v/a: Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump

Label: Strut

This was the year of African compilations. So many great ones came out (three on Soundway alone), we could devote a whole page to them. This one was perhaps the year’s best. Strut being more focused on danceability than sociology or musical anthropology, the compilers of Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump care only about giving us great grooves, more great grooves, and even greater grooves. Even the tracks most beholden to American funk or soul have a more elliptical quality to their beats, so while there is pure highlife here (and proto-juju), there’s no pure funk. With stellar quality all around, tracks that stand out do so on context and/or oddity – the garage-rock quality of the Immortals’ “Hot Tears,” the fuzztone on the Faces’ “Tug of War” (not that a little psych was all that unusual in Nigerian rock!), the reggae lilt of Chief Checker’s “Ire Africa.” If it seems like Strut is sticking to obscurities here, well, they already covered the famous stuff seven years ago with their three-CD Nigeria ‘70 box set. When the obscurities sound this good, the strategy’s working just fine. (Steve)