... LP, Vinyl record album

Quite an unusual package – one that brings together unheard electronic experiments from Ahmed Malek – the Algerian composer who's better-known for more famous soundtrack material in the 60s and 70s! The music here is all from rare tapes that were Malek's own experiments, and are brought together and reworked slightly by contemporary musician Flako – but in ways that only seem to provide greater context for the original recordings! Most numbers are quite spare, and are a mix of analogue and digital modes – usually somewhat tuneful, but occasionally with darker elements that almost bring a cold wave vibe that you wouldn't expect from Malek's earlier work. CD

A second volume from one of our favorite compilation series of 70s African music ever – Nigeria Special Volume 2 from the rare Afrobeat treasure diggers at Soundway Records! This deeper delve into the well of hard-to-find early to mid 70s material sticks is just as wonderful – chronicling rare singles, A-sides and B-sides, as well as lesser known album tracks that wonderful fuse styles of African funk, soul & jazz, highlife and more. Heavy rhythms and passionate sounds galore, from the first half dozen years of the decade in this second, and purportedly final installment of the flagship Nigerian Special series! It's very exciting that researcher and compiler Miles Cleret puts together compilations of such top caliber material, on a level that it's mindboggling that so much has languished largely unheard for so many years! 19 tracks : "Psychedelic Baby" by Fubura Sekibo, "Shango Oba Onina" by Black's Zenith, "Omohupa" by The Otarus, "The Lord's Prayer"m by The Don Isaac Ezekiel Combination, "Jeka Subu" by Bola Johnson & His Easy Life Top Beats", "Motako" by Fidel Sax Bateke & The Voices Of Darkness and more. CD