Following 2012's fourth volume that celebrated the existential work of Tim Maia, here we find Luaka Bop exploring the legacy of William Onyeabor. A high chief and Kenyan diplomat who allegedly refuses to discuss his music, he self-released eight albums in the 70s and 80s and these are some of the many highlights. Stretching from the New York-influenced post-punk synth funk of “Good Name” to the most authentic Afro fusion of “Why Go To War”, Onyeabor's range not only reflects his clear creative skill, but also the ever-developing international language of music during the fruitful period he was active. Who is William Onyeabor? Press play and find out yourselves…
Review
The title of the fifth volume in Luaka Bop's World Psychedelic Classics
series is perhaps the most aptly titled one. Nigerian musician and entrepreneur
William Onyeabor is a bit of an intentional cipher biographically. He released
eight albums and two singles on his own Wilfilms label between 1977 and
1985. After becoming a born-again Christian, he renounced his past and musical
career. Onyeabor became a successful entrepreneurial businessman and an
enthusiastic booster of Nigeria's hotbed of Christian music scene. He was also
crowned high chief of his native Igbo people of Enugu, one of the
country's capitals of commerce. The nine tracks on this years-in-the-making
compilation feature music drenched in analog synths, early drum machine sounds,
and wah-wah, phase-shifted guitars and basses. It is all seductive, infectious,
and timeless. On set-opener “Body and Soul,” Onyeabor co-opts tranced-out,
Nigerian juju music, saturates it in slow Afro-funk, and weds it all to
P-Funk's call-and-response lyric and chorus; after ten minutes, the effect is
consciousness altering. “Atomic Bomb” is pure African disco with peeling,
phased synths, fat basslines, drum loops, and strident, chunky guitars
punctuated by Rhodes pianos; they create a spaced-out backdrop of nearly dubwise
effects in this leisurely, insistently pulsing groover. The singing (a female
chorus with Onyeabor adding his own gentle stream of consciousness musings)
pushes it all to the margin. “Why Go to War,” composed and recorded a decade
after the Biafran/Nigerian civil war, bridges Onyeabor's brand of Afro-Funk to
Fela Kuti's – especially in the vocal chants and the militancy of its groove.
“Love Is Blind,” with its tight, repetitive guitar vamp, rolling Space
Invaders-style drum machines, echoes, and the jagged weave of chorded and
single-line zig-zagging synth runs, fuses the boundaries separating soul, disco,
and new wave. None of the previous tunes prepare the listener for the futurist,
electro rhythm and analog synth crush that is “Let's Fall in Love,” from
1983's Good Name – perhaps the set's finest track. Over seven minutes, its
layered, beaming, stratospheric, proto-techno synths pulse and stab as a
high-register soprano sax careens over the frantic tension. Who Is William
Onyeabor? may not answer many biographical questions, but it does paint a superb
portrait of the musician as a highly original creator and pioneer; it adds depth
and dimension to the picture we have of African music during the era.
Thom Jurek – AllMusic.com