Nigeria Special & Nigeria Rock Special (2008)

Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6
&
Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria (2008)

UK record label Soundway has made a habit of digging up obscure African sounds spanning many genre's, including afrobeat, funk, highlife, blues, and psychedelic rock, among others. This year, they released a 3-part compilation of 70's Nigerian music. I picked up two of the three titles, both a mouthful to say: Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6, and Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria.

The two-disk Nigeria Special is the lengthiest of the three, providing a thorough and expansive collection of quality, laid-back Nigerian blues. Because of it's sheer length (almost two hours of music between the two disks), it can be somewhat of an overwhelming listen. The afrobeat tracks also get a little difficult to separate the good from the bad if you're a relative newbie to it. It seems to be an acquired taste that I personally have not fully acclimated to, so I was left feeling somewhat neutral towards some of the songs, viewing them as decent enough filler until the standout highlife and blues tracks came along. Considering the number of such standouts, which includes Celestine Ukwu & His Philosophers National's "Okwukwe Na Nchekwube" and Mono Mono's "Ema Kowa Iasa Ile Wa", any flaws or issues I had with the album were easy to forgive.

Somewhat disappointingly, the Nigeria Rock Special doesn't quite reach the same heights. For an excellent collection of 1970's African psych rock, see Love's a Real Thing - The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa from Luaka Bop's World Psychedelic Classics series. The Nigeria Rock Special, track for track, isn't quite as good, but it does have moments from time to time. Solid tracks like "Ku Mi Da Hankan", "Cotocun Gba Gounke", or the excellent closer "Chant to Mother Earth", are often sandwiched in between sometimes meandering instrumentals, which really threw off the momentum for me during earlier listens, but that I didn't mind as much over time. Still, I feel like this could've befitted from being two to three songs shorter. The overall length isn't overwhelming or anything, especially when compared to the previously mentioned two disk Nigeria Special, it's just the inclusion of a couple of tracks seem tacked on rather than deliberately sequenced.

The third collection in this series, Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of The Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79, I didn't bother to pick up for a couple of reasons. The first of which is the word "disco", a genre that fails to interest me even in my own language and country. The second and main reason, though, is because I wasn't exactly blown away by the aforementioned collections. The Nigeria Special was good enough to inspire me to further explore African music in the blues and highlife categories, but as World Psychedelic Classics has proven, these types of comps have been done better before.


Score: 7.5/10 & 6/10


"Ema Kowa Iasa Ile Wa" (from Nigeria Special)


"Cotocun Gba Gounke" (from Nigeria Rock Special)