World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor?

Material collected between the mid 70’s and mid 80’s by legendary Nigerian funk musician William Onyeabor put out on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label. The music is incredibly rhythmic and based in an interesting intersection between afrobeat and funk. Almost every song is at least 8 minutes long and develops into a trance inducing jam. Highly recommended and surprisingly modern sounding. This definitely deserves a place in any World music playlist.
Favorites: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9. Potential FCC risk on track 7. Says the word “hell” but not obscene by any means. No other FCCs.

Similar artists/releases: Fela Kuti, Parliament, Talking Heads

1. (10:09) ** Onyeabor’s manifesto. Funk bass, tight drumming, organ solos, warped synths, and call and response vocals. Awesome.
2. (8:00) * Excited about the new Arcade Fire album? Well listen to this instead (the bass line is eerily reminiscent of “We Exist” off the new album…or I guess it’s the other way around)
3. (10:06) *** Super funky with some nice ascending horns and synth. Also I love the lyrics: “Good name is better than silver and gold/and nobody can buy your name”. That’s what I’m talking about.
4. (10:08) *** Opens with a nice drum groove and guitar/organ/horn interplay. Probably the most dynamic song on the album
5. (9:04) * The most overtly political song on the album with a refrain of “why go to war/why not find peace?”. Awesome hypnotic guitar throughout. Layered and detailed like every song on here.
6. (7:49) Disco-y vibe. Nice synth melody and some interesting drum machine effects
7. (4:03) ** light FCC “hell”. Shortest song on the album and certainly a keeper. Richly textured instrumentation with some thought provoking lyrics about the afterlife
8. (7:19) Funky and strange, pretty up-tempo with loads of horns
9. (6:29) ** Nice laidback closer to the album. Some cool production effects. I dare you to not smile listening to this

Reviewed by Muscat