Luaka Bop's World Psychedelic Classics series is only up to its
third volume, but it has already established a formidable mark for
consistency with releases that, on paper, don't seem to have much to do
with each other. The first entry was Shuggie Otis' Inspiration
Information, an overlooked gem of 1970s soul and R&B created by a
Sly Stone-inspired teen guitar prodigy who prefigured
Prince's lone-genius-in-the-studio M.O. The second, Everything Is
Possible! The Best of Os Mutantes, gave warped and wonderfully
joyous Brazilian pop a loving home on U.S. shelves.
While Love's a Real Thing: The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa
might not top either of those near-milestone rediscoveries, there's no
question the series has kept its perfect record intact on Volume 3,
which charts the reverberations of the Western psychedelic revolution
in early-'70s African music. As might be expected with a collection
that spans several years and several countries on a large continent,
Love's a Real Thing offers a Day-Glo tapestry of sounds, from
searing acid rock on the guitar-heavy "Allah Wakbarr" by Ofo and the
Black Company to mellow blaxploitation-style funk colored with
minor-key marimba on Manu Dibango's "Ceddo End Title." The funk
quotient on these tracks was high enough to entice Stones Throw, a
hip-hop-centered label from California, to cut a deal with David
Byrne's Luaka Bop and press this up on vinyl, but gritty drum breaks
are far from the only attraction — check out "Porry" by Sorry Bamba, a
musician from Mali who fused electric instruments with his region's
trancelike folk music to create something that would have blown the
minds of West Coast raga fans if this
music had ever made it past Africa's shores.
But since it didn't, until now, Love's a Real Thing provides a
fascinating link with which to trace these musicians' influences
backward and forward. For example, James Brown's grunts and lockstep
funk are the obvious touchstone for Moussa Doumbia's "Keleya," but the
song also already features the funky electric piano that would become a
staple of Fela Kuti's afrobeat sound a few years later. Interestingly,
the disc's liner notes contend that the embrace of dashikis, headbands,
necklaces and afros by Western hippies emboldened African students to
ditch their "London suits" and feel hip in their traditional clothes,
but while fashion seems to have traveled both ways, the musical
situation was a one-way pipeline between continents instead of a
feedback loop. Manu Dibango is probably the only name on Love's a
Real Thing that would ring a bell with the average listener.
Better late than never, then, that the past few years' obsession with
all things funky has led this stuff to a wider audience. The Funky
Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa would make a great backdrop for a
second sun-dappled Summer of Love, a daydream that feels both
hopelessly naïve and absolutely necessary.
And by the way, whatever's on Volume 4? Sign me up.
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