Lagos Jump

Various Artists - Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump

When this album showed up on emusic, I got all excited thinking they'd finally reissued the original Nigeria 70 compilation, which I've never heard but has been on my list for a long time. Instead, this is a sequel, and it's a great collection of funky Nigerian tunes with great song titles like "Hot Tears" and "Wetin De Watch Goat, Goat Dey Watcham." Dig the awesome chicken-scratch guitar on "Ezuku Buzo"--how fucking hot is that?

Bola Johnson & His Easylife Top Beats - Ezuku Buzo
Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestroes - Dododo (Ekassa No. 1)

"Dododo" is great lying-in-a-hammock-sipping-a-drink music, but then that horn flourish comes out of nowhere and you comically fall out of the hammock, spilling your drink all over yourself. These records have a nice ramshackle sound, with often-excessive amounts of reverb, and sometimes (like those horns on "Dododo") the levels seem to be mixed a bit unevenly, but that just makes the songs sound more "earthy."

EDIT: I had the track listing wrong on that first song. It's fixed now.