Afrobeat Vinyl 1390 Items

LP | 2014 | EU | Original (Hot Casa)

Release: 2014 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Special compilation from Parisian re-issue kings, Born Bad, of the late Cameroonian master musician, Francis Bebey. This is the material we were hoping would follow the excellent comp from last year. Amazing 'universal' music currently only available on expensive originals. Double album with printed innersleeve.

Go to Item

Vaudou Game

Apiafo

25,99 €*

LP | 1975 | UK | Reissue (Knitting Factory)

Release: 2014 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Apiafo is a 12 tracks album, entirely recorded, mixed and mastered with old analog tapes, and played with vintage instruments, recalling the sound of bands like Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou or El Rego!

Go to Item

Fela Kuti

Confusion

28,99 €*

Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense

Release: 1975 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

This epic Afrobeat album contains just one eponymous track clocking in at just over 25 minutes in length, and beginning with a mysterious and psychedelic musical interplay between Fela on organ and Tony Allen on drums. As the song takes on a righteously funky groove, Fela evokes the chaos of Lagos, the multitude of regional dialects, the gnarly traffic jams, the absence of a policeman to take charge, as a metaphor for the larger problems of post-colonial Nigeria.

Go to Item

Fela Kuti

LP | 1986 | UK | Reissue (Knitting Factory)

23,99 €*

Release: 1986 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Shaluza Max / Tabu Ley Rochereau

Mangase / Hafi Deo

12" | 2014 | UK | Original (Soundway)

13,99 €*

7" | 2014 | EU | Original (Hot Casa)

Release: 2014 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Soundway Records present a special summer tribute double a-side 12" with two tracks from African musicians that both passed away within a couple of months of each other at the end of 2013 / start of 2014. Both tracks are perfect smooth summer tropical DJ fodder for the dancefloor.

On the first side South African singer Shaluza Max's massive Mashkandi / house anthem from 2002 gets a first release on vinyl. This track was a huge hit in South Africa and around the world on its release. With a soaring Zulu vocal and big sound it's a fitting reminder of a very talented musician who worked as a very well respected producer, composer and arranger who died tragically young at the age of 47 in January of 2014.

On the flip we drop a fairly unknown track from the mid 1980s from one of the biggest names in African music, Tabu Ley Rochereau. With a kind of almost balearic proto-house congolese pop cut with drum machines, and trademark sweet congo horn section, Hafi Deo is a beautiful track that fell into obscurity by perhaps being too smooth for the world music crowd in the mid 80s. Tabu Ley passed away in November 2013 in his late 70s with over 250 albums and 3000 songs to his name. A true pioneer of the congolese soukous sound, he was also one of the most influential African musicians of his generation.

Go to Item

Vaudou Game

Pas Contente

11,99 €*

Sierra Leone in 1970s USA

Release: 2014 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

This two mindblowing songs were entirely recorded, mixed and mastered with old analog tapes, and played with vintage instruments which recalls the sound of bands like Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou or El Rego!

Go to Item

Muyei Power

LP | 2014 | UK | Original (Soundway)

16,99 €*

World Psychedelic Funk Classics

Release: 2014 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Muyei Power or Orchestre Muyei (muyei means ‘our country’) was one of the top dance bands of the1970s in Sierra Leone. Soundway Records' first collection of music from this West African country (‘Muyei Power: Sierra Leone in 1970s USA’) is an album of rock-infused, 'afro' music from a group that traveled the world throughout the mid 1970s. Fusing elements of electric Congolese and Nigerian music with fast, syncopated, uptempo modernised arrangements of traditional music, Muyei Power produced a series of unique single-only releases that have been unavailable for 35 years. The rare recordings featured here are a glimpse of a dynamic and powerful band at the very height of its powers.

Go to Item

Volume 3 - Love's A Real Thing: The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa

2LP | 2005 | US | Reissue (World Psychedelic Funk Classics)

34,99 €*

LP | 1976 | EU | Reissue (Hot Casa)

Release: 2005 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

The funky fuzzy sounds of West Africa by Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou, Super Eagles, Tunji Oyelana & The Blenders, William Onyeabor and others!

Go to Item

Orlando Julius

Disco Hi-Life

21,99 €*

12" | 1981 | UK | Reissue (Voodoo Funk)

Release: 1976 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Hot Casa Records proudly presents the reissue of Disco Hi-Life, a real treasure album composed and interpreted by Afro-Soul maestro, Orlando Julius. Here comes the remastered version of a real mindblower piece from 1976 including four unreleased tracks, all recorded with the best Nigerian musicians, between Ginger Baker’ Studio in Lagos and the American Star Studio in West Virginia, USA.

Go to Item

Bayo Damazio

Listen To The Music

LP | 2013 | UK | Reissue (Voodoo Funk)

Release: 1981 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Deliciously sophisticated Cameroonian funk, originally issued in 1981 by Phonodisk, the most ambitious Nigerian label at that time. Producer Tony Essien was on the lookout for a successor to Kris Okotie, who had abruptly defected to EMI, and the music is devil-may-care brilliant, with the Mighty Flames band bringing nuff buff Roy Ayers, Kool And The Gang and Chic to the party.

Go to Item

Nath & Martin Brothers

Money

15,99 €*

Township Jive & Kwela Jazz Volume 2

Release: 2013 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

The Martin Brothers are pioneers of the Nigerian Funk and Afrobeat scene. Besides many releases under their own name, as the Tabansi Studio Band they lit up innumerable recoding sessions — it's them on Pax Nicholas' Na Teef album, for example; and the same team is behind the legendary Saxon Lee & The Shadows International LP.

Money is the Martins at their deepest and heaviest — tearing, wailing, mid-seventies funk, heady with spirituality. Superbad from start to finish with no let-up.

Original copies are amongst the most sought-after of all African and funk records on the international collectors' scene. It seems there is just a tiny handful of copies at large.

The tracks were originally laid down at Ginger Baker's ARC recording studio in Lagos and later mixed down at London's Tin Pan Alley Studios. The audio restoration and remastering for this re-issue was done at Abbey Road.

Go to Item

Various

LP | 2013 | EU | Original (Ubuntu Publishing)

19,99 €*

Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family

Release: 2013 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Soul Safari presents volume Two of the Township Jive & Kwela Jazz compilation, featuring 18 rare gems from South Africa, recorded between 1930 and 1962. All titles on this compilation have been carefully handpicked from the ILAM Archives (the International Library of African Music), in Grahamstown, South Africa.

Go to Item

My Ancestors

LP | 2012 | US | Reissue (Mississippi)

29,99 €*

Release: 2012 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor

William Onyeabor

3LP | 2013 | US | Original (Luaka Bop)

40,99 €*

LP | 2013 | UK | Original (Voodoo Funk)

Release: 2013 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Damon Albarn & Four Tet dig this gentleman, so you should dig this forgotten master of african synth-craze, too!

Go to Item

Eno Louis

Move!

LP+CD | 2013 | EU | Original (Glitterbeat)

Release: 2013 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Eno Louis gained a solid background in traditional Edo music as a student at Edo College in Benin City, south-east Nigeria. He lived at Fela's Kalakuta Republic till the army raid in 1978, when he moved to the US for a couple of years. On his return, he recorded with Edo funk powerhouse The Talents Of Benin, and quickly became a mainstay of the flourishing disco and boogie scene, in-demand as guitarist and drummer, with credits including releases by Pogo Ltd, Amas Grill, Chris Okotie, Oby Onyioha, Chris Mba, Dizzy K Falola, Harry Mosco, Pat Finn and the Super Elcados... to name just a few.

Go to Item

Tamikrest

Chatma

23,99 €*

12" | 2013 | UK | Original (Voodoo Funk)

Release: 2013 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

180g vinyl!

Go to Item

Tirogo

Disco Maniac

John Foxx & The Belbury Circle

Release: 2013 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Two standouts from
Aiye People magnificently revived: crisp sound, top-notch pressing in
a Voodoo Funk house-bag, with a two-by-one-foot poster.

Go to Item

Empty Avenues

10" | 2013 | UK | Original (Ghost Box)

15,99 €*

Release: 2013 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Time Factor / You Are The One

Tony Grey

LP | 2013 | UK | Original (Voodoo Funk)

Hailu Mergia & Classical Instrument: Shemonmuanaye

Release: 2013 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

The legendary digger re-ignites the Lagos Disco Inferno and kicks off his own mouth-watering imprint with these two sides of boogie-down bliss. Irresistible Afro-disco, layered with delirious syn-drums and sick keys, and featuring a horn-line bumptiously whipped from Louis 'Thunder Thumbs' Johnson's bass-playing on MJ's Workin' Day And Night.

Originally from Warri where he stayed throughout most of his career, Tony's first band was the Famous Latin And His Dominant Seven. He gigged for a while as a James Brown imitator with The Great Peters, before his breakthrough fronting the Magnificient Zeinians, with some amazing 45s on EMI's HMV imprint — best of all the psych-rock-funk monster Ije Udo. From the early to mid 1970s, his EMI sides range from Afrobeat to rock and pop. All Tony's records are great. He came up with various names for his backing bands — the Black 7, the Super 7, the Black Kings...
From the early-eighties, with the Ozimba Messengers, Grey's two recordings here were originally released on different LPs.

Limited, top-notch pressing from Pallas via Abbey Road; with a lovely 12-by-24-inch poster.

Go to Item

Hailu Mergia

2LP | 2013 | US | Original (Awesome Tapes From Africa)

Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings From The 1970s & '80s

Release: 2013 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

This remastered reissue of Mergia's 1985 solo cassette features the multi-instrumentalist handling accordion, analog synth, rhodes piano and drum machine. The all-instrumental album has a distinctly futuristic (circa mid-80s) approach to classic Ethiopian songs and modes.

Go to Item

V.A.

3LP+7" | 2013 | UK | Original (Soundway)

27,99 €*

2LP | 2013 | UK | Original (Soundway)

Release: 2013 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Soundway Records present Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s & ‘80s - a treasure-trove of rare and unusual recordings from East Africa. Spread out over two CDs and one triple LP, Kenya Special is accompanied by detailed liner notes, original artwork and photographs.

It follows on from Soundway’s much acclaimed African ‘Special’ series that to date has focused on the highlife and afrobeat output from 1970s Nigeria and Ghana. Kenya Special is a collection of 32 recordings (most of which were only ever released on small-run 45rpm 7" singles) that stand out as being different or unique as well as some classic genre standards. From Kikuyu language ‘liquid soul’, Luo benga and Swahili afrobeat to genre-bending Congolese and Tanzanian tracks recorded in Nairobi, Kenya Special sees Soundway yet again taking the less trodden path. Many of the tracks featured here are peppered with innovation and experimentation highlighting how diverse the music scene in Kenya was at the time.

In 1970s Kenya the two threads of rumba and benga loosely dominated the music scene. Benga quickly became Kenya’s unique contribution to afro-pop; spreading like wildfire through the interior countryside with it’s fast, 4/4 machine-gun beat and intricate electric guitar layers. The Congolese take on Afro-Cuban rumba was introduced by touring bands many of whom settled in East Africa - influencing bands from Kenya and Tanzania to come up with their own take on this popular style. Alongside these styles were small ensembles and hotel-sponsored bands, playing a blend of music that often included rock ‘n’ roll riffs, elements of ‘afro’ music (influenced by West African musicians like Fela Kuti), and multiple other combinations from South African and Zambian guitar styles to disco, funk and Swahili coastal rhythms like chakacha.

Painstakingly compiled, assembled and researched over two years by a team of five people from five countries (Kenya included), Kenya Special is a collection that looks beyond the mainstream and brings new life and recognition to some little known gems and forgotten classics of Kenya’s past.

Go to Item

Chico Mann of Antibalas

Magical Thinking

19,99 €*

LP | 1977 | UK | Reissue (Mr Bongo)

Release: 2013 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Chico Mann’s fifth album will be anticipated by the single "Same Old Clown", featuring the sultry vocals of New York based Kendra Morris.

Displaying his mastery over an arsenal of studio weapons and synthesizers, Chico Mann (aka Marcos Garcia) scores his fifth long player against a backdrop of pop sensibilities and guest vocalists. The album draws as much on 80's funk, boogie and electro as merengue and Afro-beat.

A member of Antibalas, multi instrumentalist and guitarist, Garcia has in the past worked with the likes of TV On The Radio, The Roots and Dam Funk as well as remixing Little Dragon and Alice Russell.

Go to Item

Ebo Taylor

2LP | 1987 | US | Reissue (Awesome Tapes From Africa)

Release: 1977 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Nice repress on 180 gram wax!

Go to Item

Dur-Dur Band

Volume 5

23,99 €*

24 Hours In A Disco 1978-82

Release: 1987 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

4th strike on Awesome Tapes From Africa, another stunner! The classic Somali band's 1987 recording captures some of the incredible sounds happening in Mogadishu during that era.

Go to Item

Kiki Gyan

2LP | 2012 | UK | Original (Soundway)

12" | 2012 | UK | Original (Soundway)

Release: 2012 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Soundway Records present ’24 Hours in A Disco 1978 - 82’, 7 cuts of relentless disco grooves from the sublimely gifted Kiki Gyan. Hailed as Africa’s answer to Stevie Wonder, Ghanaian multi-instrumentalist Kiki Gyan was a musical wunderkind who by 1975 had risen from the lowly status of high school dropout to being ranked eighth in a poll of the greatest keyboardists in the world (occupying the rarefied air of the top ten with heavyweights like Steve Winwood, Billy Preston, and Stevie Wonder) as well as becoming an in-demand session player in the top recording studios of London - all before his twenty-first birthday.

Go to Item

DrumTalk

Airbourne EP

Release: 2012 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

C.K. Mann & His Carousel 7

Funky Highlife

LP | 1975 | EU | Reissue (Mr Bongo)

Ndia Egbuo Ndia (Afro-Jigida)

Release: 1975 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

C.K. Mann made his name as a virtuous guitar player in Ghana when he played with Moses Kweku Oppong in the Kakaikus Guitar Band in the early 60s. He then became the leader of the band Ocean’s Strings until 1966. In 1968, he enjoyed a hit with the single ‘Edina Benya’. Mann was known for blending authentic African music with European influences. He was inspired by Latin American music and created a style all of his own. He became known as the ‘King of Highlife‘ in Ghana in the 70's, when he released the record ‘Nimpa Rebre’ featuring vocals from Pat Thomas and Kofi Yankwon. Funky Highlife came out of the Essiebons label run by Dick Essilfe Bondzie. According to Dick, this album could have been a massive hit in Ghana but the vinyl factories ran out of stock because of Ghana’s economic downturn, so the demand for the record could not be met. The album is a fusion of highlife and soul. The best-known track ‘Asafo beesuon’ is a multi-layered, drum heavy, funk medley and is over 13 minutes long.

Go to Item

The Semi Colon

LP | 2012 | US | Reissue (Comb & Razor Sound)

Dancing Time: The Best Of East Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77

Release: 2012 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Ndia Egbuo Ndia (Afro-Jigida), an LP recorded by the Nigerian rock group Semi-Colon in 1976, was an experimental response to Fela Kuti’s then-dominant afrobeat sound, substituting Fela’s sophisticated horn charts and jazz leanings with wiry electric guitar work and a passion for vintage rock ‘n’ roll. Long fabled and coveted amongst collectors and DJs alike, the album has remained one of the rarest of the Nigerian 1970s “afro” cycle. Comb & Razor Sound is proud to be reissuing this lost gem of Afro-rock for
a new audience.

This reissue marks the second release from Comb & Razor Sound, following up the success of its inaugural offering, 2011’s Nigerian disco and boogie compilation Brand New Wayo, which was spotlighted on NPR’s All Things Considered and received favorable mention on its “Song of the Day.” The new edition of Afro-Jigida continues Comb & Razor’s exploration of rare, cutting-edge popular music produced in Nigeria in the 1970s and 80s.

Afro-Jigida will be initially released in its original six-track vinyl format, with a deluxe CD release to follow at a later date. As a bonus, the first 1000 copies pressed of the album will include a 7” single featuring the never-before-released demo recording "Our Fada".

Go to Item

The Funkees

2LP | 2012 | UK | Original (Soundway)

Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate

Release: 2012 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

‘Dancing Time: The Best of Eastern Nigeria’s Afro Rock Exponents 1973 – 77’ by The Funkees is the latest title on Soundway to mine the rich musical output of 60s and 70s Nigeria. For the 5 year period this compilation spans The Funkees output crackled with dance floor fire.

Having featured on three of Soundway’s most popular titles, across the definitive Nigeria Special compilation series, we felt The Funkees output deserved closer inspection. Presented here (on CD, download & double gatefold LP) are 18 slices of funky Afro-rock grooves hand picked by Soundway’s Miles Cleret from a selection of the bands 45s and 2 long players.

In the early 1970s The Funkees were the number-one east Nigerian band and the only outfit to seriously challenge the popular Lagos based rock combos MonoMono and BLO.

It wasn't long before promoters in the UK came calling and The Funkees packed up their instruments and moved to London where they quickly established a fierce reputation on the live circuit.

Here they recorded two seminal albums before finally breaking up in 1977 amidst some controversy. This collection features for the first time all of their Nigerian 45s alongside the best of their UK album material and is accompanied by a full interview with original member Sonny Akpan, who still lives in the capital.

Go to Item

In The Heart Of The Moon

2LP | 2012 | EU | Original (World Circuit)

Make It Fast, Make It Slow

Release: 2012 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Originally released in 2005, now on vinyl!

Go to Item

Rob

LP | 2012 | UK | Original (Soundway)

19,99 €*

LP | 2011 | EU | Original (Pure Pleasure)

Release: 2012 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

ROB was an enigmatic recording artist from Ghana who cut two albums for the legendary Essiebons label in 1977. Neither of these were big domestic hits at the time and have since become prized amongst collectors in recent years. The title track from this LP was always one of the most popular on the first Soundway release Ghana Soundz and over the years we have been asked many times to re-issue the LP in it’s entirety. A stranger, slower offering than his more dancefloor funk-laden and Spartan first LP, this record sees ROB in similar territory but with the tempo switched down and the introspection turned up.

ROB’s trademark horns dominate and are supplied by the Mag-2, an army band founded by leader Amponsah Rockson, who named it after the army unit the band played for – the “magnificent” second battalion. In 1977, Rob traveled to the coastal town of Takoradi in search of Mag-2, which had an entire section of its line-up dedicated to horns, with the intension of laying out his proposal to them. Luckily for Rob, the band took him up on it.

With religious overtones and a broody, slightly off-key atmosphere at points it’s certainly one of the stranger afro-funk records to come out of West Africa but with tracks like Loose up Yourself and Make it Fast, Make it Slow he nails it for sure.

Go to Item

Duster Bennett

Smiling Like I'm Happy

35,99 €*

Release: 2011 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

7" | 2012 | US | Original (Third Man)

Tom Jones

Evil

10,99 €*

You Can't Get Enough Of That Stuff

Release: 2012 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Third Man Records is proud to announce the most virile entry in the history of its Blue Series singles: The man, the legend himself Mr. Tom Jones laying his unmistakable voice over Howlin' Wolf's "Evil" and the Frankie Lane classic "Jezebel" (as covered over the years by the likes of Edith Piaf and Anna Calvi). Both tracks were produced by Jack White at Third Man studios.

Go to Item

Hokum Boys (Crumb Cover)

LP | 1975 | US | Reissue (Yazoo)

Ray Stephen Oche And His Mutambo

Release: 1975 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

180 gram vinyl!

Go to Item

Interpretation Of The Original Rhythm

LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Favorite)

15,99 €*

La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Volume 3

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

High on everyones afro-jazz wishlist!

Go to Item

Nahawa Doumbia

LP | 2011 | US | Reissue (Awesome Tapes From Africa)

16,99 €*

Release: 2011 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Juju And Highlife, Apala And Fuji

Lagos All Routes

2LP | 2005 | UK | Original (Honest Jon's)

27,99 €*

LP | 1977 | UK | Reissue (Wrasse)

Release: 2005 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

The period stretching from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s is often considered the ‘golden age’ of African popular music. Concurrently with the rise of popular music as a worldwide phenomenon, African popular music had its beginnings in the early decades of the 20th century, as radio broadcasting and sound recording facilities were gradually established by the colonial powers. By the end of World War II, European companies such as EMI, Gallo and Decca were starting to establish large-scale operations in the colonial territories. But African popular music really began to flower in the years of nationalist struggle and independence. With the winds of political change blowing in the air, popular music became extremely important as a component of the cultural life of newly or soon-to-be independent nations. Produced and consumed largely independently of local ethnic musical traditions — however much it may have drawn on them — popular music was seen as a powerful expression of newly national identity. The enthusiasm, idealism, and optimism that can be felt in the music of this era reflect the optimism and idealism of independence.

Go to Item

Fela Kuti

Sorrow, Tears & Blood

26,99 €*

Release: 1977 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins

Songs From East Africa 1952-7

Something Is Wrong

2LP | 2010 | UK | Original (Honest Jon's)

27,99 €*