Don't be put off by the title - there's very little screaming on African Scream Contest (Analog Africa), a fascinating compilation which chronicles dance music from Benin and Togo, originally recorded in the 1970s.
Label owner and vinyl collector Samy Ben Redjeb has scoured the continent for rare grooves, searching in dusty warehouses for forgotten recordings.
Sami said: "Some of the tracks have not been released before - and I even found a lost master tape at the producer's house. He had decided not to release it and just left it aside."
The 14 tracks on this CD, the third released by Sami's label, mark the beginning of the fusion of traditonal rythms with late sixties and early seventies rock and soul music, when James Brown and Johnny Hallyday became immensely popular with young people in Benin.
The 'scream' of the album title refers to vocalists who copied the late, great Mr Brown's style.
The raw and sometimes psychedelic Afro sounds on African Scream Contest are consistently exciting - a really refreshing antidote to the sometimes overproduced music which gets a 'world music' tag these days.
The CD comes with a booklet of photographs and stories - which made me long for the days of vinyl albums when you could actually read the liner notes without resorting to the use of a magnifying glass. Or am I just showing my age?
d=3,3,1I recently discovered that Joe Brown (who will be showing up at this year's Cropredy festival) could have gone through his professional life known as Elmer Twitch. Joe's agent, the famous Larry Parnes, came up with this alternative moniker - we can only guess at Joe's robust response to the idea. Mr Brown celebrates 50 years in the business this year - and has released a 25-track anniversary 'best of' CD on the Universal label. All your old favourites are here - and Joe's excellent version of I'll See You in My Dreams, which he performed as a finalé to George Harrison's tribute concert.
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