Photos by Etienne de Villars

We proudly introduce the man behind one of the greatest African Funk albums ever, Marijata band leader Pat Thomas. He is touring again with the fantastic band and his shows are incredible. Check the story behind this exemplary 40 years career.

Can you tell us the origin of your new record on Strut?
The record came about when Ben and Kwame approached me to work on the project. Ben had produced Ebo Taylor’s records on Strut and I’ve known Kwame since he was a baby! So it was a great team.

How did you record it?
It was recorded at Kwame’s studio in Accra. They also used Lovelite Studio in Berlin, where they had done the Ebo Taylor records.

You have some guests, old pals : Tony Allen, Ebo Taylor, Osei Tutu… What do they represent for you?
It’s great that Kwame and Ben brought those guys in. It brought a deeper level to the recordings, for sure.

You played with them in the 1970’s, memories?
Oh, too many!

You are accompanied by young musicians: Kwashibi Area Band. What does that change in your music over your old records?
The Kwashibu Area guys are great. So much energy! They keep me on my toes for sure.

What was the role of Kwame Yeboah for recording? sound designer? artistic director? New ears?
Ben and Kwame worked together on this project from day 1. Kwame has a great band and is a natural leader. I know Ben from his work with Ebo Taylor. The 2 of them made this happen.

The new record sounds like the old 1970’s ones. It was a voluntary choice, assumed?
Well you’ll have to ask Ben and Jochen about that.

“I Need More” sounds as the perfect «one more» track. Do you believe that a title from 1970 is still an hymn that summarizes the spirit of your music in 2016 ?
Hahaha! Well that song was recorded in the 1970’s and believe it or not we never performed it live at the time! It works great now and I think it’s still fresh.

Can we expect some reissues of your old discs, hard to find?
Yes I believe Strut will be releasing my « best of Pat Thomas » album soon. Some of my older records will be reissued later this year.

In the 1960’s, you started in the Broadway Dance Band and The Stargazers. Do you think the scene was richer than today in Ghana?
Oh well, that was a completely different time. In those days there were so many bands. If you wanted to go out, you would go to a club and dance to a live band. Nowadays it’s much different.

Yourself, how did you get started? Your first influences: your parents? Is that true your father was a music teacher and your mother a band leader?
Yes my family is musical. I started out singing with my uncle King Onyina who was a very famous and important highlife guitarist!

What do they teach, spread to your mind? And you, what have you teach to your daughter, who sings with you?
Oh, you learn by being there, you know…

What musician and what music has influenced you in your youth, and in the beginning of your career?
In Ghana we play a lot of different kind of songs. There are highlifes and funeral songs, also we played «copyright» which are covers of the popular songs of the day. I used to love Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye of course.

Do you believe highlife is still the matrix of your music? And how have you made the connection with the Nigerian afrobeat?
Highlife is my whole thing man. I grew up with highlife and will die with highlife. That’s our music, Ghana music. I never really sang afrobeat.

In 1978 You were crowned Mr. Golden Voice of Africa and at the time you won the ECRAC award of the year. How do you explain that you have not been as successful in Europe as other Africans?
The late 70’s were a difficult time in Ghana and many musicians left the country. I spent a long time abroad too. We played a lot in Europe, but in the Ghanaian community, not at European events.

Thereafter, you have recorded more disco highlife LP. Why this choice ? How these records have been received?
I sang those songs because that was the sound of the day. The burger highlife was very very popular. We had a lot of hits.

In the 1990’s, you had a first comeback with “Sika Ye Mogya”…
You say comeback, that’s strange to me because I never went away. I’ve been singing in Ghana the whole time.

How could explain this «renaissance» on european scene?
The new album was well received and now we can work! I hope it keeps going for ever!

For a year, you are again at the top. You tour a lot in Europe… Is this the same show that you can play in Accra?
Yes this is our show with Kwame and Ben and the Kwashibu Area guys. We played a show in Accra just before we came to Europe.

What are your future artistic projects?
For now I’m concentrating on the tour: we have a lot of new songs and the second album will come next year.

Thanks for their supports Christine @New Morning & Corinne Serres @MadMinute

Samy Redjeb in Khartoum by Souheil Ben Redjeb

Ten years after its launch, the Frankfurt-based record label is one of the top references for vinyl miners and african music lovers : well-selected compilations and extended liner notes are two of its trademarks. It is now time to go through the complete story with Samy Ben Redjeb, the mind behind Analog Africa… Have a good musical trip.

 
 

When did you start digging records?
Around 1995.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
Mainly Zimbabwean and South African records, some I still listen to today.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period and why?
I believe there is good music in every genre. There are phases in which I have to concentrate on a particular country and I listen to all the styles from that place hoping to find the “special tracks” without having to stick to a genre or another. Music I disliked a few years ago I tend to like now, the ear, like the rest of the body, grows and matures, and taste changes with time also. Each person have their own signature when it comes to selecting music and that’s what makes the difference between record labels.
For me personally in sub sahara african, the best period starts after the independence in the mid-60s and last until circa 1982. With independence comes self-confidence, pride, a special energy and that’s something one can clearly feel in the music that was recorded during those years. Relatively good structures where also still in place and generally the governments that had come to power at the time were people that had fought for independence. It seems, although I might have a romantic view about that period, that these people had a real interest in preserving and promoting their cultural heritage and I am thinking of Leopold Sedar Senghor in Senegal, Sekou Toure in Guinea, Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta in Tanzania. Tunisia my country of birth, is another example.
In many West African countries, orchestras would be employed by the state, musicians would obtain a civil servant status with a monthly wage, proper musical equipment at disposal, good rehearsal facilities – in other words respect and dignity. That period would see the birth of phenomenal orchestras such as Bembeya Jazz of Conakry, Rail band and Les Ambassadeurs from Bamako, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo from Cotonou in Benin. Most African countries had such bands called « Orchestre National », which says it all. In Ethiopia, musical directors of Armenian origins were sent from Turkey to teach musicians who would later be employed by the army and the police forces. Recordings done by these guys are having tremendous impact 40 years later. the northern hemisphere has bumped into that stuff and it felt like music from out of space. At least that how it sounded to me. Such an incredibly hypnotic music. Sun Ra would have moved to Addis Ababa had he known.
During the 60s and 70s many things were favorable for developing skills and talents that just needed a little push to flourish. Is there anything that equals what had been created in Africa during the 70s in terms of originality and diversity of sound? I very much doubt it.

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo circa 1977… Idavi!

With the 80s comes political instability in various african countries; military coup, dictatorship in some places, mind-blowing corruption. All this has a direct influence and serious consequences on the musical scene. Two countries that I know well, Benin and Ghana, are prime examples of such a scenario. The Curfews that were implemented had paralized nightlife, often the only way for musicians to earn a living. Adding to that a shortage of prime material to manufacture vinyl and the whole music industry took a huge hit. Musicians had a hard time making hands meet and in the case of Ghana, many musicians left the country. With the lack of means to keep an orchestra afloat come Keyboards who make their big entry and start replacing drums, percussion and horns. The keyboards invasion was a planeterian phenomenon but while it might have worked well with the new wave sound coming out of the UK and Germany, it certainly didn’t work well with highlife. Some places like Cabo Verde though managed to make the best music during the 80s, where Keyboards were used in an intelligent way, not as a tool to replace other instruments but just to be what it is, a keyboard.

Are you still digging’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
I still arrange two to three “record safaris” per year just to look for music. Shops, very occasionally.

Why did you choose this name : Analog Africa? A kind of vision of Africa in seventies ?
The name for the label came to me while in Jo´burg working on my first compilation by a band called The Green Arrows from Zimbabwe. For that project I had Gallo, one of South Africa´s major labels, as a partner. Their archive manager at that time was Rob Allingham, an american who had arrived in South Africa in the 70s to work for the railways and who fell in love with south african music. He became such a connoisseur that Gallo hired him to structure their immense archive. I first contacted him to see if he could help me find the master tapes for the Green Arrows songs to which he replied that he needed the ABC numbers which is the reference of the matrices. «You will find that number on the vinyl record» he continued. I must have been under a lucky star because shortly after that email I manage to find a warehouse that contained most of the records released in Zimbabwe. With that «discovery» I suddenly had found all of the bands input and could send all the references numbers to Rob, who a week later send me a message to tell me that all the master tapes had been found. The word Analog was constantly popping up, and since I was dealing with african music mainly, the name Analog Africa surfaced naturally. At the time I was staying at the house of legendary South Africa musician Pops Mohamed who recommended I called the label “Africa Analog” but I thought the other way around had a nicer flow.

Could you describe the Green Arrows compilation?
The initial idea was to release Oliver Mutukudzi´s first LP called “Ndipeiwo Zano”, an album that is in fact a compilation of singles released between 1977 and 1978, a common practice at that time, especially under producer Zacks Nkosi. Oliver who I met for the first time in 1996 seems to be open to the idea, but then in 1998 under a new management Oliver recorded an album which catapulted him to stardom – “Tuku Music” probably the best sold album in Zimbabwe´music history. In 1999 I was ready to start working on my label and when I tried to license the album they made me understand that they might be waiting for a bigger fish.
At that time I was staying in a hotel in Avondale, two miles from downtown Harare. I was in my room and had thrown into my deck a tape of the album “Chipo Chiroorwa” by the mythical Green Arrows band. That album – considered the first Zimbabwean Long play – was release on the 2nd of february of 1974 – my birthday. Some things are no coincidence.
Fast forwarding I finally met Zexie Manatsa the band leader and the bass player of the Green Arrows a his home on February 6th 2002. We sat down, I explained what my plans and after a discussion that lasted about an hour, Zexie stood up and said «Ok Samy, go for it!» I met the legendary musicians half dozen of times in a time span of a year or two and together we created that first compilation. Zexie felt I had that project at heart and every time we met he would give me additional informations, and more pictures, so I ended up with a 24 pages liner notes. All that process did flow naturally, I did not plan to write a «book» it just happened. But I also strongly believe that you can like music, but to love it you´ll need that extra something and thats context. Music is not only sound, it has also an organic process, made my people who have struggled to arrive where they are. If you don’t understand what they have gone thru you have only half of the story.

What could be your editorial/esthetic line?
Just good music, no matter the quality of recording.Many of the african musicians showcased in our compilation are self taught and so they do come up with ways that can’t be learned at music school. This african « treasure trove » is impacting a whole new generation of western musicians and now many bands are playing in ways that I can only describe as «Poly-Rythmic».
So even if the quality of recording is not 100% due to the reality on the ground, it doesn’t take anything away from the quality of the musicianship and the creativity – everything is there to influence and give ideas to new generations of musicians. I tend to say that the music we and other labels have released in the last few years is «music from the past that will influence the future». Our compilation The Bariba Sound – Le Super Borgou de Parakou is without doubt some of the craziest stuff we’ve released and yet it is one of the releases that had a lesser impact, probably due to the sound quality. Thats really a shame because it is a goldmine or twisted rhythms, riffs, breaks, grooves.. you name it – stuff that will only be revealed to those who are just a little bit more patient.

At the beginning of the label, you were much devoted to the music of the Gold Coast … what attracted you?
The most appealing aspect of releasing music from Benin was that it was practically unknown in the northern hemisphere. The « surprise effect » is very important and I think showcasing music from a region people know little or nothing about is exciting. You are opening a new horizon, a new window thru which people can travel, its food for thoughts and imagination.

You worked on both sides of the black Atlantic: what are the aesthetic links between the two continents of music? what are the differences?
This is a difficult one. The intermingling of rhythms and beats that has occurred between these two continent is difficult to pin down and even specialist are still puzzled by its complexity. Brazil and Colombia are the two South American countries I´ve travelled to and I can give you my two cents. In the case of Brazil I can see strong parallels with Benin, they share common ground musically. It had developed not only due to the slave trades, but also thru the Agoudas, which are slaves that had bought their freedom and had returned to Benin bringing with them new musical flavours and spices. Thats the reason why you have family names such as De Souza and Rodrigues.
Some traditional Brazilian rhythms such as Tambor do Mina or Tambor Criolo are very close if not identical to the music you hear in Benin. There is also a strong connection between Brazil and Angola and some believe that the roots of Samba, the one sound that unifies all of Brazil, lays in the Angolan Semba, but I am not a historian. Due to its proximity to the Caribbean, the northern part of Brazil is heavily influenced by music of Cuba, Haiti, Suriname, Guyana, martinique, countries that in turn are heavily influenced by African music.
In Colombia the obvious example would be the palenque direct descendants of Bantous who are people originated from the central african region – very probably from the congos. Palenques still speak african tongues and play african rhythms rooted in bantou traditions. What is surprising with Colombia is the impact of «vintage» african music on the musical scene of the Caribbean coast. While in the african cities young people have no or very little interest in music from the past, young Colombian are just going crazy for that stuff.
In a region where Prince Nico Mbarga is a godlike figure, vintage african music is something you hear everywhere and all the time in the cities along the caribbean coast.

Vincent Ahehehinnou circa 1981… Best Woman!

There were francophone artists (Benin, Togo) and English (Ghana, Nigeria). Do you hear a difference between these two post-colonial parts of Africa?
In terms of traditional music I see more resemblance between Nigeria and Benin and Togo and Ghana, since they share borders where common people live. When it comes to the influence of their former colonies I want to say that the Francophone african countries have been more influenced by Cuban music, probably due to the similarity between spanish and french and its common latin root. But thinking about it I think that Nigeria and Ghana had also been influenced by cha cha cha, Mambo and Pachanga although, and that might the main difference, it was very rarely or never sang in spanish. There is a stronger similarity between cuban son and highlife then one would expect at first. In countries like Senegal and Benin cuban son was less diluted with traditional music although a senegalese band playing cuban music will very much add their own touch and in so doing reinventing the style. Who wants to hear a copy of what exists already? Not me! The same can be said about the «congolisation» of Cuban music or the Beninese take on Cuban music.
The reason why Cuban music was so influential back then, I was told, is because it was the first genre of music that had strong resemblance with their own traditional music and which bands we allowed to perform at ball rooms and festivities during colonial times. It spread like wild fire.

Can you tell us how you found and selected the brilliant Amara Touré LP you had released this year ?
Amara Touré has been a favourite of mine for a long time. He is one of these rare musicians that is loved by all the people collecting african music. I can say without doubt that I never heard someone saying that he didn’t like Amara Touré, which says a lot. Speaking about the influence of Cuban music in Africa, his version of ‘Lamento Cubano’ is one of these songs that I have been listening for many years and it still enjoy it immensely each time. I´m convinced that Its music created to last an eternity.
Amara had immortalised 4 records under his name – three 7inch singles and one Long Play. The three singles were recorded between 1973 and 1976 with his band Black and white in Cameroon. He then moved to Gabon in 1980 and recorded his only LP with Orchestre Massako which contained 4 songs. 10 songs in total and those are the tracks I compiled. I can’t recall where exactly I first bumped into Amara´s music since his record had travelled well, especially in Francophone countries, but my guess is that I might have found them in Cotonou.

What was the importance of the Poly Rythmo in the development of your label?
Hugely influential, as far as I am concerned the grooviest band to ever scrapped the surface of the earth. Who could have competed with these guys? Its is still unreal that less then 10 years ago that band was still totally obscure.

Ignace de Souza circa 1968… Asaw Fofor!

You’ve just released a selection dedicated to Cape Verde, funaná years, and you will drive out the Bitori, a legend for that music. How do you explain the current success of this music, when ten years ago nobody cared about it in Europe?
I think we have reached a point where people understand the diversity of rhythm and beat that come from the different corners of Africa.
Maybe due to the internet people have access to so much more information so you can’t just bait them with a term like “world music”. For them to “swallow the hook” you will need to be a little more creative than that. People are curious and hungry to learn about the various sounds and genres that exist and so every year or so there is a new trend; few years ago it was Cumbia, then Compa, now its Funaná, next year its gonna be Forró… and so on.
In the case of Funaná some people such as Paulo Goncalves, Alex Figueira, Alma Negra and Celeste/Mariposa have started promoting that style heavily by recording mixes that had a strong impact on listeners, me being one of them, or by organizing funaná parties or doing remixes. The internet, as much as it has erased the music industry as we knew it, has created other ways to promote and market music. These are wired but also exciting times.

You have published some records on the South American scene (Siria from Brazilian NotherEast, Ritmo del Diablo from Colombia…). Were these one shots, «coups de coeur», or do you expect to develop this further in the future?
In both cases it was a « coup de coeur » as you rightly said. Colombia is a country that gave me so much that I felt the strong urge to give something back and its the same in the case of Brazil. The music from the north and the north east of Brazil, heavily influenced by african music, has been marginalised by the music industry based in the south of the country. Brazilians themselves know very little if nothing about the music from that part of the country so imagine the rest of the world. This is something I am looking into at the moment. So coup de coeur at first yes but love at first sight can sometimes lead to a wedding!

Is it more difficult to work with Latin American producers/publishers?
In the case of Brazilian music it is more difficult if you want to do things the official way because a lot of the material is owned by majors record companies who in most cases do not license their music. My guess is that they just do not have the time to deal and negotiate with independent label like ours, its not financially interesting. I have tried to convince some of them that this music is culturally significant and I must admit that I could picture whoever was ready my message, smiling at my naive view.

Voz de Sao Nicolau circa 1971… Nha Antonia Engracia!

On the other hand these majors often don’t really know what they have in their catalog and certainly no clue about the music we are interested in, so you might think « why awaken sleeping dogs »? And logically if they don’t have time to deal with you when you are offering to pay money for the music why would they´ll go after you for release a song by Messiah Hollanda which for them mean nothing in terms of financial might. So I have licensed a few Brazilian songs directly from the artist and I believe it is the fairest way but you are putting yourself in a delicate situation. In Colombia its easier since the few mighty labels are keen to work with us. They’ve also realised that the independent label have done an mammoth job in promoting Colombian music which has been very beneficial for their own business. The very rarely give exclusive licenses thought.

Is deejaying an important part of your business? And does it affect your research as a digger?
I like DJing because it allows me to travel and to discover places I wouldn’t have the chance to visit otherwise. It also a good way to test songs I am thinking of releasing.

You spend a lot of time searching for information on the ground. Is it the editorial quality that makes the difference between reissue labels? Is this the price to pay to keep existing in a crowded market ?
In the long run, the labels that will be remembered, the ones that will leave a legacy are probably the labels that make extended research about the material they release, maybe that just wishful thinking but I believe in that. It is a very time consuming process to release a proper compilation but on the other hand it is rewarding and an honor to have the chance to meet the musicians who created the music you love. And a sign of respect.

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
I don’t think I have one.

You have a stronger collection of Ethiopian music… How come you have not released anything yet?
I started working on an Ethiopian compilation around 2004. One of the first artists I met was Alemayehu Eshete who I went to see in Addis Ababa to showed him the list of the songs I was interested in. He was very positive and enthusiastic and even encouraging me to «take» more songs. Anyway, I ended up licensing and paying for 4 tracks only to see them being released, a month later, by Buda music on Ethiopiques No.28, if I recall properly. That was a setback since these 4 songs were the base for the compilation. What I like doing most is showcasing music from countries that didn’t have so much exposure and I think after more then 30 Ethiopiques there is no really a need for one more compilation… although I do have a few things up my sleeve but I´ll wait a bit, maybe for Analog Africa No.40!

Bitori circa 1997… Nha Bibina!

Ten years after you started running this label, do you feel an evolution in the music market, in what they called world music?
What I have noticed in recent years is the way new african/tropical recordings are sounding, especially those produced by european labels. I have little doubts that they have been very much influenced by the kind of sound the independent reissues labels have been releasing in the last few years. Listening to recordings by bands like Jupiter, Vaudou Game, Bixiga 70, Soul Jazz Orchestra, Jungle by Night just to name a few, you sense that these guys have listened to a lot of Poly-rythmo and Mulatu stuff. Many of these projects have also being recorded in conditions similar to the way bands used to record decades ago with a lots of hypnosis going on, psyched up guitars, twisted keyboard sounds a la Poly-Rythmo, things that were not common 10 or 15 years ago. That the impact reissues labels have had I think. Artist like Ebo Taylor, Poly-Rythmo, Bitori, Mulatu Astatke, Pat Thomas, Anibal Velasquez, forgotten legends who have now started a new careers after being released by independent labels. These are the few things that have evolved since we have started 10 years ago.

Is it more complicated to put out compilations today?
No.

Nowadays, there are many reissue labels which follow this model, I mean more quality even if it means being more expensive…but at the same time, there is also another market for LP reissues, with majors and other labels coming back, preferring to sell cheaper. Is it the (re)creation of two opposite sides for releasing LPs ?
I don’t know. I don’t really have a response to this since I don’t have enough insight of what is going on in the market. I also have little time to check what others labels are doing but I do come across and buy music by labels like Sahel Sound, Sublimes Frequencies, Finders Keepers, Light in the Attics… I like what they are doing.

There are more and more reissues of old LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
Time will tell. I am not sure. In the case of afrobeat for example that’s a style of music I rarely listen to these days. Once you´ve digested Fela´s catalog do you really need more afrobeat LPs from bands using Fela´s formula? So when it comes to Afrobeat, for me personally we have reached saturation. But what about someone that has just discovered that style? I think saturation can occur within a generation but once there is a new one the reset button is activated.

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
A few. Generally the response is positive. The music has been created to travel thru time and space and in most cases artist understand that his music will have a second chance, even if it is 30 or 40 years later – its never too late for good music. So generally I meet proud artists that welcome the idea with open arms. That also one of the reason why I would encourage everyone do avoid buying bootlegs, despite the strong temptation.

What is your next release ?
After the compilation “Space Echo” I´m releasing the music of Bitori a 78 years old accordionist and the last standing legend of a music style called Funaná. Funaná is the most african of all styles from Cabo Verde. It was a symbol of independence and african identity – it was also very hot and sensual, so the portuguese colonial rulers banned it. If they catched you performing Funaná you would be arrested, jailed and tortured. It was also never played on radio, they made sure that style was buried – it was slowly but surely disappearing, until independence in 1975.
The first musician to record a funaná song was Norberto Tavares in the late 70s but the band that really put that music on the map was Bulimundo. The accordion was replaced by keyboards and the ferrinho, a metal bar scrapped with a knife, was replace by the drum. The modern form of Funaná took the whole country by storm and people from Cabo Verde themselves were amazed of that style they had never heard about, that how well that genre was oppressed. The traditional form of Funaná though, as it is meant to be was only recorded much later. One of these recording was by Bitori who in 1997 set foot in the studio for the very first time and has recorded what many consider to be the best Funaná album of all times. So that’s the album we will be reissuing in July 22nd.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
Can’t tell….I am working on it!
 
 
 

TO GO FURTHER
 

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. This month, Miles Cleret from Soundway Records, one of our favorite labels around! From their amazing compilation series to beautiful reissues and great new tropical acts (think the mighty Meridian Brothers!), Miles Cleret’s choices and opinions are clearly worth checking!
 
 
 

When did you start digging records?
Properly when I was a teenager I guess – my dad was a digger (Jazz & Soul and 50s RnB and Rock & Roll mostly) so there were plenty in his house when I was growing up. It was hard though as money wasn’t an easy thing to get at the age of 14 but back then (the 80s) you could get good stuff in little record fairs and market stalls and there were just tons of record shops everywhere – even outside of London. The age of expensive rare records hadn’t really begun apart from the mega-fans who collected the big names in Rock and Pop (of which the UK had a lot). I wasn’t looking for rare stuff then though – just music that seemed exciting and new.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
Well not the very first records I bought – they were mostly really terrible pop records from when I was about 10. There was a store in the UK called Woolworths and you could buy discounted ex-chart 45s for about 20 pence so I’d spend all my pocket money on them for a few years until I was about 13. I remember buying most of the Beatles albums really cheaply on Spanish editions on a holiday in Barcelona when I was about 13 at a record store that was closing down. That changed my musical life a lot (my dad hated the Beatles so never had those records in the house) and then David Bowie, The Clash, the Cure and and then when I was about 14 or 15 I got into bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind, Gong, The Grateful Dead, Caravan, Traffic etc – and yes I still listen to those LPs but I didn’t for a long time until recently – they have a way of transporting me back to my youth. Then I got into funk, jazz, hip hop and reggae and electronic music a few years later and dropped the guitar sound for quite a few years.

Do you have a particular style or favourite period?
No, not really now. I have pretty wide ranging tastes from the 1950s right up until yesterday. I know I don’t like much really heavy Thrash Metal, Goa Trance & also commercial pop etc to name a few styles. For quite a few years just before Soundway started in the late 90s I was pretty entrenched in records (mostly jazz, funk, soul, afro & latin) made between 65-76, but at some point or other over the last 20 years I’ve been into Detroit style techno, underground House, Psych-Rock, Prog-Rock, Synth-pop, Electronica, Boogie, Disco, Soca, Reggae, Dub and more. I just love hearing new kinds of music and I would get really bored if I stuck to one area exclusively. That kind of happened with West African music for about 8 years – I still love it and collect it but had to get out of solely listening to that stuff after soaking myself in it for all the comps we did back then.

Are you still digging, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Yes but nothing like as much as I used to – I have kids now so I’d be neglecting them if I was digging as much as I used to (I am in Indonesia as I type though about to go digging in Java for three days starting tomorrow). I try to be less obsessive than I used to be and let stuff go occasionally if I don’t DJ with it (Can’t afford not to really) – Personally I believe it can be un-healthy to obsess too much on the collection – you can never have them all so best just to enjoy the music and get your fix from the musicians and people involved in the music scene (easier said than done with some records though!). I also move around a lot and we have been out of the UK a bit recently so I don’t currently have a record “cave” – most of my records are in storage.

What was your first release?
“Ghana Soundz”: Afro-Beat, Funk & Fusion in 70s Ghana…
 

 
Gyedu Blay Ambolley
Simigwad
 

Why did you choose this name, Soundway? what does that represent?
It’s the title of a track by a band called Wrinkar Experience from Nigeria and was quite a big hit in West Africa in the 70s on EMI. The name just stuck as I was listening to it a lot in Ghana when I was starting the label and it kind of sounded right.

Among your first releases were the Ghana Soundz series which gained cult status. How did you work on it? how did you prepare that? Was it a longtime project?
It took about 2 years to do the first Volume. I went travelling in Ghana with my wife in 2001 and at the end of the trip had a couple of days digging records in Kumasi & Accra. The stuff I found was mind-blowing to me at the time. I’d spent a few years previously getting into afro stuff after all the American jazz, soul & funk etc and would try and find records in the UK at record fairs etc but it was hard to find and this was before the days when you could really get much real African stuff on ebay or the internet (with some notable exceptions). There’s an English collector named Duncan Brooker who works with Strut and he had been in Nairobi working when we were about 18 – he came back with some incredible 45s and some Kenyan presses of Nigerian recordings that he traded and sold at the time, but Ghana stuff was invisible – especially the ‘afro’ stuff. So I went back to Ghana on-and-off for a year just really going deep into looking for records, artists, producers and decided to do a compilation of non-highlife music. It was a great time and I was lucky enough not to have any competition from other labels for the styles i wanted to license at the time so I could take my time and really concentrate on it without there being any other people there from outside Ghana doing what I was doing or looking for records. Records would sit on the street with second-hand dealers and in stores for months without being bought and were cheap so there was no pressure to buy quickly – nobody really wanted them apart from a few Ghanaian collectors who helped school me. Hard to imagine now. There were also still some ‘recording studios’- relics of the 80s, where a shop would have a big collection of vinyl but would use it to record custom-made cassettes for customers – the internet killed most of them off a few years back. It was all just trial and error and great times getting to know people like Ebo Taylor, K. Frimpong, K. Gyasi’s son, Dick Essiebons and Kwadwo Donkor and hanging out with them at their homes and prising the stories and the pieces of the jigsaw from them over time.

After those you released a whole bunch of other records in the same mould such as the Kenya Special record. Has this become your trademark? Which one was the most fulfilling?
Ghana Soundz and the Nigeria Special series were the most fulfilling because the music was all so new to me at the time. I had no kids then so time wasn’t an issue and when you start a label and you’re young you have to keep pinching yourself that this is what you’re actually doing as a job. Its just so exhilarating and fresh and records you had no idea existed were popping up on an almost daily basis. That is still the case on certain projects but as the label gets bigger and bigger you can get bogged down in the administration side of things which is not something you need to worry about so much when you only have a handful of releases in your catalogue. and you’re starting out.

One of the lesser known parts of your activity is record-digging. When did you go to Africa first for that purpose?
In 2001. I was in Ghana, Benin, Togo, Ethiopia & Nigeria a lot between the years 2001-2005.
 

Fubura Sekibo
Psychedelic Bab
 

How was Nigeria when you first got there? What’s your best record digging story in Lagos?
Nigeria is huge and so full of incredible music it still astounds and surprises me now. I first went there in 2002 – Strut had just put out their Nigeria 70 comp and I’d been in touch with Quinton Scott so had a few contacts from him. There were amazing records there then but much harder to find than in Accra – Lagos is a big big place with terrible traffic so getting around the city is a problem. Its just a vast metropolis but those places always have great records if you look hard. I travelled out of Lagos a few times as well but again you really need to live there to get consistent record hauls – it’s not the sort of place you find stuff immediately in so all the Nigerian dealers and collectors are the ones who usually get the best stuff. For this reason (and because they are very good) Nigerian records have gone bananas price-wise recently though so you need to mortgage your house or be very rich these days to be able to buy from the dealers. I was lucky to get a lot of great records before it all went sky-high. I once found a box of mint Afrodisia 45s (50 different titles) whilst visiting the house of a retired producer who had subsequently become pretty wealthy in the pharmaceutical business. Its very hard to find 45s in that kind of condition over there and some of those titles I’ve never seen anywhere since. When I asked him how much he wanted for them he said I could just have them all and that he no longer wanted them. Finds don’t come much better than that.

You are responsible for remarkable selections, reissues, as music from Siam, or Nigerian disco… How do you decide on the choice of reissues/issues?
Just what we have time and money to do and feels right really – music that I like – it’s no more exact a science than that. But I do like to try not to rush things.

You released a great selection of highlife, but there wasn’t a big echo in the press (in France anyway). How could you explain this?
I guess you mean the “Highlife On the Move” compilation? It got some good attention but I think 1950s highlife is not particularly hip for journalists right now – maybe will never be. I think that was a very important compilation to make though. Its the genesis of the afrobeat story so it will be a solid catalogue title for a few years to come – not one that blows up at the beginning but chugs along nicely. I think it looks and sounds beautiful as well.

Family Atlantica, musicians from both sides of the Atlantic

 

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs you were trying to reissue?
One or two – mostly by people who believe they can out-perform the market and sell hundreds of thousands of copies more than all the other releases in the same genre! There are some big egos out there and the music industry has more than it’s fair share- always has and always will. Most people (95%) are cool though – but occasionally some do take a bit of convincing. Some are also worried that they don’t technically have the rights sign a master contract as they signed the rights away when they were young. Others have no such worries at all!

There are more and more reissues of old LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
I think it’s possible yes. There are certainly a lot of people who buy vinyl because either they think it’s cool (often these people are just rich and don’t actually ever listen to music properly) and or because they see it as a good investment, which it often is these days. I think it’s inevitable that many of those people will offload it all in spades in a few years and the market could see a glut of cut-price titles. The whole vinyl speculator thing is a pain in the arse to be honest. Its just people with money buying up stock and then letting it back out at way over the odds – and these are people who can afford to sit on it. It’s not necessarily a bad things for labels as they sell out quickly on limited runs but it just means the vinyl market is controlled by investors and real music fans with not enough money to keep up can’t get the releases they want for the right price. Simple economics I guess but I never really thought it would hit the new vinyl world in quite the way it has.

You are not only focused on « old » Lp, compilations. What is the best deal/business: to make reissues or to produce/coproduce new records?
New records are a better thing to do for me personally right now but not necessarily always the best business in the short term – it’s a commitment and emotional investment in the music scene right now. Re-issues and compilations may sell quicker in the short run but over time for a label I think new releases and building catalogue in that area is the best way to go. Also we run a publishing company that publishes much of our new output – This is potentially a far better way to pay the bills in the long term but it takes time and is far from always predictable. People’s attitude to old music is that it’s somehow validated by time – they have a solid idea about the 60s or the 70s or the 80s (or now the 90s) in their heads that’s been confirmed by hundreds of books, documentaries, social commentaries and articles in a way that whats happening now isn’t. Some people play safe and wait or tell themselves they only like music of a certain era – it’s very much like vintage fashion. The idea of music existing in a far-off pre-internet time (and somewhere more exotic) makes many people trust it more somehow especially if it’s a bit wonky, loveable or low-fi. Of course music can be very evocative of a certain time and eras go in and out of fashion with different generations. Occasionally records turn up that are meant to look old and people aren’t sure. There was a Caribbean calypso-funk 45 a few years ago that was made in 1999 but sold as a 70s record – I remember a few people going nuts over it but then were upset when they found out it wasn’t old – the music remained exactly the same but the provenance had changed so it became less ‘real’ somehow in their eyes.

Batida feat Sacerdote
Bantu
 

Are they two different jobs?
New bands are obviously more demanding and the process of promoting new records is much more involved – compilations and re-issues often sell themselves – so yes a little bit.

Dexter Story looks like a vintage record, just like Ghana Soundz. What is this project about, and how does it fit into your catalogue ?
Dex is a very experienced musician who has played on a lot of amazing musicians’ records from Kamasi Washington to Gaslamp Killer and way beyond. He is from Los Angeles but like many people over the past ten years became obsessed with classic Ethiopian and East African music. The Wondem project has it’s feet rooted in the 1960s, 70s & 80s music of that region but is also extremely modern in many ways and not just a straight retro duplicate – that was what attracted me to it.

Could you tell us more about Fumaça Preta and Batida. Is there a « luso » connection ? How did you discover them ?
Fumaça Preta are a band that again struck me because of the way they took wigged out Brazilian psychedelic rock from the 70s but melded it with bits of acid house, punk and metal in a way I hadn’t really heard anyone else do. They reference a ‘smorgasbord’ of musical styles from Funaná to Funk but wrap it up in their own unique, lysergic way. Alex the drummer is a big time record collector who co-runs a store in Amsterdam called Vintage Voodou – he sent me the demos and I was hooked immediately.
Batida is an electronic dance act from Lisbon run by DJ Pedro Coquenão. He grew up in Angola and so was immersed in the sounds of classic 70s Angolan music all around him which he sampled and incorporated into his sets. These morphed into the Batida live show that features dancers, live musicians and slide shows – he entertains and educates people in equal measure at his gigs. I heard Batida on a compilation that came out a few years ago on Crammed by the Radioclit/Secousse crew and got in touch with Pedro tyo see if we could work on an album.

Meridian Brothers, Bomba Estereo, Los Miticos Del Ritmo, Family Atlantica, again another branch of Soundway, more South American. What could be the meeting point of all these releases?
I guess they are all in some way referencing the music we re-issued on compilations and re-issues and so it was an obvious progression – I think we’ll get further and further away from that in time though and already this year we are signing some acts that have nothing at all to do with South America or Africa.

 
Meridian Brothers
Doctor Trompeta
 

Can we mention a certain eclecticism in terms of catalogue? Is it more difficult to be well received, well identified, by the media and record shops or is it in fact a force?
Again I think it’s harder in the short term – Many journalists and distributors/stores just want to put you in a one genre box and keep you there but I couldn’t think of doing that – As I said before I have very wide tastes musically so want to keep moving and surprising rather than getting stuck in one place. Its tough sometimes but as the catalogue grows people start to get it. Major labels can do it so why not independents?

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
Music from Planet Earth : Past, Present, Future.

What are your next releases?
New Albums by Fumaca Preta (Darker and more introspective than the first maybe) & Family Atlantica (featuring Marshall Allen and Orlando Julius). Psychedelic pop from Flamingods with “Majesty” – I saw these guys in a tent I was DJing in at Glastonbury last year and was blown away – a whole band of multi-instrumentalists who met in London and the Middle East. This is their third album and has shades of early Pink Floyd, Os Mutantes, the Beatles & Sun City Girls, crashing into Les Baxter and Martin Denny. Then we have a new 45 by Chico Mann, Kenya Special Volume 2 , re-issues of People Rock Outfit and Jay-U experience from Nigeria and some edit 12s. Later on in the year I hope the new Ondatropica album will drop alongside some more new signings and re-issues etc and a comp of Nigerian Disco and Boogie.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
If I tell you that 100’s of other people will try and do it first!
 
 

https://www.soundwayrecords.com/Shop/

 
 

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. This month, Quinton Scott, the man behind Strut Records, talks about his passion since more than thirty years and goes back on his choices, reissues as new stuff.

When did you start digging records?
I started buying vinyl seriously around 1983.

What LPs did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
My first love was early ’80s electro. I would travel from the suburbs to Central London and fight through the bomber jackets at the counter in Soho’s Groove Records to get the latest imports. I still love that era. There are brilliant records and some DIY efforts which have dated really badly but that whole period had a particular innocence and is still very special.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period?
1970-1973 was an incredible time for music but my personal favourite is probably around 1986-1987. You would hear a real variety of sounds in London clubs and warehouses from rare groove to boogie to Washington DC go-go, hip hop and early house and it just felt like a very open-minded time for music.

Are you still digging’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Yes, definitely. Running an indie label doesn’t make you rich and I have two growing kids these days but any spare pennies still go on the vinyl.

What was your first release ?
I started a dance reissues label before Strut called Harmless (still going through Demon Music) and we started that in ’95 with a compilation of Masters At Work’s remixes called ‘Masterworks’. With Strut, I kicked off with an Afro-funk / Afrobeat collection compiled by Brighton DJ Russ Dewbury – ‘Club Africa’.

‘Jungle Funk’ by Nkengas

Why Strut ? What does that mean ?
It’s a funky walk! You’re feeling good and you’re struttin’ down the street. It’s obviously inspired by funk records that used ‘Strut’ in their titles too. I was obsessed with The Meters so ‘Cissy Strut’ was probably coming to mind…

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
“Put the artists first and make amazing, lesser known original music available to everyone”. We try and present our albums to appeal to any music fan – it’s personally satisfying to take the music away from over-protective collectors and DJs who feel like they somehow own the music and make it available more widely.

What could be your editorial/aesthetic line?
There’s a broad philosophy of back catalogue dancefloor music that has influenced today’s generation so Strut covers everything from undiscovered “world” fusions to disco, post-punk and industrial music to early house.

How do you decide on the choice of reissues/issues ?
It can happen in a variety of ways – I may spot a gap in the market for a particular album, one of the collectors we work with regularly may have an idea or we may just get approached by someone that we have never worked with before. For an album to work, it needs to be a unique idea with global potential, preferably with an interesting back-story. I think we generally know instinctively straight away if an album will work as an idea or not.

What is the best deal / business : to make reissues or to produce / co-produce new records?
On the whole, compilations are a much safer bet for us – once you know your market, you have a fairly good idea which ones will work and how many they will sell. With artist albums, it’s much more risky. Our work with Ethio-jazz legend Mulatu Astatke was really successful all the way through and set him up as a major world music star. The Souljazz Orchestra too is an amazingly hard-working band – the most super-organised and focused group I have ever worked with. The problem comes when things don’t go right. Touring may not happen at the right time for one reason or another, visas get stuck in the system, recording costs go way over budget. There’s a whole list of reasons why an artist project can become a nightmare!
 

‘Cha Cha’ by Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics

‘Watch We’ by Horace Andy and Ashley Beedle (Souljazz Orchestra Mix)

How do you find brand new talents ? Do you have a team who works for you, I mean who suggests new releases to you?
We’re lucky with Strut now that we get approached by a lot of artists and collectors / compilers – a lot of projects come about because of word of mouth. We do have regular collaborators; collector Duncan Brooker is a core part of the team and is an endless source of amazing rare music and musicians like The Heliocentrics and Ben Abarbanel-Wolff (man behind the Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas albums) are always great to work with. But, new releases can just as easily come from an in-house idea or a DJ / collector who approaches us out of the blue with a great project.

Strut often creates collaboration projects (Mulatu/Heliocentrics, Tony Allen/Jimi Tenor, Ashley Beedle/Horace Andy,…). What did you expect through these ? and what are the next moves?
We originally set up a series for this called ‘Inspiration Information’ and felt that it would be a really good way to bring in all kinds of interesting and unexpected collaborations and build them into a unique run of albums. In reality, some albums have worked better than others so we have increasingly focused the branding of any collaborative albums on the artists themselves. The next one is Ghanaian highlife legend Pat Thomas with Kwashibu Area Band featuring fellow legends Ebo Taylor, Tony Allen, Ralph Karikari and Osei Tutu alongside younger musicians led by Kwame Yeboah and Ben Abarbanel-Wolff.

For a long time now, you have been putting out multiple compilations emphasizing the « latin » scenes : Funky Nassau, Fania Selection, Haiti Direct or Calypsoul… In this part of your catalogue, you are adding a new project : Peru. What is the specificity of this scene ? How did you discover it ? Do you believe there was/is a connection between all these latin versions? The Peruvian link has come specifically through a partner label we are working with, Tiger’s Milk. The guys behind that are Martin Morales (ex-Outcaste and now a restaurant entrepreneur in London with the Ceviche group of Peruvian restaurants) and Duncan Ballantyne (ex-Soundway). They have already produced two superb comps, ‘Peru Maravilloso’ and ‘Peru Bravo’ and we’re working together on a fine new folk / electronic band called Kanaku y El Tigre.
For the Latin releases we put out, there’s obviously a direct link with the Nu Yorican sound of ’60s / ’70s and some of the Latin-rooted Caribbean bands of the same era – the issue for us as a compilation label is to come up with something different and fresh. We felt that there needed to be a strong overview of Fania on the market (Dean Rudland compiled a great set for us) and ‘Calypsoul 70’ was more of a general celebration of some of the rare funkier island sounds of the era spanning the Caribbean.

‘You Think it Soft!’ by Lancelot Layne

Strut is involved in most of The Heliocentrics projects. What type of collaboration do you have with them?
We actually only work album by album with the Helios – there’s no long term deal. Jake, Malcolm and I will talk at certain points and the timing will just be right to start putting together a particular album. As collaborators, I don’t think there’s anyone to touch them in Europe – they’re all brilliant musicians and they just have a way of working with the legends that brings out the best from them and takes their music into trippy, progressive new areas. The sessions with Mulatu, Lloyd Miller and Orlando Julius were amazing to watch. Not least for the mixing process – Malcolm and Jake essentially have to piece together a big jigsaw of sessions to create their final versions with amazing attention to detail.

Are you still connected to the electro-disco scene, like Berlin touch for instance ? Do you have some similar projects?
Yes, we’re currently working on a project called ‘Subkultur’ which looks at the Berlin scene of the early ‘80s, some of the key artists like Mania D and Malaria!, one-off art experiments, a brilliant demo of Anita Lane and Mick Harvey doing an anarchic version of Sister Sledge’s ‘Lost In Music’ – there’s all sorts in there. The compiler is a musician who was at the centre of that scene, Mark Reeder, and Horst Weidenmueller, boss of Strut’s parent company !K7, started out filming in Berlin clubs and venues during that time so we definitely have the inside story.

What about the Celluloid years, do you want to make a second part of that, more focused on Braziloid ?
I would love to do another Celluloid / Braziloid collection but it’s one of those messy situations on licensing rights, unfortunately. Through doing the first compilation, we discovered that three different parties had claims to the label name and master rights and it all became extremely complicated with the licensing. So, I doubt another will happen, sadly.

You won Label Of The Year at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards… How is it to make a living out of a record label in 2015?
It’s definitely hard making it a viable business. Everything has to be right – the idea, the artwork, bringing the album in on budget and setting up a really strong marketing campaign globally. If everything falls into place, you can still make money but if any one part of that mix doesn’t work, it can all fall through your fingers very quickly.

‘Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu’ by K. Frimpong and His Cubano Fiesta

‘African Dialects’ by Peter King

You worked with Ebo Taylor, Orlando Julius and now Pat Thomas, and released a lot of african music compilation, including the great ‘Next Stop Soweto’ series! Is Strut the main african label at the moment?
I hope Strut plays its part but there are obviously many superb labels around today. I think our compiler Duncan Brooker certainly changed the whole market with his ‘Afro Rock Vol. 1’ compilation and our first ‘Nigeria 70’ collection around 2000. They were some of the first albums to dig deep into African archives and market the music to a much wider audience than the traditional ‘world music’ buyers which definitely helped to inspire other labels to form. Today, the variety of new and original African music out there is mouth-watering – Soundway, Analog Africa, Awesome Tapes, Sublime Frequencies, Now Again, Glitterbeat, Transgressive, Luaka Bop, Voodoo Funk, Hot Casa and of course, the DADDIES – Stern’s and World Circuit, among many others, including Superfly! All doing a great job. It’s an amazing time for record buyers.

You released a compilation of Sun Ra material with Marshall Allen. How did you get to work with him ? And what was the main aesthetic idea for that particular project?
That one came through the nicest man in the music business, Peter Dennett at Art Yard. He has worked with the Sun Ra catalogue and the Arkestra for many years and pulled the strings to make the album happen, linking us with the catalogue gatekeepers over at Sun Ra LLC. The thinking behind it was quite simple – Sun Ra had primarily always been the domain of the collector and there hadn’t ever been a well-marketed Sun Ra compilation. So, rather than going for a straight ‘Best Of’, we felt that a deeper selection curated by the current Arkestra bandleader Marshall Allen would be a strong direction to take. Marshall is truly inspirational for a 91 year-old and it was a huge pleasure to work with him and Peter.

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs you were trying to reissue?
Yes, we do often get knocked back, for different reasons. Artists may want to release the album themselves or may just not want to licence their music at all, our licence fees may be perceived as too low or the rights to a track may be complicated and locked in a legal battle.

From Marshall Allen presents Sun Ra And His Arkestra – In The Orbit Of Ra

There are more and more reissues of old LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
There are a lot of releases but I can’t see it reaching saturation quite yet, no. Labels do a run of vinyl and many releases then don’t get repressed so there’s always new titles coming in to replace the ones that sell out. With the music, a lot has been reissued now but there’s many many great albums that are still untouched so I think the vinyl river will flow sweetly for a good while yet…

What are your next releases?
We have quite a lot coming – a previously unreleased Sun Ra concert from Amiens in 1973 for Record Store Day; new studio albums from Kanaku y El Tigre and Pat Thomas in June; The Souljazz Orchestra drop their best album yet in September; we also have a new compilation put together by Roger Bong, the man behind the excellent blog ‘Aloha Got Soul’ bringing together late ‘70s / ‘80s Hawaiian rarities. Then there’s the ‘Subkultur’ compilation and a new Sun Ra collection curated by Gilles Peterson on the way.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
We have tried since Strut first started to work with Eddy Grant on reissuing the brilliant obscure funky oddities from his back catalogue. It won’t ever happen on Strut but, if I can be involved in making it happen on his own label Ice at some point, it would feel like a real achievement!

To go further

ANITA LANE & MICK HARVEY – LOST IN MUSIC (demo)

From ‘Subkultur’ compilation – forthcoming

PAT THOMAS – GYAE SU

SUN RA AND HIS INTERGALACTIC RESEARCH ARKESTRA – LIGHTS ON A SATELLITE

From ‘Planets Of Life Or Death: Amiens ‘73’

Carleen & The Groovers

Can We Rap

“One of the hardest hitting funk 45´s I ever heard. The female drummer drops some wicked kick drum flams in the break.”

Ebo Taylor

Odofo Nyi Akyiri Biara

“I could witness the audience reaction to this wonderful song over the course of a couple of hundred shows I had the honor to play with Mr. Taylor. Pure magic!”

Thelonius Monk

Ugly Beauty

“Advanced harmonic brain-melt in waltz time!”

 

Ex Ovo Pro

It´s Raining In  My House

“I walked by the Studio where this was recorded everyday on my way to school. The sound of the Bassoon lifts this to an extra trippy sonic experience.”

Cymande

Fug

“One of the first bands i discovered in the spiritual-afro-caribbean-funk cosmos. Still one of my favorites and a huge influence on what I search for in music…”