Survival - Simmer Down. 1977 Nigeria

As is common with Sub Saharan African rock bands, the guitars contain heavy use of the fuzzbox, and the organs are from antiquity. The music is straight up harmonic rock, with a funk base - and psychedelic undertones. Well placed flute decorates the recording and adds an exotic edge.  Simmer Down is similar to an album you might hear from the 1970 era Detroit scene. I find music like this timeless, and very enjoyable.

CD: 2014 Strawberry Rain (Canada)

The one copy that's been found in the wilds, at least as published on the internet, is shown in the picture above. Of course, the reissues look much cleaner without all the writing, cover wear, and stickers, but the artwork is the same. African records are super rare and expensive for a variety of reasons including the climate and often severe weather situations, economic conditions, and political turmoil. I've previously called Strawberry Rain the Canadian Shadoks due to their ability to find rock albums from the most exotic locales around the world. And it appears Africa and Indonesia are their primary sources, especially if you can consider the vast amount of Zambian records they have on tap to reissue. As usual, Strawberry Rain has done a fine job on the reissue, with excellent historical liner notes, photos and good sound. On the latter, I suspect the masters were lost and they needed to no-noise a vinyl copy - but I think they did an excellent job (you can still hear some of the vinyl - which is fine with me). The CD comes in a fine digi-pak.