William Onyeabor: World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor? (Luaka Bop, 2013)

October 13, 2013 at 8:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

William Onyeabor: World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor?

Like Francis Bebey’s African Electronic Music 1975-1982 collection from 2 years ago, this is a revelatory collection of funky, futuristic African music which was almost completely unheard until now (at least outside of Africa). The back cover lists a partial, theoretical backstory, so I’m not sure how David Byrne managed to license his music for a release on Luaka Bop, but we should all be so glad he did because this is INCREDIBLE. I’ve heard a few of these tracks on WFMU and have been fiending for more. The track that really piqued my interest was “Good Name”, a truly brilliant 10-minute space-disco track from 1983, which stands up to any of the best underground American and European disco of the era. “Good name is better than silver and gold and nobody can buy my good name”. Fuck yes. Otherwise, we have midtempo funk (“Body and Soul”), Afro-soul with strangely Yoko-ish background vocals (“Atomic Bomb”), uptempo echo-ey funky Afrobeat with horns and keyboards (“Something You Will Never Forget”, “Heaven and Hell”), heavy scratchy-guitar anti-war Afrobeat (“Why Go To War”), and lo-fi disco love songs (“Love Is Blind”, “Let’s Fall In Love”, “Fantastic Man”). Truly mind-warping synths and drum machines, great lyrics, understated vocals, and just seriously funky grooves. Easily one of the best reissues of the year!

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