Doing it in Lagos : boogie, pop & disco in 1980s Nigeria

"[This] superb 2016 anthology (...) combines tracks recorded by various R&B artists who burst onto the Lagos, Nigeria nightclub scene in the '70s and '80s. Inspired by the sophisticated dance-oriented sound of American acts like Chic, Shalamar, and Cameo, Nigerian musicians started crafting their own brand of glamorous, club-ready, good-time jams colloquially referred to as "boogie." A giddy combination of funk, electro, R&B, and disco, "boogie" was a hugely popular style in Lagos clubs ... Tracks like Hotline's funky "Fellas Doing It in Lagos," Steve Monite's sparkling "Only You," and Livy Ekemezie's roiling, falsetto-tinged hip-shaker "Holiday Action" are hooky, infectious numbers that wouldn't have sounded at all out of place in rotation on U.S. urban radio stations ... Decades later, listening to Doing It in Lagos, it's clear that Nigerian "boogie" was a vibrant and inspired movement of its own, as worthy of fandom as any of the American tracks it was influenced by".

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"While Fela Kuti's Afrobeat sound dominated the 70's Nigerian music scene, it began to lose popularity in the following decade as the oil-boom brought about a brief period of prosperity. Many of the country's youth turned instead to the glossy, upwardly mobile sound of disco and boogie from the US ... For a while, guided by trusty producers such as Jake Solo and Odion Iroje, the music sold by the bucket-load, though was later dismissed as inauthentic and shallow. Unfairly so, as this latest compilation by Soundway proves, for the results were both frequently spectacular, and, while not explicitly African in sound, distinct from its US counterpart. What's more, it is tremendous fun ... Highlights abound, and with nary a duff track in sight across the extended running length, it's nothing short of a revelation".

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