SHINA WILLIAMS & HIS AFRICAN PERCUSSIONISTS - African Dances (reissue) (Mr. Bongo) Shina Williams' first album from 1979, African Dances, marked the moment where the Nigerian afrobeat artist would team up with 'His African Percussionists', to form one of the most sought-after sounds of the next decade. Taking inspiration from the Master Of Ceremonies, Fela Kuti, this album is just as loose and evocative as the legend's, and perhaps even a little more oriented towards the disco end of the spectrum. "Cunny Jam Wayo" is a classic afrobeat march, with its rolling drums popping off left, right and centre, while "Agboju Logun" offers a softer funk ride, and "Gboro Mi Ro" lifts the soul at the final moments with a truly memorable string of brass instruments and vocals. Cop this, not the L300+ original..! Highly Recommended!
ONRA - Chinoiseries (Label Rouge) Comentários: Brilliantly odd instrumental hip hop album here from Onra, compiled and constructed around vintage Vietnamese pop records picked up in flea markets on a trip to the far east. 32 short tracks make up "Chinoiseries", each of them clocking in at the 1 or 2 minute mark and delivering a tight selection of beats that somehow bring to mind J Dilla, Rza, Madlib, Moondog, MF Doom and the Sublime Frequencies label rolled into one beautifully incoherent package. Having a ravenous appetite for the "Radio Transmission" style beloved of the aforementioned Sublime Frequencies crew, we might be perfectly primed for this sort of thing, but while the dusty exotica, folk and plastic pop of the source material here could so easily have ended up sounding like the sterile plunderphonic coffee table beats that typified so much instrumental hip hop in the late 90's, Onra manages to harness the mystifying magic of the original material and
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