Francis The Great Mbarga - Ravissante Baby (Cameroonese Afro Disco Fusion)

Hi Everyone !

This week I decided to make a very special article on a Cameroonese artist, Francis "The Great" Mbarga, who released two Afro Disco records in 1977 ("Ravissante Baby") and in 1978 ("Crazy Tube"), at the age of 7.

Those two records were released on his father's label, "Cinafric Contacts", when the Mbarga family lived in Paris (France).

I decided to make you (re)discover one song taken from his first record, "Look Up In The Sky", an epic 13 minutes long afro disco track sung in English and French by the Mbarga kid, with some pychedelic synth moments - Enjoy !!

Francis The Great - Look Up In The Sky

 

Also, I had the greeeat chance to meet Mr. Mbarga ! So, as a BIG Bonus, here is the 45min long interview (sorry, it's in French..) I had with this great, interesting, nice, funny, natural and sincere man.

Thanks for all !!

Armand

Clement Melome et l'Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou - Nous Avons Gagné

Hi !

Today we stay in the beautiful country of Benin, with a veeeery well known band, l'Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou, with a slow Afro rock track, "Nous avons gagné" ("we won"), out on the "Polydisco" label (actually the shop werecame out exclusively the records of the band at the time).

Not  a common track track but one of my favorite, because it's not "another jerk thing", its a track about love and evil..

Clement Melome et l'Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou - Nous Avons Gagné

Have a good sunday, take care of you,

Armand

Charles Rodriguez And The African Revolution - L'amour Ne S'achete Pas

Vikings Martinique - Nidia

Hi everyone, hope your week was good !

To finish it, here comes "Nidia", an amazing psychedelic cadence taken from an obscure record by "Les Vikings Martinique".

Les Vikings Martinique - Nidia

Truly yours,

Armand.

New Selection : Nigerian Afrodeapness (feat. SJOB, Ikengas, Etubom Rex Williams..)

Hi dear readers !

As promise last week, here comes the new selection I've prepared for your little ears !

A selection of 6 afrobeat tracks taken from 6 veeery hard to find Nigerian records, especially in this condition !

I know that for many people "Afrobeat" word is mainly connected with the work of Fela Kuti, so I wanted to make you discover other, and deeper artists - Hope you'll enjoy this mix !

Armand de Preseau - Nigerian Afrodeapness

 

You can download the selection here (as always, right clic and "Save as")

See you soon, and don't hesitate to leave some comments if you liked the selection !

Sincerely yours,

Armand

Francis Bebey - Divorce Pygmee

Hi everyone !

It's been a loooong time (too long !) without articles ! 2 months !!! Many reasons to that : too much work, I was ill also, I travelled, cleaned my records, but now I'm back !!

And because my selections take me a lot of time to do (find the records, make a coverfor the selection, restore and mix the records..) I decided to change the form of this blog : I will put more single songs now and, one time per month (or more, who knows !) I will put selection of around 6 records to download - This way, you will have more songs to discover.

So let's begin with Francis Bebey, one of my favourite Cameroonese musicans.

Francis Bebey was born in Douala in 1929 and died in Paris in 2001. He was one of the first African musician to use Drum machines and synths to produce electronic music (remember William Onyeabor ? Francis Bebey is better, for me !)

The song I present here, Divorce Pygmee, is taken from his well-known record (and harder LP to find) "La Condition Masculine", out on the "Ozileka" label, Francis Bebey's own label - Enjoy !

Francis Bebey - La Condition Masculine

 

I will be back soon, for your ears only.

Sincerely yours,

Armand

New Selection : Funk'O'Lypso - A Journey Across The Funky Caribbean Islands (feat Frankie Zhivago, Shadow and others..)

Hi dear readers !

It's been a long time without any selections - so don't wait no longer, let's travel this time to the Caribbean Islands for a 6 records flight, hope you'll enjoy this mixture of island funk, Kaiso Disco and Bahamian soul tracks !

Armand de Preseau - Funk ' O ' Lypso

 

You can download the selection here (as usual, right clic on the link, "save as")

Tracklist :

1 - The Crashers - Flight to Jamaïca

2 - Wabiné - Sail On

3 - Frankie Zhivago - All Around The World

4 - Disco Warriors - Cumbaya Disco

5 - Shadow - De Hardis

6 - Ed Watson and The Brass Circle - Let's Get It On

 

All the best, sincerely yours and see you soon.

Armand