Various artists - Nigeria and Zambia rock compilations

I recently picked up all of these online brand new for a song. I love historical documents such as these, and all are worthy just for the historical book that comes with each. Like mini encyclopedias with CDs inserted. Essentially these are all fuzz laden African rock works, mostly taken from insanely rare 45s and a few album cuts. I'm more familiar with the Zambian acts as that scene has been mined pretty hard. But the Nigerian sounds were the real eye opener for me. I've heard a few bands from there, but I didn't realize just how vast the scene really was. This is the way to go to hear most of these, as collecting them individually would be impossible - especially those that have not been reissued separately. It's tempting to lump African rock in with funk and soul, and while there's slight elements of that, this genre is definitely separate from African-American styled rock. It's a fascinating blend of late era psychedelic and garage with elements of hard rock and African culture. The music is mostly simple but energetic and sincere. And possesses a wonderful raw sound. There's a distinct difference between what was happening in Zambia and Nigeria, but in the macro view, these are closer to each other than other worldwide genres. Brilliant work from Now-Again, likely the label that will go down as the best of the music researchers.

Ownership: Wake Up You! The Rise And Fall of Nigerian Rock 1972-1977 Vol. 1. 2016 Now-Again (CD)

Wake Up You! The Rise And Fall of Nigerian Rock 1972-1977 Vol. 2. 2016 Now-Again (CD)

 

Welcome to Zamrock! Vol. 1. 2017 Now-Again (CD)

3/19/23 (new entry)

BLO - Chapters and Phases. 1973-1974 Nigeria

I'd only heard Chapter One prior, and it struck me as a somewhat typical US styled funk album. I don't think I was entirely wrong, but for 1) I enjoy funk much more today and 2) The psychedelic elements are more prominent than I'd originally accounted for. Often times we get discouraged as the descriptions we read lead us to believe it's something else. No doubt, BLO got caught up in the "psych dealers hype machine". And that's when I first heard it, some 25 years ago when the first reissues began to surface. Now I have a different perspective. Phase II is new to me, and not surprisingly, it's more geared toward funk and less psych. But it's still in that same kind of zone. It's the lesser of the 2 albums, but not by much.

Ownership: CD: 2009 RPM (UK). Recent online acquisition. Excellent reissue that contains both albums in full, along with an essay covering both the history of BLO and the early to mid 70s Nigerian rock scene in general. RPM is part of the Cherry Red group (Esoteric, Grapefruit).

Survival ~ Nigeria

Simmer Down (1977)

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.

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.

Ownership: 2014 Strawberry Rain (CD). Digipak. Booklet with 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). Acquired in 2014.

4/29/14 (review / new entry)