Soundway has been shining a light on a whole host of brilliant older material from countries across Africa via a series of compilations and reissues since the label’s founding in 2002.
For its latest release, Doing It In Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco In 1980s Nigeria, the label has collected a clutch of music emerging from the country across the decade hoping to introduce it to new, present-day audiences. Featured are 20 rare and mostly unavailable tracks and one of those is Oby Onyioha’s ‘Enjoy Your Life’, six minutes of pure, grin-inducing funk – an ode to being carefree.
"Buoyed by an explosive oil boom and a return to democracy after a series of military dictatorships, Nigeria’s economy in the years of the early ‘80’s was mirrored by its recording industry as countless young artists and groups hit the airwaves and dancefloors of the capital and beyond," says the text accompanying the album’s release. "It was a glossy, brash new form of pop music born out of ashes of late 1970s disco and funk and, just as in America, was the soundtrack to a new generation for whom money, style and flirtation trumped the overblown psychedelia of the previous decade."
Many of the albums on which the tracks featured here were originally release now fetch sky-high prices on the resale market, so this compilation, out on December 9, is an excellent opportunity to get your hands on some rarities, and some very fine ones at that. You can pre-order it here.
