Various Artists, Soundway Records Presents The World Ends Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria
Featured Album
The riotous sound of youth pushing at the boundaries, tearing down the old, and bringing in the new
It took three years for the Summer of Love to reach Nigeria, kept at bay by bloody, deadly civil war. But when it finally landed in 1970, it hit full force, sweeping the old highlife music aside. The young fell in love with '60s Western rock, funk and, above all, the electric guitar. They shoved the Beatles, James Brown, the San Francisco Sound, and everything else Western they could find into a blender, and what came out are the sounds here, madness and glorious mayhem, all topped by guitars. Lots of guitars. With six strings and an amp, a young man in Lagos could feel like a king, and everyone wanted the crown. So many people wanted to strap on an axe and let rip, in fact, that the bands were forced to scavenge older drummers from the highlife bands.
Sometimes the sounds they make are just short, wild bursts of fretboard anarchy, as with Colomach and "Ottoto Shamoleda." But even when there's plenty of shape and form to a song, it's as if the bands are having to restrain their guitar players from going over the top — and they don't always succeed. Sometimes, as with Reme Izabo's Music Research, tuning is more theory than reality, but when people are playing with this much unfettered exuberance, it doesn't matter. And that's the real pleasure of this compilation — the palpable joy of playing that's in every track. They all have a three-minute shot at glory and people want to cram as much music (and as many guitar solos) as possible into it. Add a fuzz pedal and they're in heaven.
Like most things, music was very much a man's world in Nigeria — it even sported fatigues at times, as when the Action morphed into Action 13 after being sponsored by the Army's 13th Brigade. But a few women did find a way in, like the Lijadu Sisters, whose "Life's Gone Down Low" rocks as hard as any of the boys. Rock, though, is what everyone does. They might be new to the form, but they take to it naturally, as if they'd invented it, producing some wonderful, very accomplished and inventive music, all underpinned by plenty of funk: Just listen to "Yem Efe," with heavy bass, layers of percussion, all topped by wailing distorted guitar. Call it Afro Rock. And like the best rock 'n' roll anywhere, since the first guitarist put blues and country together, it's the riotous sound of youth pushing at the boundaries, tearing down the old, and bringing in the new. This isn't the world ending, it's a new world being born.
