Brand-New Reviews
ARTIST: various artists
TITLE: Afro-Beat Airways: West African Shock Waves, Ghana & Togo 1972-78
LABEL: Analog Africa
REVIEW: This is the latest opus from Samy Ben Redjeb, crate-digger extraordinaire and founder of Analog Africa Records, and it’s an absolute gem. Samy’s digging here in well-turned soil – there are several outstanding compilations of Ghanaian funk, Afrobeat and Afrorock on the market. Nonetheless this set adds something new in the form of previously unreleased (outside of Ghana) masters from Essiebons Records, one of the top labels of the era. As a result, we’re treated to new material by some of Ghana’s most best-known and most outstanding artists like K. Frimpong (track 3), the African Brothers Band (5) and Ebo Taylor (7,15). The biggest revelation here is the Uppers International (1,14) from northern Ghana, who never made quite as much the impact (many of the band members lived in Chicago in the 80’s, by the way) but whose music is on par with those better-known acts. The whole project plays like a killer retro-African DJ set, it’s superb from beginning to end with great flow. Nicely, nicely done.
REVIEWER: Bill Lupoletti
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1 3 5 7 14
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