Wednesday, April 10, 2013

This is why it's been so quiet around here lately

In the summer of 2012 I left NYC for Costa Rica, had my Mexican made '74 VW Safari fixed up:  photo VWSafari.jpg Since then I've slowly been adapting to living the life of a beach bum:  photo palmtree-1.jpg At some point, I developed a passion for botany and began hunting for epiphytical orchids and bromeliads in the cloud forests around our house:

 photo epiphytes-1.jpg


I still have packages full of records coming in from West Africa every now and then and I'm still working on various re-issue projects which I will post about here on the blog as they are hitting the market but for the next few years I will spend most of my time with non-record-related activities, away from nightclubs and away from the internet... I might come out of this semi-retirement again sometime around 2016, I'll keep you posted!

Here's a Nigerian funk mix, one of the very few to not come with a track list. There are ton more mixes all throughout the older posts on this blog and all of the links should still be working. Enjoy!





Monday, January 14, 2013

Asiko Rock Group reissue out now!


Once more I have teamed up with my friend Paulo from Superfly Records in Paris to reissue this ultra collectible legendary Nigerian Funk LP. The record includes the massive club banger "solo mon an doan" as well as the killer psychedelic disco tune "everybody get down" (as comped on Lagos Disco Inferno) but the entire album is red hot -all killer no filler! As with all Superfly reissues, this is a beautiful quality luxury repress with paste on covers made in Japan and 180grs vinyl. Limited to 1000 copies so don't sleep!

More to come soon so stay tuned!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

SIMIGWA!

Finally...
This record doesn't need much of an introduction. Gyedu-Blay Ambolley's debut record is one of the most iconic albums of the entire Ghanaian discography and also boasts one of the coolest cover designs I have ever seen. If you want to get into Ghana Funk, there's simply no way around this record. Well, this one and of course the mighty This Is Marijata.

Simigwa was a relative big seller back in 1975 but you would be surprised how hard it is to track down a playable copy in today's Ghana. People played the daylights out of this album. Put it on and you'll understand immediately. This record is an instant party: Just add a few friends and some libations and good times will ensue. It's a law of nature. At the end of side 2 you'll just flip it over without even thinking about it. If you don't want to have to worry about wearing out your only copy, be wise and order two. This baby is limited to 1.500 copies so be quick. Get them from the source: LP/CD. The CD comes with a 12" poster with the original cover design because we know you can't wait to show this off on your wall.

The album was mastered from the original master tapes and licensed from Essiebons Records. More often than not, the studio tapes were overdubbed or destroyed but in this case you get the highest possible fidelity for your maximum enjoyment.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

A new mix and some fresh shirts!

Monsoon season had me stuck at the house for a couple of rainsoaked weeks so I got busy and put together a new mix with some tasty Nigerian Disco, Funk and Boogie records that my friend Damian recently sent me over from Lagos. Click on the image and get ready to get down: I also made a bunch of new T-shirt designs for my online store over at Dizzyjam! All designs are available in regular S, M, L and XL as well as in tight girl's sizes and in a huge variety of customizable color combinations. These are printed with heavy duty plastisol transfers which do not fade or wash out. I've been putting mine through a lot of abuse over the years and they still look as sharp as ever.

Tex Soul & the Bayonets 45



Contemporary afro funk aficionados need not feel inadequate for not having heard of the musician known as Tex Soul–even at the peak of his brief career in the mid-1970s, he never approached widespread national recognition in his native Nigeria. Unheard-of in the dance halls and on the radio waves of the country’s principal metropolis of Lagos, Tex Soul was a hero in the Eastern city of Aba, where his prowess as the consummate entertainer lived as the stuff of local legend. As a performer who could dance like James Brown, play the guitar like Jimi Hendrix and belt out a song with the soulfulness of ages, Tex Soul’s name was prefixed by the word “Showman,” almost as a permanent honorific. Hotly recruited by other groups on the booming Eastern rock circuit to add some electricity to their live shows, Tex Soul made his first big splash during a brief stint with the city’s number one rockers, The Funkees of Aba, before forming his own group The Vibrations. After scoring a handful of regional hits, Tex Soul’s promising career and life were cut short when he was found dead under suspicious circumstances after an altercation with a show promoter in 1979. Now Voodoo Funk and Academy Records are proud to expose this tragically overlooked artist to a new audience, digging deep to unearth the single “Uto Nwa” b/w “Osi Na Ngada,” recorded by Tex in 1972 with his early soul group The Bayonets, forgotten even by the hardest Aba scenesters!

Write up by Uchenna Ikonne from Comb & Razor who also brokered the licensing of this release.

Limited pressing of 1.000 -be quick and score your copy here!

Legendary Apostles 45 out now!


The heaviest Deep Funk 45 ever to come out of West Africa. Only two original copies are known to exist. Now everybody can buy one.
(until they're sold out...)

Both sides are equally devastating and pressed extra loud for maximum impact!




Limited pressing of 1.000 -be quick and buy yours here!

Stoneface & Life Everlasting 45 In Stores Now!



This was the first recording by Stoneface Iwuagwu with his band the Life Everlasting, originally released in 1973.

This 45 marks the beginning of a series of 45s to be brought to you by Voodoo Funk & Academy Lps. Only 1.000 copies will be pressed of each release so be quick!

My friend Uchenna Ikunne from Comb & Razor, without whom we would not have been able to put this record out, provides us with a bit of background information on Stoneface and his band:

"Innocent Iwuagwu received the name "Stoneface" during his tenure as a singer in the Tall Men, a mid-1960s Enugu-based pop group. While with the Tallmen, he also taught himself to play the drums. In 1967, shortly after the Eastern region of the country declared its sovereignty as the Republic of Biafra, Stoneface was invited to play drums for the top pop band in the region, The Postmen, by the group's guitarist Goddy Oku.

The Postmen didn't last long after that as their popular lead singer, Sonny Okosuns, had been deported from Biafra. In 1968 Stoneface joined the In Crowd, led by Lasbrey Ojukwu and stayed with the group until the end of the war in 1970. After the war, he joined The Soulmen, an army group based in Ogoja. The Soulmen soon relocated to Enugu, where Stoneface left and joined his old friend Goddy Oku's new group The Hygrades in 1971.

He left The Hygrades (probably around '72) and played for a little bit in Ify Jerry Krusade, led by another old mate from The Postmen, Ify Jerry.

Around 1973, he decided to form his own band and he rounded up a bunch of teenage musicians--singer Kingsley "Dallas" Anyanwu (from the high school band Dee-Mites), lead guitarist Maurice "Jackie Moore" Anyaorah (from Salt & Pepper Organisation), rhythm guitarist Roy Obika and bassist Jimi Henshaw--and formed Life Everlasting.

Unlike many of the Eastern groups of the post-war era, Life Everlasting was sponsored not by the army but by Stoneface's elder brother. But the amount of financing provided couldn't buy them state-of-the-art gear, so they used mostly instruments constructed by local carpenters and amps and pedals built by electronics wiz Goddy Oku.

They were signed by EMI and recorded their first single, "Love is Free" b/w "Agawalam Mba" at the EMI studio in Apapa, Lagos. The session featured a studio musician playing polyphonic organ that ended up not making the final mix.

The record was a hit and they followed it up with "Everyday" b/w "Love Him" (Stone says he thinks they *might* have recorded a third single but he cant' remember what it might have been called..."

Write up by Uchenna Ikonne from Comb & Razor who also brokered the licensing of this release.

Limited pressing of 1.000 -be quick and get one here!

Various Mixes

These are some mixes I put together from 2008 through 2012 to promote my various parties in NYC. I decided to leave these up for you to enjoy. There are many more mixes contained in the various older posts in the main body of this blog which can be accessed and navigated through the menu on the top right side of this page.

Click on the image to listen:


00:00 The Clusters -cool mood
04:00 Orch. Poly Rythmo -ou c'est lui ou c'est moi" (unreleased version)
14:36 Evelyn Dance Band led by Orlando Julius -erora miliki
21:37 Uhuru Sounds -ariwo yaa
26:58 Jake Sollo -deiyo deiyo
31:26 Bonds Funk Band -sitting at the court hall
35:01 Pyramid's 7 -shokolokobangoshay
41:17 Big John Oaikhena -agbon nu ghegbeji
46:13 Rail Band de Mali -djiguiya
56:01 St. Augustine -kpalanuma
63:20 Orch. le Bida de la Capitale -kenuma




Lately I've been seriously getting into Highlife tunes from Benin City (no relations to Benin the country). Benin City is the capital of Edo state in Southern Nigeria and birthplace of Sir Victor Uwaifo. I hope you will enjoy this music as much as I do. All these songs are really long, I only managed to fit seven of them into this mix that runs well over 1 hour... I don't like to cut tracks short. To me the length of these tracks matches the trance inducing nature of the music.

Click on the image and let yourself go!


00:00 Solo Hit -ododo
05:18 Ugbo & his Philosophers -efe
14:25 Collins Oke -iguo
22:18 Aigbe Lebarty -green revolution
30:22 Victor Uwaifo -ohue
38:38 Akaba Man -ighie vibie
45:27 Talents of Benin -ovbiokhokho




This is a Nigerian Disco mix I put together to promote one of my Lagos Disco Inferno Parties. Click on the image for a direct link to the mp3 and get sweaty!





My main man in Ghana, Dankyi-Appah Safo Kennedy aka Ken has recently gone international and been spending some time digging for records in Northern Nigeria. When I got to talk to Albert Jones from the Freedom Family and Geraldo Pino's Heartbeats about the scene in Kano and Kaduna back in the 1970s, I became certain that there have to be records up there. This turned out to be true as Ken just express-mailed me a big box of packed with the most unbelievable Nigerian funk 45s. Of course I couldn't resist but throw together a quick mix using some of these gems... a few boxes with LPs should arrive here at Voodoo Funk headquarters shortly and once they are here, I'm sure another mix will follow up in no time.

I'm not listing all tracks. Sorry for being so squirelly but I'm in the process of sourcing some of these tunes for possible re-issue and I don't want people chopping up my mixes and re-posting these tracks individually on YouTube or on one of those lame torrent sites...
Click on the image to listen:

Click on the image below and get your groove on!

00:00 Artist Unknown

03:03 Stoneface & Life Everlasting -Agawalam Mba

05:55 Segun Bucknor -Baby Get Your Thing

09:17 Artist Unknown

12:17 Artist Unknown

15:12 The Funkees -Onye Mmyaa

21:05 Geraldo Pino & The Heartbeats -Shake Hands (45 Version)

29:04 Tony Grey & The Zeinians -Do Your Thing

32:00 Artist Unknown

34:45 Showboy Eric Akaeze -I Will Tell Mama

40:43 Orchestre Vévé -Talali Talala

44:48 Joni Haastrup & Monomono -Water Pass Gari (Or Gari Pass Water)




Here's a summery new boogie mix for you...
Click on the image below to get down!




This is a mix I made with some records that I brought back home after spending January 2011 in Ghana and it includes quite a few new discoveries. Click on the image to listen.


00:00 Uppers Chapter Two - Samari Bolga
02:53 The Walking Shadows - If You Do Me - I Do You
06:10 Joe Mensah - Right On Bosue
09:48 Nyame Bekyere - Broken Heart
22:22 Uppers International - Aja Wondo
26:16 The Walking Shadows - Kun Adele
29:37 Rev. Jerry Boifraind (The Handsome Rebel) - Apartheid
38:10 Kelenkye Band - Jungle Music
43:48 Foundars 15 - Finger Fun
48:08 The Future Hope International - Onye Ma Echi
53:23 Sir Victor Uwaifo - Ohue
61:39 Jimi Solanke - Owo Orisa