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artist.....: VA
album......: Pop Makossa - the Invasive Dance Beat
of Cameroon 1976-1984
year.......: 2017
label......: Analog Africa
AA083
source.....: WEB
moodswing..: Funk
releasesize: 154,73 MB
tracks.....: 12
length.....: 67:29
encoder....: LAME
quality....: 320kbps
scenealized: 08.12.2017
The Pop Makossa adventure started in
2009, when Analog Africa founder Samy
Ben Redjeb first travelled to Cameroon
to make an initial assessment of the
country's musical situation. He
returned with enough tracks for an
explosive compilation highlighting the
period when funk and disco sounds began
to infiltrate the Makossa style popular
throughout Cameroon.
So why has it taken almost eight years
from that first visit to the final
compilation? From the very beginning,
there were several mysteries hanging
over Pop Makossa.
What had happened to Bill Loko, the
teenage super-star whose monster hit
'Nen Lambo' caused such a sensation
that he was forced to flee to the other
side of the world? How did bandleader
Eko Roosevelt go from Cameroonian
prodigy to chief of an idyllic seaside
village? And who exactly was Mystic
Djim, the dreadlocked producer and
mercurial hit-maker whose wizardry on a
simple home four-track recorder could
outshine even the mighty studios of
Cameroon's National Radio station?
It was not until DJ and music producer
Deni Shain was dispatched to Cameroon
to finalise the project, license the
songs, scan photographs, and interview
the artists that some of the biggest
question marks began to disappear. His
journey from the port city of Douala to
the capital of Yaounde brought him in
contact with the lives and stories of
many of the musicians who had shaped
the sound of Cameroon's dance music in
its most fertile decade.
Indeed, all the tracks on Pop Makossa
are a revelation. The beat that holds
everything together has its origins in
the rhythms of the Sawa people;
Ambassey, Bolobo, Assiko and Essewe, a
traditional funeral dance. But it
wasn't until these rhythms arrived in
the cities of Cameroon and collided
with Merengue, High-Life, Congolese
Rumba, and, later, Funk and Disco, that
modern Makossa was born.
Makossa, the beat that long before
football, managed to unify the whole of
Cameroon, was successful in part
because it was so adaptable. Some of
the greatest Makossa hits incorporated
the electrifying guitars and tight
grooves of funk, while others were
laced with cosmic flourishes made
possible by the advent of the
synthesizer. However much came down to
the bass; and from the rubbery hustle
underpinning Mystic Djim's 'Yaounde
Girls' to the luminous liquid disco
lines which propel Pasteur Lappes
'Sekele Movement', Pop Makossa
demonstrates why Cameroonian bass
players are some of the most revered in
the world.
Yet at the end of it all, there was
still one final mystery facing the
production team at Analog Africa: how
was this compilation of amazing sounds
from Cameroon going to begin?
After many month and hundreds of
different running orders, something
still didn't seem to click... until one
day they came across a mighty song
entitled 'Pop Makossa Invasion'
recorded for Radio Buea, a tune so
obscure that even in Cameroon it had
never been released. Suddenly the whole
compilation fell into place. 'Pop
Makossa Invasion' makes its debut here
and joins the pantheon of extraordinary
songs that plugged Cameroon's Makossa
style into the modern world.
credits
URL: https://is.gd/28NMgF
psst, more info at http://analogafrica.com/
01 Dream Stars - Pop Makossa Invasion 04:47
02 Mystic Djim & the Spirits - Yaounde Girls 05:57
03 Bill Loko - Nen Lambo 06:23
04 Pasteur Lappe - Sanaga Calypso 03:46
05 Eko - M'ongele M'am 04:03
06 Olinga Gaston - Ngon Engap 04:21
07 Emmanuel Kahe Et Jeanette Kemogne - Ye Medjuie 04:26
08 Nkodo Si-Tony - Mininga Meyong Mese 07:10
09 Pasteur Lappe - the Sekele Movement 06:26
10 Bernard Ntone - Mussoloki 04:17
11 Pat' Ndoye - More Love 08:33
12 Clement Djimogne - Africa 07:20