IVORY COAST SOUL

"Massive music we've never heard before – a really heavy helping of grooves from the Ivory Coast – an African scene that's hardly been tapped by crate diggers and collectors! There's a really fresh feel to the grooves overall – not just the familiar Afro Funk modes, but a nice range of styles that moves between rootsy local numbers through some great crossover styles, through even a few of the African Disco modes that are better known from other scenes! The tracks here are all massively funky – scoured out over the course of a number of different crate-digging trips to the coast – and the package presents the music with great images of the original record covers, too – so that you can still retain some of the feel of the rarity of the work, even though the collection presents things in an easy to handle format. Definitely one for fans of Soundway and Analogue Africa titles..."

Straight from Dusty Groove

ENO PRAISES SEUN KUTI, TO PRODUCE ALBUM

Brian Eno hails Seun Kuti, 'stunning' son of Afrobeat legend Fela

Eno, 62, will be helping in London later this year with an album from Seun Kuti, the bandleader son of Afrobeat visionary Fela Kuti, whose music is being celebrated at a new show at London's National Theatre.

Eno, one of music's great innovators, said: "I think Seun is absolutely stunning. His father was a huge inspiration for me for many, many years.

"A lot of the work I did with Talking Heads was very much affected by Fela. And Seun's band is really incredible, 18 people on stage. When I first heard Fela on stage I thought 'this is the music of the future' and I still think it's true. Decades ago, I went into a record shop and bought a copy of Fela's Afrodisiac [1971] and my life changed.It was totally thrilling. Fela was the greatest West African bandleader - just as important as James Brown was in western culture - and it was great that two of his sons separately formed bands. Anyone who has an interest in music will connect with them."

Kuti's youngest son, Seun, said: "Fans that come to my show already know some of the songs from my forthcoming album because I have been playing them for a while. We are through with recording and I will be going to London pretty soon to mix the songs.

"I have great people working on the album for me such as Godwin Moggi, Brian Eno and John Reynolds. The album will be released under the label known as Meeting Factory which is the label that released my father's songs world-wide."

LIFTED DIRECTLY FROM THE TELEGRAPH