One of the most compelling Fela albums of the 70s – and one that's got a very different feel than some of his others. The album features one long track – "Coffin For Head Of State" – and although the track still has the usual Fela staples of horn riffs, chopping vamps, and electric piano – it's also got a sad dirge-like sound that is incredibly soulful, and filled with sorrowful emotion that you don't normally catch on Fela's albums. Side two is especially great – as it's mostly instrumental, and features some great interplay between a spacey electric piano and the horn section. LP, Vinyl record album

A searing live set from Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 – a long album-length jam, recorded in Berlin – with the group really going to town in instrumental frenzy topped with very righteous lyrics! VIP doesn't have the usual meaning here – as it stands for "vagabonds in power", and is a searing attack on the Nigerian government at the time – one that has plenty of power from a lyrical perspective, but which really soars to the heavens as Fela and the group stretch the whole thing out over riffing guitar, driving percussion, and some incredible horn solos too! LP, Vinyl record album

A lesser-known 70s session from Fela – but a great one too, and a record that captures the Africa 70 group at all their early raw best! Tracks are both very long – stretching for a side of the record apiece – and the title track "Alagbon Close" features some amazing keyboard lines on the intro, all tinny and thin – and done with this other-worldly almost Sun Ra-like quality! The other tune, "I Get No Eye For Back", also has some amazing electric piano too – but intertwined with some very strong horn work from the group! 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

One of Fela's greatest albums – and one of the few that got any sort of international circulation in the 70s! "Zombie" shows Fela at the height of his powers – grooving away in incredibly fast, incredibly tight Afro Funk lines, weaving guitar, sax, and keyboards together with a speed that still leaves us breathless. No wonder the track had a history of causing riots when it was played! "Mr Follow Follow" is a bit mellower, but even stronger on the message tip, and graced with a sublime snakey sax solo. LP, Vinyl record album

A great batch of rare tracks from the legendary Fela Kuti – unreleased for many years after their recording – which was done in London in 1971, when EMI sent Fela to the UK for a special session at their Abbey Road studios! The set benefits from the great production values of that historic place – and the band grooves tightly in tracks that are a little bit shorter than usual, but which still burn with all the intensity of the later African recordings – almost a more focused approach that draws a bit more link between American funk before some of the freewheeling jams of the side-long Afro Funk tracks! Titles include "J'ehin J'ehin", "Egbe Mi O", "Who're You", "Buy Africa", and "Fight To Finish". 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 features a 16 minute long bonus track on side 3 – a duet between Ginger Baker on drums and Tony Allen! LP, Vinyl record album

Heavy Nigerian funk from the great Segun Bucknor – an artist who was working during the same Afro Funk revolution as Fela Kuti & Africa 70, but one who never fully got the exposure he deserved on a global level! By the time of these cuts, Segun had already been working hard in a variety of different groups – and he emerges at the start of the 70s with a bold new vision in music – one that draws on the same American soul and funk inspirations that you'll hear on the records of Geraldo Pino, but which also has some moodier elements at times too – a heady current that's clearly inspired by the psych generation, and taken to some more message-oriented lyrics at times. The blend is wonderful, especially when most cuts have these deeply funky rhythms at the bottom – and this 2CD package is a fantastic introduction to his music, with 16 long cuts that include "Sorrow Sorrow Sorrow", "Poor Man No Get Brother", "Dye Dye", "Only In My Sleep", "Adanri Sogbasogba", "Baby Get Your Thing", "Love And Affection", "Son Of January 15th", "La La La", "Gbmojo", "Ayinde Ogo", "Who Say I Tire", "You Killing Me", "Adebo", and "That's The Time". CD

A brilliant mix of Afro and deep funk styles – the kind of grooves you'd get if Fela Kuti hung out with The Meters in the late 60s! Budos Band recall the genius of 90s deep funk combo The Daktaris – and have a similar love of older African rhythms touched by a newer indie funk sound – a complexity in the group's well-arranged horn parts, but a simplicity to their rhythms that makes the album cook like some of our favorite classics from years back. Sax and trumpet lines are mixed nicely with heavy percussion and a fair bit of organ at the bottom – creating a murky groove that has a bit of New Orleans in the mix, but also has most of the instruments stepping along with the rhythm – in a very cool take on the Africa 70 sound. Tracks are all instrumental, and all incredible – and the record's one of the freshest we've heard from the deep funk underground in years – a second-generation set that gets way past simple copycat funk and into its own unique groove! Titles include "Budos Theme", "Ghost Walk", "King Charles", "Eastbound", "Across The Atlantic", "Up From The South", "TIBWF", and "Monkey See Monkey Do". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest grooves from the legendary Desco Records years – a brilliant album of modern Afro Funk done by The Daktaris – in a groove that's just as hard-hitting as any of Fela's work from the 70s! The album was one of the first to bring back an older African style to current funk – and even years later, it's still one of the best examples of the sound – a razor-sharp session that helped set the stage for better-known Antibalas work to come! Percussion and guitar is super-heavy throughout – produced with that bare-bones Desco style, and handled in a way that makes you think the record might be some treasure from mid 70s Nigeria – a trick the label tried to pull when it was released! Cuts include a cover of Fela's "Upside Down", James Brown's "Give It Up Or Turn It Loose", and the originals "Super Afro-Beat", "Daktari Walk", "Voodoo Soul Stew", and "Quiet Man Is A Dead Man". LP, Vinyl record album

A stunner of an album from this legendary group – hard and funky right form the start, with these long tracks that have the TP Orchestre showing that they can jam just as hard and long as Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 – but in a very different way! The percussion is great, the guitar lines completely seductive, and the horn parts have all these cool, crispy currents that really shade in the sound in a wonderful way – making for a rich balance against the leaner qualities of the guitar lines that cut back and forth over the grooves in a really wonderful way. A killer sets from one of the African greats of the 70s – with three long tracks that include "Davi Djinto Super No 2", "Homin Si Tche", and "Aiha Ni Kpe We". LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic stuff – and one of the records that made drummer Tony Allen a legend, and one of the key musicians to step out of the larger setting of the Afrika 70 group of Fela Kuti! Allen's the leader here, and the vibe is nicely a bit different than some of Fela's records – although the man himself also handles the production, and plays with the larger group too – giving the set a nice tie to Tony Allen's roots, but also really showing that strong sense of character that's made him such an interesting, continually evolving force over the decades! As with some of the classic Fela albums, each side of the album features a long track with a very righteous Afro Funk vibe – "No Accommodation For Lagos" and "African Message". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best soul collaborations ever! Fela and Roy Ayers team up for this whopping album that brings together the best sides of these monster soul talents of the 70s! In keeping with Fela's work, the tracks are long and Afro-tinged, with a complicated groove that grows over the length of the track. And in keeping with Roy's work, the album has a sweet soulful feel, with lots of nice jazzy touches, cool vibes, and great vocals by Roy. Two long tracks, both classics: "2000 Black" and "Africa, Center of the World". Long overdue! LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic collection of lesser-known gems from the 70s scene in Nigeria – music that's a great counterpart to better-remembered Afro Funk and soul from international giants like Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade! This set digs deep, and is a nicelly expanded version of a set that Soul Jazz issued years back as a limited edition 7" single box for Record Store Day – presented here with more music, and a detailed set of notes – really getting at the special scene that was taking place in Nigeria at the time, as the nation was rising to the top of the African scene with a fantastic criss-crossing of musical modes! There's definitely plenty of the funk promised in the title, and the "rock" is usually of the funky kind with great guitar work – and a few later cuts even pick up the pace with a bit of disco, but more in the fast-funk mode, and hardly the slick stuff of the American scene. Titles include "Africans Must Unite" and "Shake Hands" by Geraldo Pino, "We'll Get Home" by The Wings, "E Ye Ika Se" by Alhagi Prof Kollington Ayinala, "Kassa Kpa Sama Kpa" by Colomach, "Beware" by MFB, "You Are The One" by Tony Grey & The Ozimba Messengers, "Single Boy" by The Wings, "Sugar Baby" by Don Bruce & The Angels", "Power To The People" by Geraldo Pino, "Igba Alusi" by Original Wings, "Dance Of The Elephants" by Sonny Okosunds Ozziddi, and "Oba Erediauwa I" by Sonny Okosuns. LP, Vinyl record album