Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Two reviews up at Blurt the last couple of days…both good stuff.

Today’s review is of the several-times-reissued Nigeria 70 compilation, a collection of tracks from the scene that grew up around Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade and others in Lagos…as James Brown’s aesthetic infiltrated highlife and other traditional West African styles. I’d heard of it – and had heard a lot of subsequent West African comps that this disc clearly paved the way for – but never heard it…and it’s well worth hearing.

Here’s the review.


There are some “videos” of tracks from this album on YouTube, with the music and a static image of the record cover, if you’re curious – including this one of William Onyeabor’s “Better Change Your Mind.”


And yesterday, my review of Richard Bishop’s Freak of Araby also made the Blurt website. I’ve been writing about him a fair amount lately, but this review is probably the last of the bunch…at least until he makes another record.



Here’s a video of a recent live show in Oakland.

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