Includes unlimited streaming of Cameroon Garage Funk (Analog Africa Nr. 32)
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Cameroon Garage Funk (Analog Africa Nr. 32)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
€16EURor more
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Yaoundé, in the 1970´s, was a buzzing place. Every neighbourhood of Cameroon´s capital, no matter how dodgy, was filled with music spots but surprisingly there were no infrastructure to immortalise those musical riches. The country suffered from a serious lack of proper recording facilities, and the process of committing your song to tape could become a whole adventure unto itself. Of course, you could always book the national broadcasting company together with a sound engineer, but this was hardly an option for underground artists with no cash. But luckily an alternative option emerged in form of an adventist church with some good recording equipment and many of the artists on this compilation recorded their first few songs, secretly, in these premises thanks to Monsieur Awono, the church engineer. He knew the schedule of the priests and, in exchange for some cash, he would arrange recording sessions. The artists still had to bring their own equipment, and since there was only one microphone, the amps and instruments had to be positioned perfectly. It was a risky business for everyone involved but since they knew they were making history, it was all worth it.
At the end of the recording, the master reel would be handed to whoever had paid for the session, usually the artist himself..and what happened next? With no distribution nor recording companies around this was a legitimate question. More often then not it was the french label Sonafric that would offer their manufacturing and distribution structure and many Cameroonian artist used that platform to kickstart their career. What is particularly surprising in the case of Sonafric was their willingness to take chances and judge music solely on their merit rather than their commercial viability. The sheer amount of seriously crazy music released also spoke volumes about the openness of the people behind the label.
But who exactly are these artists that recorded one or two songs before disappearing, never to be heard from again? Some of the names were so obscure that even the most seasoned veterans of the Cameroonian music scene had never heard of them. A few trips to the land of Makossa and many more hours of interviews were necessary to get enough insight to assemble the puzzle-pieces of Yaoundé’s buzzing 1970s music scene. We learned that despite the myriad difficulties involved in the simple process of making and releasing a record, the musicians of Yaoundé’s underground music scene left behind an extraordinary legacy of raw grooves and magnificent tunes.
The songs may have been recorded in a church, with a single microphone in the span of only an hour or two, but the fact that we still pay attention to these great creations some 50 years later, only illustrates the timelessness of their music.
credits
released September 3, 2021
GRAPHIC DESIGN: KATHRIN REMEST (ANALOG AFRICA)
MASTERING: NICK ROBBINS (SOUNDMASTERING)
LACQUERS: FRANK MERRITT (THE CARVERY)
PICTURES: DÉNI SHAIN
TEXT EDITING: JESSE SIMON
INTERVIEWS, TRANSLATION AND BIOGRAPHIES: VOLKAN KAYA AND SAMY BEN REDJEB
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
NGA MARTIN AKA JOHNNY BLACK, MARCEL TALLA, BANDOLO WILFRIED, JEAN PAUL NDENGA, ABILA DÉSIRÉ, PIERRE DIDY TCHAKOUNTÉ, JOACHIM OELSNER, TSANGA MARIE, RICKARD MASIP, JEAN DELLEMOTTE, KEITH SLATER, JOHN PITCHER AND BJÖRN LARSSON FROM TIMETABLEIMAGES
supported by 184 fans who also own “Cameroon Garage Funk (Analog Africa Nr. 32)”
The sound of movement enlightening the difference between loneliness and solitude…
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” -or something to that effect…
azucena’s ghost
Utterly joyous music from Cape Verde in 1984, “Já Bô Corre D’Mim” combines highlife guitars with giddy tropical rhythms. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 8, 2021
supported by 174 fans who also own “Cameroon Garage Funk (Analog Africa Nr. 32)”
If "Dhulka Hooyo" doesn't move your ass, you lack an ass, all its fuzzy keys-triumphant vocal harmonies an all. I often enjoy world music distantly, but this one has the feels--recommend, recommend. VAST DEFERENS