Pop Makossa - The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984
by Various
tessgaston
tessgaston
My childhood is in there...but it's music from the future. How? This is a really cool album. The perfect makossa showcase. Oh, and killer baselines from beginning to end.
Favorite track: Ngon Engap.
Vik Srinivasan
Vik Srinivasan
Mind-blowing. Good vibes all around. Can't stop listening
Favorite track: Mussoloki.
Ace Newton
Ace Newton
cannot not be happy listening to this music, that steady 4 on the floor beat makes you want to move
Favorite track: More Love.
themailman66
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Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Purchasable with gift card
€10 EUR or more
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital AlbumIncludes unlimited streaming of Pop Makossa - The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 7 daysPurchasable with gift card
€16 EUR or more
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Full Digital Discography
Get all 44 Analog Africa releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Cameroon Garage Funk, Trujillo - Perú 1971-1974, Edo Funk Explosion Vol.1, Take One, La Locura de Machuca 1975-1980, Fundo De Marê Palinha (Limited Dance Edition), Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical (Limited Dance Edition), Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972-1991), and 36 more.
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2xLP Gatefold LP (140gr) with 20-pages LP size Booklet + 30cmx30cm Poster
Record/Vinyl + Digital AlbumIncludes unlimited streaming of Pop Makossa - The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Sold Out
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1. |
Pop Makossa Invasion
04:47
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2. |
Yaoundé Girls
05:57
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3. |
Nen Lambo
06:23
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4. |
Sanaga Calypso
03:46
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5. |
M'ongele M'am
04:03
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6. |
Ngon Engap
04:21
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7. |
Ye Medjuie
04:26
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8. |
Mininga Meyong Mese
07:10
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9. |
The Sekele Movement
06:26
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10. |
Mussoloki
04:17
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11. |
More Love
08:33
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12. |
Africa
07:20
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about
The Pop Makossa adventure started in 2009, when Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb first travelled to Cameroon to make an initial assessment of the country’s musical situation. He returned with enough tracks for an explosive compilation highlighting the period when funk and disco sounds began to infiltrate the Makossa style popular throughout Cameroon.
So why has it taken almost eight years from that first visit to the final compilation? From the very beginning, there were several mysteries hanging over Pop Makossa.
What had happened to Bill Loko, the teenage super-star whose monster hit ‘Nen Lambo’ caused such a sensation that he was forced to flee to the other side of the world? How did bandleader Eko Roosevelt go from Cameroonian prodigy to chief of an idyllic seaside village? And who exactly was Mystic Djim, the dreadlocked producer and mercurial hit-maker whose wizardry on a simple home four-track recorder could outshine even the mighty studios of Cameroon’s National Radio station?
It was not until DJ and music producer Déni Shain was dispatched to Cameroon to finalise the project, license the songs, scan photographs, and interview the artists that some of the biggest question marks began to disappear. His journey from the port city of Douala to the capital of Yaoundé brought him in contact with the lives and stories of many of the musicians who had shaped the sound of Cameroon’s dance music in its most fertile decade.
Indeed, all the tracks on Pop Makossa are a revelation. The beat that holds everything together has its origins in the rhythms of the Sawa people; Ambassey, Bolobo, Assiko and Essewé, a traditional funeral dance. But it wasn’t until these rhythms arrived in the cities of Cameroon and collided with Merengue, High-Life, Congolese Rumba, and, later, Funk and Disco, that modern Makossa was born.
Makossa, the beat that long before football, managed to unify the whole of Cameroon, was successful in part because it was so adaptable. Some of the greatest Makossa hits incorporated the electrifying guitars and tight grooves of funk, while others were laced with cosmic flourishes made possible by the advent of the synthesizer. However much came down to the bass; and from the rubbery hustle underpinning Mystic Djim’s ‘Yaoundé Girls’ to the luminous liquid disco lines which propel Pasteur Lappé’s ‘Sekele Movement’, Pop Makossa demonstrates why Cameroonian bass players are some of the most revered in the world.
Yet at the end of it all, there was still one final mystery facing the production team at Analog Africa: how was this compilation of amazing sounds from Cameroon going to begin?
After many month and hundreds of different running orders, something still didn’t seem to click... until one day they came across a mighty song entitled ‘Pop Makossa Invasion,’ recorded for Radio Buea, a tune so obscure that even in Cameroon it had never been released. Suddenly the whole compilation fell into place. ‘Pop Makossa Invasion’ makes its debut here and joins the pantheon of extraordinary songs that plugged Cameroon’s Makossa style into the modern world.
So why has it taken almost eight years from that first visit to the final compilation? From the very beginning, there were several mysteries hanging over Pop Makossa.
What had happened to Bill Loko, the teenage super-star whose monster hit ‘Nen Lambo’ caused such a sensation that he was forced to flee to the other side of the world? How did bandleader Eko Roosevelt go from Cameroonian prodigy to chief of an idyllic seaside village? And who exactly was Mystic Djim, the dreadlocked producer and mercurial hit-maker whose wizardry on a simple home four-track recorder could outshine even the mighty studios of Cameroon’s National Radio station?
It was not until DJ and music producer Déni Shain was dispatched to Cameroon to finalise the project, license the songs, scan photographs, and interview the artists that some of the biggest question marks began to disappear. His journey from the port city of Douala to the capital of Yaoundé brought him in contact with the lives and stories of many of the musicians who had shaped the sound of Cameroon’s dance music in its most fertile decade.
Indeed, all the tracks on Pop Makossa are a revelation. The beat that holds everything together has its origins in the rhythms of the Sawa people; Ambassey, Bolobo, Assiko and Essewé, a traditional funeral dance. But it wasn’t until these rhythms arrived in the cities of Cameroon and collided with Merengue, High-Life, Congolese Rumba, and, later, Funk and Disco, that modern Makossa was born.
Makossa, the beat that long before football, managed to unify the whole of Cameroon, was successful in part because it was so adaptable. Some of the greatest Makossa hits incorporated the electrifying guitars and tight grooves of funk, while others were laced with cosmic flourishes made possible by the advent of the synthesizer. However much came down to the bass; and from the rubbery hustle underpinning Mystic Djim’s ‘Yaoundé Girls’ to the luminous liquid disco lines which propel Pasteur Lappé’s ‘Sekele Movement’, Pop Makossa demonstrates why Cameroonian bass players are some of the most revered in the world.
Yet at the end of it all, there was still one final mystery facing the production team at Analog Africa: how was this compilation of amazing sounds from Cameroon going to begin?
After many month and hundreds of different running orders, something still didn’t seem to click... until one day they came across a mighty song entitled ‘Pop Makossa Invasion,’ recorded for Radio Buea, a tune so obscure that even in Cameroon it had never been released. Suddenly the whole compilation fell into place. ‘Pop Makossa Invasion’ makes its debut here and joins the pantheon of extraordinary songs that plugged Cameroon’s Makossa style into the modern world.
credits
released June 15, 2017
Compiled by Samy Ben Redjeb and Déni Shain
Executive Producer : Samy Ben Redjeb for Analog Africa
Cat. number : Analog Africa AA083
Mastering by Nick Robins at Soundmastering (London) nick@soundmastering.com
Graphic Design by Kathrin Remest ommadrugada@blogspot.com Biographies by Déni Shain, Adz and Samy Ben Redjeb
Text editing by Jesse Simon (Berlin)
Vinyl Record Cutting by Frank Merritt at The Carvery (London) · frank@carverycuts.com
Special Thanks to:
Claude Fabo, Marcel Talla, Sam Fan Thomas, Isidor Tamwo, Ange Ébogo Émérent, Pablo Master, Esso Essomba, Tchemke Nana Blaise, Miosine, Alice Huc, Thomas Vicente, Olive Davoux, L‘équipe du Verre Volé, Prof Babacar, Teddy Gilles, Lorraine Bert, Mbarga
Soukous, M. Molo, Benjamin Rougier, Primelle Fénéon, Bernard Mattei, Valerie Mattei Nja Kwa, Arnaud Tarabout, Emmanuel Guysso, Adam Bristow
To Jeannette Kemogne, Bernard Ntone, Jean Paul Lietche, Bill Loko, Eko Roosevelt, Nkodo Si-Tony, Sonodisc, John Pitcher, the family of Clement Djimogne
To Arc Musica and Joachim Oelsner for the song Pop Makossa Invasion
To Jean Maurice Noah writer of the book „Le Makossa - Une musique africaine moderne“ ISBN : 978-2-296-54150-4
Compiled by Samy Ben Redjeb and Déni Shain
Executive Producer : Samy Ben Redjeb for Analog Africa
Cat. number : Analog Africa AA083
Mastering by Nick Robins at Soundmastering (London) nick@soundmastering.com
Graphic Design by Kathrin Remest ommadrugada@blogspot.com Biographies by Déni Shain, Adz and Samy Ben Redjeb
Text editing by Jesse Simon (Berlin)
Vinyl Record Cutting by Frank Merritt at The Carvery (London) · frank@carverycuts.com
Special Thanks to:
Claude Fabo, Marcel Talla, Sam Fan Thomas, Isidor Tamwo, Ange Ébogo Émérent, Pablo Master, Esso Essomba, Tchemke Nana Blaise, Miosine, Alice Huc, Thomas Vicente, Olive Davoux, L‘équipe du Verre Volé, Prof Babacar, Teddy Gilles, Lorraine Bert, Mbarga
Soukous, M. Molo, Benjamin Rougier, Primelle Fénéon, Bernard Mattei, Valerie Mattei Nja Kwa, Arnaud Tarabout, Emmanuel Guysso, Adam Bristow
To Jeannette Kemogne, Bernard Ntone, Jean Paul Lietche, Bill Loko, Eko Roosevelt, Nkodo Si-Tony, Sonodisc, John Pitcher, the family of Clement Djimogne
To Arc Musica and Joachim Oelsner for the song Pop Makossa Invasion
To Jean Maurice Noah writer of the book „Le Makossa - Une musique africaine moderne“ ISBN : 978-2-296-54150-4
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The Future of Music Happened Decades Ago
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