Afro-Beat Airways

West African Shock Waves: Ghana & Togo 1972 - 1978

This compilation is number eight in the Analog Africa series, although it's the first item I've gotten from this label.

The cd contains fourteen tracks of "organ-driven Afro-beat, cosmic Afro-funk, raw, psychedelic boogie and some other stuff...," as described on the back of the box.  That description works pretty well, as Samy Ben Redjeb has put together an interesting and very cool survey of the music from Ghana and Togo.

The cd is accompanied by a long booklet, wherein Redjeb recounts his experiences in Ghana and Togo as he tried to track down all of the artists represented on this disk.  He found most of them, and the interviews that he published, along with the stories he included about finding these artists provide the music with context.  This is an impressive piece of scholarship, and a great collection of music.