No Food Without Taste If By Hunger

Following Edo Funk Explosion Vol 1, which featured three Benin City groups, we are now treated to an album by another vintage Nigerian Edo funk outfit. Originally released in 1982, this highlife obscurity was the first of four LPs produced by Philosopher Okundaye. A multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, he worked under the name The Good Samaritans with a selection of talented musicians.

This is another of those extremely rare recordings of which little is known and few people will have heard. It is a fun album, sung mostly in the Bini and Hausa languages, with the addition of some largely unintelligible English language religious sermonising. Funky keyboard, driving rhythm section, psychedelic guitars and stabs of a horn section – everything you expect from this genre. It is very much toward the clunky funky end of the Nigerian musical spectrum rather than the sweeter jazzy highlife style. Originally released by Philosopher Okundaye himself as a private pressing this reissue has been re-mixed and comes in a limited edition of 2,000 orange vinyl LPs or as a digital download. With its limited re-press it is sadly destined to retain its status as a highly collectible curiosity.