Kenya Special Vol 2

The first volume in Soundway's Kenya Special series was released in 2013 and gave us a generous 32 tracks of classic 1970s and 80s rumba and benga from East Africa. The second volume offers 17 more examples from the same rich crate-load, painstakingly rescued in the most part from rare 45rpm 7” vinyl singles, many of which were only ever produced in tiny runs of a few hundred. Several of the names are familiar from volume one, including the Lulus Band, Rift Valley Brothers, Afro 70, Peter Tsotsi Juma and the Eagles Lupopo. Others will be unfamiliar except to a handful of archivists and private collectors. Among those now gaining wider currency for the first time are the Bahari Boys, with their horn-led Afro-Cuban rumba; African Vibration, whose echoing jungle-rock chants have a hint of Santana about them; the raw Afrobeat of Awengele; the slinky dance rhythms of Kilwa Jazz, who sound like an East African Orchestra Baobab, and the swaying Swahili sounds of Orchestre les Mangelepa. The sound quality isn’t always pristine, which is understandable given the scratchy sources from which the material has been mastered. But we should be grateful that this evocative music has been preserved at all.