v/a- NIGERIA 70: The Definitive Story of 1970s Funky Lagos 2LP

Interest in Afrobeat and the music of West Africa in the 70s began to revive globally in the late 90s after the death of Fela Kuti and an extensive re-issue programme of his work on vinyl and more importantly 2-for-1 album CDs. Following in their wake were a few compilations of Afrobeat influenced funk on Strut. Most of the music on those early compilations was in not made by African artists but European and American bands. Some bands were included musicians from the African diaspora, alot of them didn't. In fairness there was usually a track or two from Fela and Peter King.

It's hard to over-emphasise how groundbreaking this compilation actually was. There had been few African artists breaking through globally in the 80s: King Sunny Ade, The Bundu Boys etc, mainly courtesy of the efforts of Peter Gabriel and his Womad festival but 70s Nigeria remained completely unheard of outside of Fela Kuti and even he was pretty obscure and mainly known through his relationship with Ginger Baker.

So here is the first time anyone but aficionados got to hear William Onyeabor, The Funkees, The Lijadu Sisters and Koola Lobitos and the first time it became clear there was a really wide spectrum of music made in Africa, and Nigeria in particular, in the 70s: from Onyeabor's synths through to the strange country sound of Bongos Ikwue and everything from Afro-Funk to Afro-Psyche to raucous garage-esque Afrorock. Santana were a massive influence all over Africa in the 70s.

As a compilation is still stands up as a great listen. Some of the selections would now be considered over familiar to anyone ankle deep in the sounds of 70s Nigeria but it still works as a great primer and there's enough fantastic music here to satisfy anyone but an expert.