fela Kuti was a jobbing musician, eeking out a living with highlife bands. When Gerlado Pino came to town, it changed his life. “Pino tore up the scene,” he recalls in an interview with Carlos Moore. “I knew I had to get my shit together. And fast!”. Prod…
Apostles
The Apostles were disciples of a heavy kind of psychedelic soul/rock fusion. After The Funkees left for London, they stepped into the breach to become the champions of East Nigeria’s flourishing post-war music scene. Based in Aba, and led by guitarist and charismatic chancer Walton Arungwa, they laid down a couple of singles with the city’s newly-formed BEN label. EMI liked what they heard and in 1976 whisked the band to Lagos to record The Apostles with the legendary Emmanual Odenusi at the con…
Celebration
Mix righteous fuzz guitar, bad-ass keyboards and ecstatic African rhythms and what have you got? Celebration by Aktion - a slab of of heavy Afro-funk-pysch-rock from the hardest working band in 70s Nigeria. Aktion had a residency at the Lido Night Club and Restaurant in Warri but toured constantly. Drummer Ben Alaka and Bass player Renny Pearl Nwosa created a bedrock of hardcore rhythm that allowed the rest of the band to cut loose and follow their own groove. Celebration, their second album, se…
Ikoto Rock
There we go with another Afro Beat classic that did not really leave Nigeria back in the day it was released. Therefore we can only guess the value among collectors but some reliable sources tell us that even not so mint original copies go for up to 600 $. The Afrodisia sublabel of Decca music is responsible for quite a few awesome afro beat gems that have only recently been rediscovered by never sleeping music lovers such as the folks behind Everland Music from the Netherlands and here we go wi…
Sweet Funk Music
Who said that all Nigerian afrobeat from the 70s was dark and though provoking with a melancholic edge despite the ongoing powerful grooves and a more or less political message denouncing the the methods of the country’s leaders to increase their own wealth and power while the simple people suffer. Well, this 1978 album by bandleader Thony Shorby Nyenwi proves this idea wrong. What we have here is a sacredly rare gem, fetching 300 € for a copy in playable condition. A crown jewel of Nigerian afr…
The Doctrine of Maybeness
**3xCD Deluxe 8-sided Digipak** "The Doctrine of Maybeness" by Aural Rage is an anthology of the works of Danny Hyde’s Aural rage project, an engineer, Programmer, producer, collaborator, remixer, and co-conspirator of Coil, Nine Inch Nails, Psychic TV, Depeche Mode, and many others. A 15 year anniversary of musical adventure on 3xCDs with all works together - "A Nature Of Nonsense", "Sinsemilla Dreams" and "Svay Pak" with unreleased bonus tracks.
One of the early sampling Pioneers, producing 80…
Misterios Cosmográficos
1980's: Chile was a place where very little space was given for artistic
creation, sometimes it was forbidden to create. However, with a
determined inner strength, José Ignacio Valdés decided to take this project
forward self-producing his own tape cassettes (DIY culture). He wanted
to show the young people, his friends and family that the Chilean could
create music at the best level in the world. This LP includes "Misterios
Cosmográficos" remastered album, originally released in 1983, plu…
Music First
A collection of music pieces composed and performed by Enrico Serotti (of Confusional Quartet fame) for the works of Eva Marisaldi. "Museum/Art" edition including 16 page coloured inner booklet with introduction by Guido Molinari.
Live at Sendai Jazz Festival, Den-ryoku Hall, 20.10.1986
The gifted American pianist Keith Jarrett is one of the jazz world’s greatest musicians. Born in suburban Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1948 with a mixed European cultural heritage, Jarrett was a child prodigy that played piano at the age of two, appeared on television, aged five, and gave his first classical recital, aged seven. After studying at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, he moved to New York in 1964 to perform at the Village Vanguard and then joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. D…