World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's a Real Thing - The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa

Buy this album and rejoice! Highly danceable, funky stuff. The iTunes review sums up what to expect in the sound pretty aptly; the best of American funk/ roots (black) rock filtered through West African experiences. This has been in pretty heavy rotation for me since I found it on here 6-8 months ago. If you are tied up in what's on the radio/ having to understand the language of the lyrics, this is likely not for you, but if dig funk or have eclectic tastes, this is a great find.

Take the beats of Africa, kidnap and tranport them to North America, supress them, let them free in the church. Let the emphasis on loving the lord fall away in the 20th century and let big bad men like Otis Redding and James Brown loose, like a sex machine man, screaming, you know, doin it! Play them on Top 40 Radio, and that funky raw groove is going to get back to AFRICA! These cuts are smooth and rough, familiar and extraterrestrial. Play it loud or play it soft, it's fantastic music. Dontcha wish you had David Byrne's job, finding the best of the best music from around the world and re-releasing it. This is gorgeous, empahtic, and funkalicious stuff!!

Richly atmospheric and funky, this collection benefits for the slightly raw-sounding production on many songs, although the crisp sound of "Ceddo End Title" adds to its intimate intensity. Hearing this album is like being in a gritty club late at night in Africa in the 70's (though I can't personally vouch for it), after the glitterati have left and the live band is grooving at its hardest. These are musicians and tunesmiths of the highest order, making this a highly danceable and vital album that has real cultural roots. Guitar, bass, keyboards, sax, xylophone (it's gotta be!) and drums create a spare yet propulsive mix that's a far cry from the lush strings- and brass-supported sound of Motown. There are enough strictly instrumental stretches that when the vocals (very good, if mostly non-English) kick in, the band is still at the heart of the tuneful proceedings. Highlights include the insistently soulful "Love's a Real Thing", and "Better Change Your Mind". If "Minsato Le, Mi Dayihome" and "Allah Wakbarr" don't get you dancing in your apartment, nothing will.