Various Artists / Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story Of 1970s Funky Lagos
Album: Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story Of 1970s Funky Lagos   Collection:World
Artist:Various Artists   Added:May 2009
Label:Strut-Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2009-05-31 Pull Date: 2009-08-02 Charts: Reggae/World
Week Ending: Aug 2 Jul 26 Jul 19 Jul 12 Jul 5 Jun 28 Jun 21 Jun 14
Airplays: 5 6 7 8 6 3 4 3

Recent Airplay
1. Aug 18, 2021: Some Songs Without Words
Loma Da Nigbehin
4. Feb 20, 2018: Waste FM
Loma Da Nigbehin
2. Jan 16, 2019: Take a spin
Ololufe Mi
5. Mar 12, 2015: The Sunset Life
Alo Mi Alo
3. Dec 27, 2018: Hanging in the Bone Yard
Shango, Woman Made The Devil
6. Feb 24, 2015: Plumbotectonics
Alo Mi Alo

Album Review
Sadie O.
Reviewed 2009-05-29
Nigeria 70
Reviewed by Sadie O., 5/27/09
Afrobeat and Afro-funk, all from Nigeria in the 70’s. Two and a half hours of killer music showcasing quite a variety of artists and styles. Most songs are quite long and involve a lot of jamming. The last half of CD 1 and pretty much all of CD 2 are totally great.
No FCCs detected. Follow the stars, but give it a listen yourself, as there’s something for quite a few different tastes here.
CD1:
1. 5:22 **snaky, relaxed, jazzy groove, smooth vocals, but all with just a hint of funk and highlife. Several horn solos and sections, building in energy.
2. 4:49 **upbeat and a bit uptempo highlife/funk, very swingy. Call and response vocals, keyboard solo, and totally alarming bit of fuzz guitar.
3. 6:10 ***cymbal roll and bits of instruments, gradually forming into slow, trance-y, psychedelic groove. Slow chanting, electric guitar solo. Kinda Grateful Deady, actually.
4. 7:16 ***upbeat soul strut with lots of polyrhythm and a fine horn section. Instrumental jam.
5. 5:02 **complex rhythm, sort of out-of-kilter vocal duet. Interesting.
6. 5:49 **slow talking drum and trumpet, vocal duet a la Amadou and Miriam, builds into midtempo Afro-funk. Ululations and farfisa. Nice bit of talking drum towards end.
7. 3:31 ***downtempo swingy funk, vocals in English. Breaks into inexplicably jolly la-la-las at end.
8. 5:41 ****big chant and flute intro, then some serious midtempo Afro-funk. Definite butt-scuttler! Interesting slide guitar bit, and a completely crazed sax solo.
9. 8:21 ****very complex drum intro and fun vocals, relaxed midtempo jazzy funk. Slides down real easy. Sociopolitical philosophizing in English. Bit of wah-wah guitar. Neet!
10. 3:12 **funky soul guitars and African-style chanting. Sloppy but fun.
11. 8:26 *****unusual march intro, then midtempo soul strut with odd instrumentation, political diatribe in English. Long funky-ass jam session with unexpectedly cool bass solo.
12. 4:09 *****blues guitars, vocals in English. Misogynistic, but insanely cool.
CD2:
1. 8:07 ****odd little vocal intro, then downtempo shuffling drum & guitar-based Afro-funk with horn section. GNARLY sax solo. Not to be outdone, there is a perfectly reprehensible keyboard solo as well. Yeah!
2. 3:32 *****aggressive guitar chord, then uptempo psychedelic garage rock, Nigerian style. Yowza!
3. 6:02 ****cute little keyboards with an uptempo drum shuffle, very odd lyrics in English – none of this makes any sense together, but what the hell! …ok, the lyrics are REALLY odd – another star for that!
4. 3:21 ***dancing time for dancers! Uptempo Afrobeat. Mostly instrumental, with a terrifying sax solo.
5. 8:12 ***cool jazz sax solo intro, then super groovy Makossa Afro-jazz-funk with really good players. Overlong bit with just sax and talking drum and percussion.
6. 6:16 ****big dramatic vocal and flute flourishes intro, then super-fine midtempo Afro-funk with strong vocals and a big, talented band.
7. 6:03 *****drums, marimbas, acoustic guitar, uptempo yet relaxed Afrobeat, a bit trance-y, but with a huge variety of interesting elements weaving in, taking solos… going majorly dubwise…
8. 4:15 ****chanted female intro, slow funk, great female vocals. The bass kills, and the ladies mop up the corpses.
9. 14:46 **jazzy uptempo instrumental funk jam. Pretty vocals in English start after 8.5 minutes.
10. 11:36 ***talking drums and other percussion, rubber band bass, pwings and high female vocals, odd but not unpretty. Synth solo!
11. 7:13 ****midtempo, relaxed, echo-laden, trance-y, with fine percussion. Gets nicer (and dubbier!) as it goes along. Is that a Hawaiian slack-key guitar? Blimey!

Track Listing
 ArtistTrack Name
1. Lobitos, Koola Ololufe Mi
2. Tire, Monomono Loma Da Nigbehin
3. Bio Chant To Mother Earth
4. Kuti, Fela Ransome & The Africa 70 Jeun Ko Ku
5. Oyelana, Tunji & The Benders Ifa
6. Miller, Bala & The Great Music Pyrameeds Of Afrika Ikon Allah
7. Bucknor, Segun & His Revolution La La La
8. King, Peter Shango
9. Allen, Tony & His African Messengers No Discrimination
10. Wuaifo, Sir Victor & His Melody Maestroes Akayan Ekassa
11. Onyeabor, William Better Change Your Mind
12. Ikwue, Bongos Woman Made The Devil
13. Julius, Orlando & The Afro Sounders Alo Mi Alo
14. Ofo The Black Company Allah Wakbarr
15. Sahara All Stars Band Jos Enjoy Yourself
16. Funkees, The Dancing Time
17. Afro Cult Foundation The Quest
18. Haastrup, Joni Greetings
19. Lawal, Gasper Kita Kita
20. Lijadu Sisters Orere Elejigbo
21. Kuti, Fela Ankiulapo & The Afria 70 Upside Down
22. Williams, Shina & His African Percussionists Agoboju Logon
23. Ade, Sunny & His African Beats Ja Fun Mi