Africamore – The Afro-Funk Side of Italy (1973-1978)

While it’s possible to sleep on nylon sheets, you’d really rather not. Similarly, the experience of listening to the synthetic African dance music of Africamore is none too comfortable. That’s partly because our ears have become attuned over recent decades to the real thing. This compilation goes back to a time when it was in less plentiful supply. The catalyst for the Italian Afro-funk music in question was Manu Dibango’s evergreen ‘Soul Makossa’, the song that launched a score or more of imitations (such as studio band African Revival’s decent cover, included here and Albert Verrecchia, of Weyman Corporation’s, chortling ‘Kumbayero’). In the context of the contemporary disco scene, some of the dozen chosen cuts on Africamore are quite decent – Jamaican-born Beryl Cunningham, for example, transforms Nat King Cole’s ‘Calypso Blues’ into ‘Why O’, a percussion-rich, quasi-Hamilton Bohannon stomper – but it’s a shock to learn that Osibisa supplied the rhythm section for the rather excruciating ‘Amore’ by husband-and-wife team, Chrisma. Lest anyone should need to boogie down to a song about the food we eat, Augusto Martelli & The Real Mc Coy pile on some seriously funky ‘Calories’. Altogether, though, I can’t imagine that there will be much call for Africamore – The Afro-funk Side of Italy outside of Italy itself.