Edo funk explosion vol. 1

"Three legends of the southern Nigeria sound bring the beat: If Lagos had the superstars, the jazz-inspired maestros, the troublemakers, Benin City knew how to strip away the complexity and party ... I doubt this year wil uncover a more glorious way to spend 79 minutes in your kitchen disco".

"In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new hybrid strain of Afrobeat emerged from Benin City, the capital of Edo State in southern Nigeria. The new style mixed West African highlife elements with funk, reggae, disco and the traditional folk styles of pre-colonial Edo culture ... This hugely charming anthology showcases the grainy-warm croon and alluringly wonky analogue keyboard tinkles of Akaba Man (aka policeman-turned-pop-star Roland Igunma Igbinigie), as well as the shiny, brassy, minimalist party grooves of the rather plendidly named Sir Victor Uwaifo and his Titibitis. The standout presence here, however, is Osayomore Joseph ... Credited with bringing the flute and increasingly politicised lyrics into Edo funk, Joseph smuggles barbed social commentary into his deceptively laid-back and quite funny songs".

"Much of the music emanating from Nigeria during the 1970s and 80s was an imitation of European and American disco. The first track here, by Osayomore Joseph, humorously satirises Africans 'foolishly' dancing like a white man. Edo Funk may well move to a slinky disco beat but it is undeniably African and the three artists on this collection are the leading originators of the genre ... During the 1980s [Victor] Uwaifo and others experimented with the fusion of highlife and funk. Churning highlife guitars are accompanied by horn sections, delightfully cheesy keyboards, and tinges of psychedelia. Osayomore is the most controversial and political of the three artists featured here. He is as spiky and boastful as his contemporary Fela - which can be heard on 'My Name is Money'. Uwaifo is the most musically experimental and funky, and Akaba Man is the smoothest. A magnificently quirky variation of highlife".