The World Ends: Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria

Is there no end to this stuff? The World Ends is the third album of vintage Nigerian sounds released on Miles Cleret’s estimable Soundway label this year, and the umpteenth in an ongoing series drawing on his haul of old and (until now) forgotten vinyl, acquired on collecting trips to Lagos. The latest addition is a double-CD (or two vinyl triple-albums) containing 33 tracks of spaced-out Afro-funk, rock and pop from early 1970s groups such as the Hygrades, the Funkees, the Hykkers, and the Black Mirrors. Cleret has cleverly tried to theme his different releases and The World Ends concentrates on the influence of the 1967 psychedelic explosion on Nigerian music, although its effect was not heard until several years later as Nigeria was enduring the bloody civil war in Biafra while San Francisco and London were tripping out in the first summer of love.

Inevitably there is plenty of seepage between Cleret’s themes and many of these tracks could as easily have found a home on earlier compilations. But the concentration on Hendrix-influenced electric guitars and Doors-style keyboard vamping is evident and there is little indication that Cleret is scraping the bottom of the barrel yet. Most of the tracks here, from the psych-pop of ‘Blacky Joe’ by P.R.O. (People’s Rock Outfit) to the Hygrades’ wah-wah guitar funk on ‘Rough Rider’ are pretty irresistible. What most of these bands lack – and which consigned them to obscurity in the first place – is a charismatic frontman. You won’t find a Nigerian Jim Morrison or, closer to home, another Fela. But you will find some great musicians playing with feeling and imagination. And that’s more than enough.