Been chanelling my inner African all week long on Sound Travels, taking trip after trip on some serious psychedelic funk from the Motherland. As with other days this week, I've been shining the spotlight on original West-African funk, mostly vintage, but with notable exception to those funk masters still dropping the news like it was 1973 (well them, and the Daktaris).
Got the thing going with Bunzu Sounds' "Zinabu" from a nice little comp called World Psychedelic Classics vol. 3. These kinds of comps are a great way to start your own journey into knowing. Matter of fact, this may have been one my first forrays into African funk... Not long after that beginning, I was digging far deeper and for stuff like Benin's Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, and you should too. They've got a career spanning decades and a great sound. The tune I played today features Franz Ferdinand and pretty new, having come out just this year.
Bunzu Sounds "Zinabu" World Psychedelic Classics vol. 3
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo "Lion Is Burning feat. Franz Ferdinand" Cotonou Club
Oghene Kologbo & Afrobeat Academy score a hit here too with an amazing soulful afrobeat song from a pretty nice comp of new-ish afrobeat un-ironically titled We Love Afrobeat!. The NY-based (and now defunct) band The Daktaris close the set with one of the finest slices of afrobeat not from African soil. It's hard to believe this album came out in 1998, so fresh!
Oghene Kologbo & Afrobeat Academy "Open Your Eyes" We Love Afrobeat!
The Daktaris "Super Afro-Beat" Soul Explosion