Danger: Superheavy Afro Funk 45s!

Here's a new mix featuring the best 45s from last month's trip to Ghana and Nigeria

Please click on the image to listen:

Ghana-Nigeria Jan. 2010

I managed to score a cheap last minute ticket to Ghana and left in the early afternoon of January 1st on a direct flight to Accra.
I arrived in the early morning of January 2nd. My friend Ken had already plugged a large "Records Wanted" advert in the biggest, national newspaper for that day and I hit the ground running. Only minutes after depositing my luggage at the hotel, Ken and I were already sitting in a taxi, speeding towards the first piles of records.

After a few days in Accra, we left for Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city in the Ashanti region from where we had received a lot of calls. On our way back, we stopped for a visit at Kwaho Bepong, a beautiful small town located on a plateau, not far from the Volta river. We had received a serious call from there and scored a large collection of incredibly well preserved afrobeat, funk and some seriously deep highlife. Not only on LP but also on 45. Finding good 45s is very rare and always a cause for celebration. We went to a small village in the bush and bought a fresh caught grasscutter (also called cane rat) which we had prepared for us on the spot over and open fire. Later, on a nightly scroll along the Volta river, a large praying mantis landed on my hand, traditionally a sign for good luck!

We stopped in Accra for only another 2 days and then chartered a car to bring us to Takoradi, a coastal town in the West the niece of legendary musician CK Mann had called us and set up a meeting with her uncle. On our way back, we stopped by Cape Coast, picked up some more vinyl and back in Accra met with another living legend: Pat Thomas who as I had hoped for gave us some clues about the whereabouts of the members of the mythical funk band Marijata. The subject Marijata shall remain on hold for now until sometime later this year.

On January 17th I took a plane to Lagos where I met with my friend Damian and together we went on a journey to a small town in Anambra state. The region prepared for local elections and the atmosphere was tense. Kidnappings were at an all time high and there were a lot of rumors about armed robbers randomly stopping buses on the highway, robbing people and taking hostages. We had no trouble reaching our destination and on the evening of the first day, when I was sitting outside the hotel, enjoying the evening sun and a couple of Star beers, some military type guys came up to me and told me they were concerned about my safety and would therefore set up a road block directly outside the hotel...

Damian had found this warehouse that was filled with records. Literally. The entire place was flooded about one to two meters high with mostly 45s, some LPs and even old 8-track tapes. No shelves, not even boxes, just records. You will have to check out the pictures below and you will understand.

We hired three helpers who cleaned out a narrow path alongside one wall by piling records into boxes and dragging them outside for us to sort through them. The warehouse belonged to a record label and distributor and about 95% of all the vinyl consisted of the label's own releases, for the most part highlife and folklore. We made sure to leave a good stack of every single release in the big shelf that stood in the middle of the mess and then just threw the rest of all these undesirable 45s onto a huge pile in front of the building. After half a day, the path was cleared down to the floor and we were able to dig ourselves through the rest of the place, from one end to the other.

The result wasn't huge but I walked away with a good stack of killer 45s including a whole bunch of stuff that I had never seen before, mostly Nigerian releases but surprisingly enough also some Ghanaian stuff.

Once we were done with this place, we took a bus back to Lagos where I spent the remainder of my stay checking up on various local record dealers. Then I took a plane back to Accra from where Ken and I followed up on various leads all over Southern Ghana.

Constantly being on the move made the time pass very fast and before I knew it, the month was over. My plane back to NYC left on January 31st and now I'm busy cleaning myself through piles and piles of fresh African vinyl. One thing is for sure: This wasn't my last trip to Africa for this year!

Click on images for a larger view:

I had brought 10.000 of these posters and we bombarded city after city with them.


CK Mann at his house in Takoradi.


Beautiful stretch of road right alongside the beach between Takoradi and Cape Coast.


A storm is brewing over Cape Coast.


Just before it started pouring down on us...


Driving up the mountains towards Kwaho Bepong.


Fresh grasscuter...


After all the hair is removed, the animal is cut into portions.


BBQ!


Almost ready... my mouth is watering just looking at the picture.


Good luck!


My friend Ken. I wouldn't have managed without him. Sometimes we had over 100 calls a day.


The difference between record shopping and record digging...


My head was about to explode.


Mining for records with Damian.

Pax Nicholas & The Nettey Family

The Pax Nicholas LP was one of the first African records I ever found. It's also one of the rarest records in my posession as I don't know of anybody else who has ever seen or heard it. Which is a shame because this also is one of the best and most unique sounding Afrobeat records out there.

It was in Philadelphia in the spring of 2005. I had made a visit to Smith's Record store. All the high caliber funk 45s had been gone years ago (many of them into my own collection), but I wanted to say "hi!" to the owner Stanley Smith. When I mentioned that I was thinking about maybe going to Africa for a while, he casually mentioned "I have a stack of African LPs in my office, wanna have a look at them?"

I found a few nice pieces but the Pax Nicholas LP was by far the most interesting and unique record in the bunch. This was a strong indicator for me that there must be loads of other, forgotten records around in West Africa and this record was pretty much the final inspiration to go ahead and embark onto an epic digging trip althrough Western Africa. Since then I found hundreds and thousands of other amazing records but this Pax Nicholas album always remained somehow special to me.

I tried to track down Nicholas with the help of friends in Ghana and Nigeria but I couldn't find a lead. All it took in the end was a simple google-search and I had found him: Ironically, Nicholas Nettey had been living in Berlin since 1978. Nic was very enthusiastic about getting his record re-issued. I approached my old friends at Daptone Records about this and after having listened to some sound clips, they decided to make this their first African release.

When I asked Nic if there were any master tapes left, he told me that years ago, he had had a big fight with his brother during which they both ended up throwing the tapes at each other until they (the tapes) were totally mangled.

Thankfully, my copy of this record was in pristine and unplayed condition when I had found it so we were able to re-master from the original vinyl. This album will be in stores worldwide by September.

Please go to Daptone Records to find out more about this album and about Nicholas Nettey.

African Heat mp3 mix

Check out this mix I made including a couple of new discoveries from Ghana and Nigeria.

Please click on the image to listen:

00:00 The Uppers -dankasa
03:30 Roy Hamilton -jack jones
06:40 Gyadu Blay Ambolley -sikape
12:14 De Frank -waiting for my baby
16:33 The Cutlass Band -obiara wondo
19:08 The Strangers -two to make a pair
21:44 The Wellis Band -bindiga
25:06 Ogyatanaa Show band -saman poriwa
29:42 Superman Tony Safro -i beg
34:54 The Hygrades -somebody's gonna lose or win
38:00 The Visitors -i believe in funky music
42:37 Akwassa -be yourself
47:45 Obanichronism -disco in danger
53:00 Georges Anderson -baby you know i know

Lagos Disco Inferno -the Press Release

Welcome to the LAGOS DISCO INFERNO, the first compilation of rare, Nigerian Disco to be released outside of Africa. Brought to you by ACADEMY LPs who also released the the Ofege and Mebusas albums.

Compiled by Frank Gossner of Voodoofunk.com, this record contains 12 tracks that represent the sound of Lagos in the late 1970s.

Dean Disi (Music Journalist and formerly Director of Lagos based label TYC Records) wrote the liner notes for this album:

"It was the era of sheer ecstasy. The music not only represents the vibrancy of youthful expressionism of the time but is also deeply rooted in African rhythm though not traditional in phraseology...
This collection of songs marks the development of Nigerian urban pop culture...
There was diametric difference in the music of the discos and the music play by the groups. Disco music as played by the DJs was essentially western. The fans could connect with this easily. It was hip, urban and stimulating. The young Nigerian groups were hooked on it and tried to play it but with a distinctive African stamp of their own."

Some of the artists on this record were stars of their times while others remained in obscurity.

TIROGO and BLO had originally started out in the early 1970s as guitar based Rock groups. The debut albums of both bands are holy grails of the international Psych Rock collector scene. Like many other bands, they eventually ventured into Funk and Disco because the demand of the club scene and retail market. This also explains how the Nigerian brand of Disco has so much more energy, a more urgent and sometimes rebellious feel and a rougher sound than the slick and overproduced sounds of the Western world.

Geraldo Pino was a key figure in the Nigerian music scene. Originally from Sierra Leone, he had spent time in Ghana during the late 1960s and came to Lagos in the early 1970s with a unique brand of Funky African Soul that immediately set the city on fire. Even Fela Kuti credits Geraldo Pino for having been a major influence for himself as well as for the entire scene. Geraldo Pino is featured here with his 1978 dance-floor bomb "African Hustle".

Christy Essien was a Nigerian superstar who put out a string of successful records all through the 1970s. Others, for example Nana Love despite their best efforts never even reached any local fame. After listening to this record though, you will agree with us that all of these artists rightfully deserve our attention for elevating the Disco genre to new spiritual and musical heights.

And here is what makes Nigerian Disco so special:
Lagos by the 1970s was a huge metropolitan city. Due to the oil boom, there was money to be made with music and nightlife and big international record labels like EMI, Decca and Philips had set up their recording studios that for a big part got equipped with vintage hardware handed down from their European franchises. So as the sound of the late 70s and early 80s in Europe and in the US got more and more modern and from todays point of view just plain shitty, overloaded with ugly sounding Roland keyboards, the sound of Lagos was dominated by powerful horn sections, heavy drums and percussion instruments. There's plenty of early Moog synthesizers but no synth-generated strings or fake horns.

EMI's house producer Emmanuel Odenusi had worked with Fela for many years, defining the sound of Afrobeat. Kayode Salami who produced another couple of tracks on this album also was responsible for the incredible sound of the famous debut LP by Psych-Rock group Ofege.

Lagos, a uniquely vibrant, gritty, energetic and sometimes quite dangerous tropical metropolis has always been much more than just a city. A state of mind where third world poverty met the oil boom, where African traditions clashed with Western decadence.

Make no mistake, this stuff will have you dance in a feverish rush in no time.

Click any of the highlighted tracks for a sound clip.

Side 1:
DORIS EBONG - Boogie Trip 5:28
GERALDO PINO - African Hustle 5:25
GROTTO - Bad City Girl 5:34

Side 2:
POGO LTD. - Don't Put Me Down 4:37
ASIKO ROCK GROUP - Everybody Get Down 8:17
PARADISE STARS - Boogie Train 5:31

Side 3:
EMMA DORGU - Rover Man 4:37
MFB - Boredom Pain 5:06
CHRISTY ESSIEN - Take Life Easy 4:14
TIROGO - Dancing Machine 4:03

Side 4:
BLO – Root 3:24
NANA LOVE - Hang On 14:45


Best administered in like-minded company and with generous doses of cold, alcoholic beverages.


Please click onto any of the images below for a print-quality hi-res version:

The cover of the Lagos Disco Inferno album:



Scans of some of the original records that were compiled for this release:



And this is how these records were found:




For further information please send an email to frank@voodoofunk.com