Nigeria 70: Sweet Times: Afro-Funk, Highlife and Juju From 1970s Lagos

The third edition of Strut's Nigeria 70 series contains another 13 crate-raiding tracks never previously issued outside of Nigeria – and illustrates impressively what a diverse range of sounds was cooking in Lagos around the time Fela Kuti was returning from the US. Money Man & the Super 5 International's ‘Life’ and Ali Chukwumah's ‘Henrietta’ both illustrate that the influence of Congolese rumba reached as far as Lagos. Zeal Onyia's ‘Idegbani’ is a charmingly crude slice of old-fashioned highlife. Victor Olaiya takes the highlife sound and slows it down to a sparse, New Orleans-style funk on the splendidly pidgin-titled ‘Kinringjingbin’. Don Isaac Ezekiel's ‘Ire’ has a darker, sinister edge, while Tunde Mabadu's ‘Viva Disco’ from later in the decade hints at what Fela might have sounded like if he'd been influenced by the disco of Chic rather than the funk of James Brown, though it also seems to owe something to Manu Dibango's pre-disco 1972 hit, ‘Soul Makossa’. The crackle, hiss and occasional scratch of the original vinyl 45s has, presumably for reasons of authenticity, not been removed in the digital transfer. It's a questionable decision and at times the effect is intensely annoying, although on the Ali Chukwumah track the scratch accidentally inflicted across the grooves by its careless owner some 40 years ago insinuates perfectly into the rhythm and repeats unerringly on the beat. These days, they pay turntablists a lot of money to get the same effect.