Afrobeat 118 Items

In 2015, Optimo’s Autonomous Africa label released Youth Stand Up!, a triangular recording project hatched at Glasgow’s Green Door Studio that brought together young musicians from Belize, Ghana and Glasgow for ten tracks of cross-cultural collaboration. The result was an infectious cocktail of traditional Caribbean and West African rhythms, hip hop, highlife and Glaswegian post-punk, featuring contributions from Optimo Music regulars Golden Teacher and Whilst, among others.

“You don’t need to be a fan of Gwoka or even Antillean music in general to fall in love with the deep, expressive voices of the singers of the genre. Artists like COSACK, ANZALA and ESNARD BOISDUR have fascinated music lovers around the globe for decades. It’s not only the drumming style accompanied by their beautiful melodic intonation, but also the revolutionary spirit of these songs that make them a unique and powerful document of the culture and the history of the Antilles and the Caribbean.
I remember the first time I listened to this type of drumming and signing, live at the re-enactment of the slave riots, and being completely emotionally overwhelmed by it. Some of my record collector/DJ colleagues and friends – first and foremost Hugo Mendez and Émile Omar – shared the same fascination for the genre and kept inspiring me, and countless others, by their DJ sets at Tropical Discoteq in Paris, where I have had the pleasure to be one of the residents for five years and counting. At one of those nights, I met my friend Pascal Rioux from Favorite Recordings and told him about an amazing unreleased track I received months before, on a home-burned CD, from ESNARD BOISDUR. Among other beautiful songs, it contained one outstanding track, a mix of modern Gwoka and Zouk called “MIZIK BEL”.
When I started playing that track out, there were fierce reactions on both ends. The crowds loved it and after a while you could hear people cheer when they heard the first notes. Many DJs and labels wanted it, demanded it, and would even go as far as to block or unfriend me if I refused to comply. It became clear to me that the track had to be released on vinyl for the first time and made accessible to people who wanted to play it, while giving the original artist full credit. At the same time, I knew a remix version of the track that would pay respect to the original could only be created by getting the original stems, and not by editing the main track and pressing it into an “electronic dance corset.” Pascal agreed to the idea and started the licensing work and the search for the stems, which resulted in an ongoing three-year quest that was crowned by the finding of the ADAT containing the original tracks.
As AFRICAINE 808, Dirk Leyers and I spent considerable time trying to re-create the composition of the original, respectfully slicing and re-arranging it, adding new instrumentation, and recording additional percussion and talking drum with our percussionist ERIC OWUSU (Pat Thomas/Ebo Taylor). We stretched it, adding a krauty synth part without losing the focus of Esnard’s beautiful voice and lyrics, describing Caribbean music in all its diversity and beauty.
With this in mind, I hope you can now enjoy the beauty of “MIZIK BEL” as much as we have so far.” – (DJ NOMAD, June 2019).

Label cover. Few paper scuffs.

Gin Tonic Orchestra, a brand new band out of St. Etienne (France), debuts
on Mother Tongue Records with a lush soulful tribute to their native city.
Afro-latin grooves, juxtaposed elements of funk and ethereal flute solos
backed by a stunning remix by UK legend Kaidi Tatham.

Comet presents the first release from its new Disco Highlife series, featuring remastered originals by Ghanaian legends Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas and disco reedits by LeonxLeon and Leo Nanjo.
Founder of Comet Records, Eric Trosset, started working with those great heroes of West African music, back in 2010. Taking on the role of manager/publisher, Comet teamed up with Strut Records and musician/producer Ben Abarbanel Wolff to revive Ebo Taylor‘s international career with a string of album releases: Love & Death, Appia Kwa Bridge and Life Stories. In 2014, he collaborated with Pat Thomas & The Kwashibu Area Band on a new album, gathering together the old ‘pals’ (Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, Tony Allen) in producer Kwame Yeboah’s studio in Accra.
It is with great pleasure that Comet launches this new series. Let's make this beautiful and timeless music the soundtrack to an unforgettable summer!
On side A, comes “Enye Woa” by Pat Thomas, originally released in 1988 on Nakase Records and taken from the album Me Do Wiase. It’s killer disco cut, and as innovative a piece of highlife as it was 30 years ago. Paris-based producer LeonxLeon has been cooking up songs in his Parisian home-studio since 2013. He did a remarkable remix of Cerrone's "Funk Makossa" and more recently released his new Rokanbo EP on Cracki Records. His remix of “Enye Woa” is a classy modern disco cut with funky bass and spacey synths.
On side B is “Atwer Abroba” by Ebo Taylor, a stand out up-tempo track from the album Twer Nyame, originally released in 1978 on Philips West African Records. Tokyo-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/arranger Leo Nanjo formed the first Japanese afrobeat group, Kingdom Afrorocks. Since the band broke up in 2014, Leo has been producing and arranging music with various collaborations, such as DJ Muro, Pushim and Misia. This is a trippy afro-futurist, broken-beat reedit with highlife grooves flying to deep space.

A doctor by day and a musician by night, Leon x Leon has been producing songs in his Parisian home studio since 2013, where house, italo-disco and boogie are mixing. When he was younger, he was immersed in music by taking jazz drum lessons at the conservatory, and especially by seeing his father, a sound engineer, who had been building his own synthesizers since the 1970s. As a tribute, he used one of these unique synthesizers on a title of the disc.
After a remarkable remix of Cerrone's "Funk Makossa" and several tracks on various from “Red Laser Disco”, he released his project My Solar Brass on the same English label in 2017. Organizer of many Parisian parties, he also participated in the founding of the publishing label “Good Plus". With the release of Rokanbo on Cracki Records, Leon x Leon signs a mature EP with the influence of different styles.
The first eponymous title is a manifesto mixing Acid, House and Zouk. As soon as we launch the track, the pop & acid 80's sounds takes us to another world... A UFO from the Islands! The other parts of the EP don't leave us in the lurch! “Formant Sweep” delivers a soft and groovy bass that responds to an endless, spatial synthetic takeoff. On “Red Footpath”, the harder kick cleverly blends with an atmospheric blanket and a bright, lively flute solo straight from an abandoned piece of bamboo on a deserted beach. After that, “Jungle Juice” lets a crazy keyboard solo resonate in the middle of tropical fauna and flora, and finally on “Horizon”, the EP ends in beauty with an airy atmosphere. This last piece sounds like a beautiful sunset at the end of a long summer day.
Through all these tracks, Rokanbo EP offers us a clever contrast between synthetic notes and the warmth of tropical groove, and places our gaze towards the horizon, seeking the groove to disturb its line on the infinite sea.

Two funky steppers from Niki Dave & Afro Kids! First ever reissue of rare seventies music from Burundi!

Spacey Kenyan disco stepper with dubby undertones, late seventies origin…

From Mac & Party aka. Yaseen Mohammes comes this fantastic Kenyan chakacha taarab dancer with a heavy clavioline keyboard hook. mid 60’s origin

Ben ’Tukumazan’ Molatzi (1954 -2016), a self-taught singer and songwriter from Tsumeb, Namibia, wrote timeless, beautiful ballads drawing on the distinctive melodies and harmonies of his Damara and Sotho heritage.
His music recordings have been slumbering in oblivion in Namibian radio archives. His songs were consciously censored and damaged as its messages did not please the South African apartheid regime. The album contains field and studio recordings that were made in 1981 by SWABC. To this day, these recordings have never been commercially released. In his liner notes, Thorsten Schütte describes his ultimately successful search for Ben Molatzi and further meetings with the artist, who talks in detail about his life, his songs and the life circumstances in his country.
On these recordings he accompanies himself on the guitar. The lyrics are reprinted in the enclosed booklet in the original tribal language as well as in English translation.

As Lokalophon's first single (Chris De Wise Shepherd, LO45001) shows the one side of the label - licensing of alredy locally released music, Ye Fre Yen by Ahemaa Nwomkro shows its other side - the recording of local styles by ourselves directly on site.
Ahemaa Nwomkro, which means queens of Nwomkro, are Victoria Osei and Theresa Owusuaa. Nwomkro is an old Ashanti musical style, which played an influencial role in the origin of the typical more roots-like Highlife style of Kumasi, the cultural capital of Ghana in the middle of the jungle.

Lokalophon is the newly established sub-label of Philophon, which is designed to release local specialities from potentially all around the world. The first 7" is by Ghanaian Frafra-Gospel singer Chris De Wise Shepherd.

Born in Bolgatanga, he moved as a young man from the rural north of Ghana to its coastal capital Accra. Consequentially, his style became more urban. That you can clearly hear on his 2012 release Nera Wo'o Soke, which sounds in some ways as if Grandmaster Flash himself were operating the production knobs. Atune Anya'alima on the other hand is pure Frafra-Gospel as it is usually performed in Northern Ghana.

Humans is the new album from sought after international touring band the London Afrobeat Collective. From Europe to Africa, Glastonbury to Nigeria’s annual ‘Felabration’ festival, LAC deliver party music born of their truly global DNA. The nine-strong collective from England, Congo, Italy, France, Argentina and New Zealand combine diverse influences such as Fela, Parliament Funkadelic and Frank Zappa to create an eclectic sound drawing on funk, jazz, rock, and dub to create something addictive and unique.
Their 2015 album Food Chain, received widespread radio support on stations such as BBC 6 Music, Radio X and BBC Radio 2, as well as glowing reviews in The Sunday Times, London Evening Standard, Blues & Soul and Songlines Magazine to name just a few. The new album Humans, (featuring artwork by Ben Hito, renowned for his designs for Parliament / Funkadelic), is a collection of anthemic songs with socially conscious lyrics, set to bold brass lines and hypnotic danceable grooves.
In 2015 the London Afrobeat Collective toured Nigeria, appearing several times on national TV and performing in front of ten thousand people at the New Afrika Shrine during ‘Felebration’. They are no less respected in their home town, having collaborated with the likes of Dele Sosimi and supporting legends such as Ebo Taylor, Fred Wesley And The New JB’s, Tony Allen, and Fela’s son, Femi Kuti.
LAC are now globally recognised for what they really are: not a tribute, but an ever evolving, international band of expert musicians, continuously inspiring each other as they create distinct, sincere and powerful music. Humans is an accomplished work with international flair and cultural relevance from London to Lagos.

This time the Polyversal Souls come along with the Bolga All-Stars, named after their hometone Bolgatanga up in the north of Ghana. The Bolga All-Stars are a choir consisting of the leading local Kologo and Frafra-Gospel artists: Guy One, Alogte Oho, Florence Adooni, Bola Anafo, Amodoo, Ana'abugre and Lizzy Amaliyenga.
This is Bolga! is a hymn of praise about the very vital music scene coming out of Bolgatanga. After an instrumental introduction with solos by Barou Kouyate on the Ngoni and Christian Magnusson on the trumpet, radio Dj Messy from Bolgatanga's leading station World FM is shouting out all names of the singers, before the choir finally comes in and take lead. Carried on by a heavily rocking rhythm section the piece reaches its peak throughout the eloquent solo of saxophone viking Søren Jagtkylling.

This is part three and the last of the collaboration series between Ethopia's legendary soul singer Alemayehu Eshete and the Philophon house band The Polyversal Souls.
On the A-side you hear Alemayehu's classic song Addis Abeba Bete in an intimate live performance. This recording happend during a cultural exchange programm organized by Galerie Listros, Berlin's finest gallery for Ethopian art, with support from the Bundeskulturstiftung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
The flip side is the complimentary portrait to the recently released Portrait of Alemayehu (Daytime) - now, on Portrait of Alemayehu (Night-time), you get an idea of the masters fiery stage persona as it is documentated on the A-side. It's night-time now - booooooom!

Frank Karikari is the son of legendary Highlife musician Ralph Karikari who played bass on countless classic albums such as "Sikyi Highlife" by Dr. K. Gyasi & His Noble Kings. So, Frank grew up surrounded 24/7 with high class Highlife music plus he has inherited the natural talent of his father. Now he teamed up with the Polyversal Souls to keep the spirit of Highlife alive.

"Siakwaa / Nana Agyei" are two songs taken from above mentioned album "Sikyi Highlife". Frank gets here some vocal support from the original court singers of the Ashanti king, which fits perfectly, as both songs are praise songs to the king.

"Odo Agye Gye Me" is composed by legendary Kumasi based singer Baffour Kyei, who sang for such groups like Kyeremateng Stars or B.B. Collins & His Powerful Believers. Besides creating this song, he is part of the choir on this future Highlife classic.