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artist.....: VA
album......: The Rough Guide To Psychedelic Africa
year.......: 2012
label......: World Music Network
RGNET1270CD
source.....: CDDA
moodswing..: Funk
releasesize: 148,9 MB
tracks.....: cd1: 11 cd2: 10
length.....: 108:32 min
encoder....: EAC
quality....: avg. 192kbps
scenealized: 05.11.2012
Because the word "psychedelic" has a
fairly flexible definition these days
(see here) it's almost no surprise
that the short opener Let Yourself Go
here by guitarist Victor Olaiya's All
Stars Soul International band is on
the axis of James Brown funk and any
notions of tripped-out rock are
immediately relegated.
And while the liner notes claim this
10 track collection contains far-out
psychedelic-sounding rock mixed with a
thick dollop of deep funk and soul
became the sound of a generation from
the Sixties and Seventies in West
Africa, it also includes material as
recent as the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo's
2011 track Pardon (rolling boil
post-Fela funk) and the re-formed
Orchestra Baobab's Nijaay from their
2007 album Made in Dakar.
There is some fine but not unfamiliar
high-life included also . . . so
where's the "psychedelic" stuff
promised on the box?
Well, there is the legendary Rail
Band's 13 minute laid-back Wale Numa
Lombaliya, the extraordinary
astral-juju guitar in singer Celestine
Ukwu's group, and especially the lazy
trumpet and distant guitar on the
doped-out Kadia Blues by Orchestra de
la Paillote.
Ghanaian guitarist Ebo Taylor's 2010
Nga Nga is also fine and fits the
"psychedelic" definition.
But a more convincing argument for the
influence of Western psychedelic music
on the region would have focused on
that vibrant period when African
popular music was being eroded and
influenced by American tripped-out
rock.
Still, this collection does come with
a terrific bonus disc by the legendary
Ghanaian guitarist Sir Victor Uwaifo
from 1971.
And Kadia Blues really is a woozy,
lava-lamp nod out.
Psst, more info at worldmusic.net
CD1
01 Victor Olaiyas All Stars Soul International - Let 02:10
Yourself Go
02 Celestine Ukwu - Obialu Be Onye Abiagbunia Okwukwe 06:18
03 Orchestre Poly Rythmo - Pardon 03:43
04 Orchestra De La Paillote - Kadia Blues 05:01
05 Alemayehu Eshete - Eruq Yaleshew 03:35
06 Balla Et Ses Balladins - Fadakudu 05:45
07 Milmani Park Orchestra - Taxi Driver 06:25
08 Orchestra Baobab - Nijaay 07:14
09 Ebo Taylor - Nga Nga 05:25
10 Victor Uwaifo - Guitar Boy 05:43
11 Rail Band - Wale Numa Lombaliya 13:27
CD2
01 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 28 05:21
02 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 34 06:43
03 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 31 04:00
04 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 32 03:23
05 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 25 02:31
06 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 38 05:08
07 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 24 04:01
08 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 26 05:45
09 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 35 03:47
10 Victor Uwaifo - Ekassa 29 03:07