A stunning start to the 80s from Fela Kuti – and a record that has the Egypt 80 band cooking every bit as strongly as Africa 70! The album's got this massively cooking vibe right from the start – fast-running, fast-riffing rhythms that are peppered with horns at the beginning of "Original Sufferhead", which then lay back for a nicely weird tenor solo, and some great keyboards too! "Power Show" is great too – with more other-worldly energy, and a vibe that almost makes it feel like Sun Ra has joined the band – and decided to deliver a solo on one of those weird keyboards of his! The arrangements are amazingly tight, and a bit more sophisticated than usual – and the whole thing grooves wonderfully. LP, Vinyl record album

A really seminal album from Fela Kuti – searing live set that's presented with drummer Ginger Baker – formerly of Cream, and a huge supporter of Fela's music on the UK scene! Baker had already picked up a lot of Fela's influence in his music – and his presence here made for a key moment of global exposure for the new Afro Funk sound that Fela was creating with his Africa 70 group – playing here as part of the ensemble, which oddly doesn't seem to include Baker at all. That hardly matters, though, as the young Tony Allen is on drums, and the set features great trumpet from Tunde Williams and tenor from Igo Chiko – really wailing alongside Fela on the long tracks "Egbe Me O", "Ye Ye De Smell", "Black Man's Cry", and "Let's Start". LP, Vinyl record album

Killer 2LP set that includes a number of harder to find Fela tracks – and way more than the usual best of that you'd expect! The set has 2 tracks per side of an album, for a total of 8 cuts in all – and lots of the titles are tough to find, like "Chop & Quench", "Let's Start", "Black Man's Cry", "Je'nwi Temi (Don't Gag Me)", and "Egbe Mi O Carry Me I Want To Die". LP, Vinyl record album

Really mindblowing work from Fela – a seminal 70s set that may well open up even more than any other album from the time – as the leader and Africa 70 stretch out on a single track that takes up the entire record! "Confusion" is almost proggish at the start – with a long passage that just features drums from Tony Allen and some really offbeat electric piano from Fela – slowly building up a groove out of the darkness, then letting the rest of the group come into the mix – all at a level that definitely sets the tune on fire for the righteous politics of the lyrics! The whole thing's no sloppy, over-extended jam – and instead, the record's a great demonstration of the care and craft that Fela brought to his musical vision at the time. LP, Vinyl record album

A real classic from the great Fela Kuti – a seminal mid 70s record that not only shows his impeccable sense of rhythm, but also his sense of rage as well! The title track – "Expensive Sh_t" – is Fela's answer to the time that he got busted for dope, and was forced to take a dump for the cops in order to "produce the goods" (which he had cleverly hidden in his stomach). The track has a great choppy funk groove, and is filled with the kind of raw anger you can imagine that the subject matter would produce – rich emotion that not only comes out in the lyrics, but also the sharp instrumental solos! The other track on the album – "Water No Get Enemy" – is another fantastic one, with cool electric piano solos, great tenor work, and a slinkily vamping groove. LP, Vinyl record album

Mindblowing work from the legendary Fela – definitely at the top of his game here, and brimming over with energy supplied by the Africa 70 ensemble! The tracks are long and freewheeling – but never without a sense of direction – as every ounce of the music is devoted to serving up the message of the man – from the way the keyboards step out over the grooves, to the sublime saxophone solos, to the rising energy when the vocals take flight in call/response mode! "Upside Down" is a monster groover with great rumbling sound – and "Go Slow" is slightly mellower, but no less soulful and funky. LP, Vinyl record album

How this burningly bad set has remained under wraps for so long is beyond us, but thanks to the folks at Honest Jon's, it's been brought to the much needed light of day! An excellent set collecting work from throughout the career of Cedric Im Brooks, spanning a wide assortment of styles, but all with a deep spiritual approach that Brooks gathered from time spent in his youth in Philadelphia, where he fell under the influence of Sun Ra, almost joining the Arkestra before returning home to Jamaica. The set jumps from heavy, dark roots and Nyabhingi influenced reggae, including some nice dubbed out versions, to Jamaican jazz sides like his take on Horace Silver's classic "Song For My Father", to some tightly snapping disco influenced grooves and bouncing afrobeat rhythms that would make Fela proud! 19 tracks in all, including "Free Up Black Man", "Satta Massa Gana", "Jah Light It Right", "Lambs Bread Collie", "Salt Lane rock", "Rasta Lead On Version", "Sly Mongoose", "Africa", "Collie Version", "Rebirth" and "Sabebe". LP, Vinyl record album

An obscure Nigerian groover – but a set with a massive groove to rival the best classics of the 70s scene in Lagos! The cover bills the record as "super-feelings led by Segun Okeji" – and we've gotta say, that's a great way to put it – because there's a soulful undercurrent to the record that definitely has Segun feeling the groove – blowing tenor with a heady sound, over tightly-paced tunes that get going right from the start – mixing in some other great horns, organ, and really massive percussion! Each track takes up a full side of the record – in true Fela format – and titles include "I Like Woman" and "Afro Super-Feelings In Disco". LP, Vinyl record album

An Afro-Funk classic! The track "Bananaticoco" by Max B has been compiled a number of times over the years, but few have gotten a chance to hear Max's super-heavy album of funk from 1973. The record's quite different than the fast Fela-like "Bananaticoco" groove, with a melange of slower funky styles – a bit like Chakachas, a bit like Lafayette Afro Rock Band, and with traces of some of the post-colonial Afro Funk groups working around London during the late 60s and early 70s. This one's got plenty of fuzzed-out guitars, rolling blown-out basslines, and heavy acoustic percussion to give the album a kick from underneath. Lots of party grooves on this one – and titles include "Free", "Samba", "Bameloo", "Nessa", "1er Movimiento", and "Poker". LP, Vinyl record album

Roy Ayers in a very Afro-styled mode – working here on his own after a famous collaboration with Fela Kuti – in a set that's filled with the same sort of hard-driving Afro-Funk grooves that you'd find in Fela's classic recordings! The songs are shorter than Fela's, and with more of Roy's usual smooth jazzy production style – but the overall influence is very much in the Afro-Funk vein, and the album's sort of a "part 2" to the Music Of Many Colors set that was cut a few years before. William Allen worked on the record with Roy – playing choppy Afro-Funk bass, and arranging and producing a lot of the material with Roy and Jaymz Bedford – and the record also features a host of extra percussion players, as well as some vocals by the lovely Sylvia Striplin. Includes the great groover "Africa, Center Of The World", plus "The River Niger", and a great remake of "Third Eye", which was on Everybody Loves The Sunshine, but is redone here with a heavier sound! Other tracks include "There's A Masterplan", "I'll Just Keep Trying", and "Destination Motherland". LP, Vinyl record album

Out of the wreckage of Cream came some very hip grooves! Ginger Baker was the hippest of the group's 3 members – and although he's often credited by soul fans for his work with Fela, he should also get hats off for his work with the group Air Force. At its base, the group's in the jazz rock mode – with players that include Brit jazz luminaires Phil Seamen, Harold McNair, and Graham Bond, plus rockers like Baker, Steve Winwood, Denny Laine, and Rick Grech. The tracks are all long groovers in a post-beat group mode – and the best tracks have a jamming sound that's pretty over the top. Titles include "Da Da Man", "Aiko Biaye", "Do What You Like", "Doin It", and "Don't Care". LP, Vinyl record album

Like Hugh Masekela's other records on Blue Thumb, this is a totally great bit of Afro funk, with a good hard groove filled with tight jazz playing, and some nice choppy rhythm that feels like it belongs on a Fela record. Great stuff played by his tight little Hedzoleh Soundz group, with the cuts "Kaa Ye Oya", "Patience", "When", "Adade", and "Languta". LP, Vinyl record album

Insanely wonderful work from Shango Dance Band – a group headed by onetime Fela Kuti bandmate Ojo Okeji – whose bass work here is worth the price of admission alone! Okeji was a key part of Fela's Koola Lobitos, until leaving the group in 1968 – and taking some of the best players with him – to form the amazing Shango Dance Band, which is this incredible bridge between older Afro jazz modes and the new funk styles to explode in the 70s! At some level, the groove's a bit like that which Fela was percolating at the start of the 70s – but there's also some jazzier currents on the horn solos, especially the trumpet – and Okeji's bass is very far up in the mix – dipping, turning, and crafting these amazing grooves throughout – with a snakey vibe that's completely sublime – as is the entire record. And sure, there have been plenty of Afro Funk reissued on the market in the past decade or so – but few as essential as this one – or as enjoyable! Titles include "Position Pass Power", "Women Are Great", and "I Need Your Love". Features bonus 7" single – with the tracks "Son Of Thunder" and "Alupandu Gbe", LP, Vinyl record album

Way cooler than the usual score you might expect – as the record not only features the main theme, plus some ethnographic recordings – but also includes cuts by Fela, Toure Kunda, and Youssou N'Dour! LP, Vinyl record album

Duets between AACM legend Lester Bowie – who plays trumpet – and Ino – who plays bass and synthesizer. The tracks have a spare, spacious feel – recalling some of the duet projects on ECM from the same time. Titles include "Fela Ellen David", "Kami Fusen", "Moon Over Bourbon Street", "Wishful Thinkin", and "Three Legged Race". LP, Vinyl record album

More Afro Funk than the soul jazz you might guess from the group's name – but that's OK with us, because the record's plenty darn great! Souljazz Orchestra are one of the best of the current wave of Afro combos to hail from Canada – and they manage to get an incredible full sound from a surprisingly small range of instruments – usually just 3 saxes, a trumpet, keyboards, and percussion – but played with a sense of power to earn them the "orchestra" in their name! There's a definite Fela influence going on here – grooves that move fast with very skittish rhythms – snaking out with great horn bits and keyboard lines. But the overall approach is a bit tighter too – much more focused at times, on slightly shorter tunes, about half of which are vocal numbers. The Latin-inflected "Little Habana" has the group breaking format a bit – and other tunes include "Mista President", "The Blind Leading The Blind", "Insurrection", and "Mojuba". 8 tracks in all! LP, Vinyl record album