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VF 009CD
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A stupendous blend of scintillating highlife, smoking Fela, and spaced-out, funkdafied black jazz, from 1975, reissued for the first time. Mari Affiong Usuah from Oron, by way of Calabar, in southeastern Nigeria, fronting a knockout band led by Daniel "Satch" Asuquo from the Atomic 8 (and formerly of Bobby Benson's orchestra). The afrofunk cuts are especially killer -- with James Brown just percolating through by the end -- but it's a stunning, magnificent album, through and through. Beautifully sleeved, too, with excellent notes by Uchenna from Comb & Razor. "Gob, smacked," he recalls, about his first listen; "mind, blown."
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VF 009LP
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2020 restock; LP version. A stupendous blend of scintillating highlife, smoking Fela, and spaced-out, funkdafied black jazz, from 1975, reissued for the first time. Mari Affiong Usuah from Oron, by way of Calabar, in southeastern Nigeria, fronting a knockout band led by Daniel "Satch" Asuquo from the Atomic 8 (and formerly of Bobby Benson's orchestra). The Afrofunk cuts are especially killer -- with James Brown just percolating through by the end -- but it's a stunning, magnificent album, through and through. Beautifully sleeved, too, with excellent notes by Uchenna from Comb & Razor.
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CD
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VF 008CD
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Voodoo Funk's presents a second volume of blistering Nigerian disco and Afro-funk. Tony Grey's two inclusions, from the early '80s with the Ozimba Messengers, were originally released on different LPs: 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 Michael Jackson'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 Magnificent Zeinians, with some amazing 45s on EMI's HMV imprint -- best of all, the psych-rock-funk monster "Ije Udo." At the close of the 1970s, just a couple of years after the classic psych-funk of "Float" by Tirogo, Wilf Ekanem and crew trained their frazzled peepers on disco. The ensuing Aiye People LP is a stunner and a collector's legend -- Afro-fried Kool And The Gang on a mission to "blow your soul on fire," featuring space-jazzbo Fred Fisher on trombone and the E Gang sisters on sassy backing vocals, with "Disco Manic" and "We Like to Party" as two standouts. Eno Louis gained a solid background in traditional Edo music as a student in Benin City, southeast Nigeria. He lived at Fela's Kalakuta Republic till the army raid in 1978, when he moved to the U.S. 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. The two tracks here are from Louis' debut LP, Living in the USA. Bayo Damazio's couple of contributions are classy, spaced funk, originally issued in 1981 by Phonodisk, the most ambitious Nigerian label at that time. Recruiting a crack team of predominantly Cameroonian musicians, with the Nigerian dancefloor on tenterhooks, producer Tony Essien was on the lookout for a successor to singer Kris Okotie, who had abruptly defected to EMI. Rising to the challenge, BD enthusiastically fronts two sides of brilliant, devil-may-care disco. An unsung pioneer, Mona Finnih was Nigeria's first female pop bandleader. Breaking through with The Sunflowers in Nigeria's late-'60s soul explosion, Mona moved to the U.S. after the group's equipment was destroyed in a car accident. There she was active in the new jazz scene, before returning home towards the end of the '70s. These two cuts are late-'70s boogie-down cosmic funk, like full-throttle Roy Ayers, at his most brilliant. Finally to the Afro-space-disco contagion of First Planet -- shuffling and wiggling, synthy and bubbling -- from this re-incarnation of Willy Nfor's Mighty Flames, recruited mostly from the wave of Cameroonian musicians drawn to Nigeria in the late 1970s by its heavy new funk sound. After a stint at the Right Time studio in Onitsha, the FP cadets ended up at Phonodisk in Lagos, quickly in high demand as session-players, running First Planet on the side with other Nigerian session players from the Onitsha/Awka axis. Its name was intended to evoke the cool obliqueness of U.S. handles like Brass Construction and Lakeside, and the mothership connection of chocolate-city P-Funk.
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12"
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VF 007EP
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Afro-space-disco contagion -- shuffling and wiggling, synthy and bubbling -- from this re-incarnation of Willy Nfor's Mighty Flames, recruited mostly from the wave of Cameroonian musicians drawn to Nigeria in the late-1970s by its heavy new funk sound. After a stint at the Right Time studio in Onitsha, the First Planet cadets ended up at Phonodisk in Lagos, quickly in high demand as session-players. Its name was intended to evoke the cool obliqueness of U.S. handles like Brass Construction and Lakeside, and the mothership connection of chocolate-city P-Funk. Excellent sound by way of Abbey Road and D&M; spiffy 24" by 12" poster.
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VF 006EP
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Boogie-down cosmic funk from late-'70s Nigeria. Breaking through with The Sunflowers in Nigeria's late-'60s soul explosion, Mona later moved to the U.S. There she was active in the new jazz scene, before returning home towards the end of the '70s, and forming The Sensationals with guitarist Jimi Lee Adams. An unsung pioneer, Mona was Nigeria's first female pop bandleader. Adams packs his inner Hendrix off to Funky Town and Mona runs it all down with an irresistible West African tilt. Fifth in the series: remastered at Abbey Road, cut at Dubplates & Mastering, pressed at Pallas; and presented with a 24"x12" full-color poster.
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12"
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VF 005EP
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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.
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CD
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VF 004CD
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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 recording 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-'70s funk, heady with spirituality. Super-bad 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 Studio. The audio restoration and remastering for this reissue was done at Abbey Road Studios.
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LP
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VF 004LP
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LP version. 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 recording 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-'70s funk, heady with spirituality. Super-bad 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 Studio. The audio restoration and remastering for this reissue was done at Abbey Road Studios.
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12"
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VF 002EP
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2015 repress. At the close of the 1970s, just a couple of years after the classic psych-funk of Float (QDK 052CD), Wilf Ekanem and crew trained their frazzled peepers on disco. The ensuing Aiye People LP is a stunner and a collector's legend. Here are two standouts from the album, magnificently revived with crisp sound, a top-notch pressing in a Voodoo Funk house-bag, with a two-by-one-foot poster. Afro-fried Kool and The Gang on a mission to "blow your soul on fire," featuring space-jazzbo Fred Fisher on trombone, the E Gang sisters on sassy backing vocals, Elvy's funky lead guitar, solo flute by Willie Chucks Edozie, and ill cosmo-synths and moog.
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12"
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VF 001EP
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2015 repress. 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 Grey'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.
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