Orlando Julius and the Afro Sounders

by Orlando Julius and the Afro Sounders

There really have been a lot of reissues of 'lost' African recordings from the late sixties to early seventies, and it's a trend I hope to see continuing into the future, as there is some very good stuff being recovered and released to a much wider audience.

Orlando Julius and the Afro Sounders's eponymous release from 1973 is a good example of this.  The album was originally released by Phillips just as they were preparing to leave the continent, and so it received barely any promotion or distribution.  Band leader Orlando Julius himself barely remembered it when he was approached by Voodoo Funk about the reissue.

It's an enjoyable afro disc, made up of six tracks for a total playing time of just under thirty-five minutes.  The songs are either instrumental or sung mostly in Yoruba, and are largely allegorical in nature (I only know this because of the liner notes written by Julius himself).  It's a nice example of the time period and a good album to kick back to.