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Afro​-​Beat Airways - West African Shock Waves - Ghana & Togo 1972​-​1978 (Analog Africa Nr. 8)

by Analog Africa

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seaweed.herman
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seaweed.herman All the music on this is fantastically good, vibes are all on point on point on POINT. Favorite track: Afe Ato Yen Bio.
vo_danh
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vo_danh The track and the album that helped me discover Bandcamp and Analog Africa. This complete album and song is only available digitally here. Believe me - I've checked. Favorite track: Afe Ato Yen Bio.
Markus Bader
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Markus Bader Such happy to have found the "Analog Africa" label on bandcamp. My personal no.1 label ever since Steve Barrow's "Blood & Fire" bit the dust. The music promotes itself, but the CD & LP issues come with lovingly illustrated booklets and information about the artists involved. Highly recommended!!! Favorite track: Odofo Nyi Akyiri Biara.
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about

Analog Africa No.8 - AFRO-BEAT AIRWAYS
West African Shock Waves - Ghana & Togo 1972-1979

Organ-driven Afro-beat, cosmic Afro-funk and raw, psychedelic boogie… just some of the flavours to be found on this highly danceable compilation by Samy Ben Redjeb, founder of Analog Africa.

No effort has been spared! To document these 15 irresistible tracks and the music scene from the'70s, Samy crisscrossed the lengths of Ghana and Togo in search of the producers and artists - or their relatives. In the process he recorded a dozen interviews, scanned 90 pictures and transferred 120 master tapes. All the evidence can be seen in the 44-page full colour booklet accompanying these 75 minutes of heavy West African sounds. Afro-Beat Airways showcases an amazing diversity of local rhythms spiced with Afro-American funk, soul and jazz.

Samy Ben Redjeb, in his own words:

'Somehow this project started at Frankfurt airport when I accidently checked in the bag which contained my passport. The flight to Angola (via Addis Ababa) was delayed and the plane's belly emptied in an attempt to find my luggage. Unfortunately, this was never found. As a consequence, I had to cancel my trip. I was at the Ethiopian Airlines offices the next morning (where this episode had become legend) trying to rebook my flight to Luanda, but everything was fully booked for weeks. I was told that if I wished I could selected another destination. The choices? Kinshasa, Yaoundé, Lagos and Accra. I selected the last, because my connections in Ghana had found some serious stocks of vinyl records, and I thought it might be the occasion to check them out.

A few days later I'm in Ghana, and as on all my previous trips to Accra the first person I paid a visit to was producer Dick Essilfie-Bonzie, who I simply call Mr Essiebons, after his legendary label, Essiebons Records. Everything happens for a reason because the disappointment of missing my flight to Angola was soon replaced by excitement. Mr Essiebons explained that after more than a decade of being out of business he had decided 'to give it another shot' and thus digitised all his master tapes for future releases. He then showed me the result - a box containing approximately 80 CDs, each with a track listing, - a total of 800 songs. I was allowed to take the 'surprise' box to my hotel room and started listening. I had no idea what to expect, but I was in for a treat. Previously unreleased material by Apagya Show Band and Orchestre Abass were the first few amazing tracks that I discovered and that's when I decided to start working on this compilation.'

The whole selection of songs was completed about a year later and now that I knew which tracks were going to be included, I decided to dedicate some time to find the artists for interviews and research. December 2008 and May of 2010 were solely dedicated to that process, as I flew to West Africa to meet Rob, Ebo Taylor, Nana Ampadu (founder of the mighty African Brothers Band), Issac Yeboah (lead singer of Vis-a-Vis, one of Ghana's most impressive bands), Gyedu-Blay Ambolley (the personification of Ghanaian Afro-funk), saxophonist Ray Allen, Chester Adams (lead singer of the Uppers International) and few others. I did extensive interviews with all of them and managed to collect amazing pictures to document the liner notes that accompany the music.'

'While some light has been cast on the Ghanaian music scene of the 1970's, Togolese music is relatively obscure and badly documented. However, we are working on this! In fact, we've already made a start, with our previous Analog Africa compilation 'African Scream Contest' which showcased 3 Togolese artists. Afro-Beat Airways presents two more - Orchestre Abass and Cos-Ber-Zam. While the first band developed into one of the country's best, to such an extent that none other than Fela Kuti once offered them a contract to play at his Afro-Spot night club (which later became The Shrine), the second artist was a one-hit wonder. 'Né Noya' was a monster hit in Togo but it is to date the only release by this obscure artist. The reason why I decided to include these Togolese tracks on this compilation is that they were all recorded in Ghana and thus they worked well in the mix.'

These tracks have been hiding for 30 years and as you will hear these are modern African sounds created to stand the test of time. Afro-Beat Airways is like a time capsule, and promises to take you on a fascinating musical journey through West Africa's vintage Afro Sounds.

credits

released August 6, 2010

Mastering by Nick Robbins at Soundmastering (London) www.soundmastering.co.uk
'Live In Another World' mastered and restored by Michael Graves (Atlanta) www.osirisstudio.com
Graphic Design by Petra Shröder and Dirk Von Manteuffel at Sosumi (Frankfurt) www.sosumi.net
Text editing by John Lusk (London)
Compiled by Samy Ben Redjeb - All tracks fully licensed

Executive Producer : Samy Ben Redjeb for Analog Africa
Cat. number : Analog Africa AA068

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