Lagos Disco Inferno Vol 2

Voodoo Funk's latest onslaught of blistering Nigerian disco and Afro-funk. Tony Grey's two inclusions, from the early-eighties with the Ozimba Messengers, were originally released on different LPs: irresistible Afro-disco, layered with delirious syn-drums and sick keys, and featuring a horn-line bumptiously whipped from Louis 'Thunder Thumbs' Johnson's bass-playing on MJ's Workin' Day And Night. Originally from Warri where he stayed throughout most of his career, Tony's first band was the Famous Latin And His Dominant Seven. He gigged for a while as a James Brown imitator with The Great Peters, before his breakthrough fronting the Magnificient Zeinians, with some amazing 45s on EMI's HMV imprint - best of all the psych-rock-funk monster Ije Udo. At the close of the 1970s, just a couple of years after the classic psych-funk of Float, Tirogo - Wilf Ekanem and crew - trained their frazzled peepers on Disco. The ensuing Aiye People LP is a stunner and a collector's legend. Afro-fried Kool And The Gang on a mission to 'blow your soul on fire', featuring space-jazzbo Fred Fisher on trombone and the E Gang sisters on sassy backing vocals, Disco Manic and We Like To Party are two standouts. Eno Louis gained a solid background in traditional Edo music as a student in Benin City, south-east Nigeria. He lived at Fela's Kalakuta Republic till the army raid in 1978, when he moved to the US for a couple of years. On his return, he recorded with Edo funk powerhouse The Talents Of Benin, and quickly became a mainstay of the flourishing disco and boogie scene, in-demand as guitarist and drummer.