Description
情熱的なDJであり、crate diggerでもあるBorovichが、直感に従って音楽を選び抜いた「Afromagic Vol.2」。アートへの妥協もトレンドへの迎合もなく、ダンスフロアを自由と愛の聖域と捉えるDJたちのための新たなツールがここに誕生する。
アフリカ音楽の本質は「踊り」にあり、儀式と娯楽の境界がなく、リズムと言葉では表せない感情を表現する。音楽とダンスは魂と身体に深く根付いており、夢や希望を映し出す媒体だ。反復されるリズムを通じて、人々は死者や自然、神々と交信し、解放された心と身体が幸福と自由を取り戻す。
このアフリカ発のリズムがファンク、ディスコ、ソウルなどの音楽を生み出し、70年代後半のアメリカで爆発的に広がったクラブ文化に繋がった。DJはシャーマンのように音楽を操り、クラブは愛と解放のための寺院となった。80年代の商業化でディスコ・ファンクは一度地下に戻ったが、今もなお、その魅力は息づいている。DJたちは星へ導くグルーヴを掘り起こす音楽の考古学者だ。
「Afromagic Vol.2」の制作は、Borovich自身の複雑な愛の問題からの逃避として始まった。ライヴ感を重視したジャムセッションの中で、彼は本能と感情に従い、強力なリズムでエネルギーを解き放ち、心身を癒していく。選ばれた楽曲の歌詞は、愛の境界や微妙なニュアンスへの答えを象徴的に提供する。
A面の幕開けはApostlesの「Feeling Happy」。スローでクールなグルーヴに乗せて、「I'm gonna feel happy, 'cause I know I'm gonna be myself」と歌うこの曲が自由の感覚を一気に引き出す。続くAigbe Lebartyはアシッドなシンセと女性コーラスでシャーマン的なディスコの旅へと誘う。Mighty Flamesは攻撃的なファンクでA面の熱量をさらに高め、Geraldo Pinoのサイケなグルーヴが「The way she walk, the way she talk…」と重い愛の問題を描き、A面を締めくくる。
B面は、Jake Solloのレゲエ・ブルースからスタート。「You think I'm nobody…」という歌詞が胸を打つ。Adolf AhanotuはB2でエキゾチックなディスコ・ファンクを炸裂させ、Baad John Crossは「Give Me Some Lovin’」で初期エレクトロの未来を感じさせるサウンドを披露する。最後はEji Oyevoleのアフロ・シンセポップが、夢見るようなサックスと共に「I’m a dancer, I can dance」と締め、ライフスキルと幸福を象徴する。このコンピのフィナーレは、ダンスフロアでも人生でも自分らしく楽しむことの大切さを教えてくれる。
「Afromagic Vol.2」は、クラブ文化の真髄を貫き、現代のDJたちにとって欠かせないツールとして誕生した。Borovichの選曲と共に、星々の間で自由に踊り、音楽の魔法を体感してほしい。
A1. Apostles - Feeling Happy
A2. Aigbe Lebarty - Unity
A3. Mighty Flames - Road Man
A4. Geraldo Pino - Heavy Heavy Heavy
B1. Jake Sollo - I Am Somebody I Know
B2. Adolf Ahanotu - Sensation
B3. Baad John Cross - Gimme Some Lovin
B4. Eji Oyewole - I m A Dancer
Deep Dancefloor Jams of African Disco, Funk, Boogie, Reggae & Proto Electro Music 1977-1986
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* The new afrofunky phonomancer’s DJ tool, especially mastered for clubs!
* more than 48 minutes of deep Dancefloor Jams of African Disco, Funk, Boogie, Reggae & Proto Electro Music 1977-1986
* Every song is a deep dig and serious Dancefloor burner - NO fillers!
* BPM for all songs written on sleeve and labels, for quick DJ action
* Second volume of a new series on Everland Afro, dedicated to extraordinary 70s and 80ies african club music
* Limited edition in stunning psychedelic sleevedesign
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When a passionate DJ and crate digger intuitively selects music for a DJ compilation, without artistic compromise and without the burden of trends, AfroMagic vol.1 emerges from the depths of his soul. Herewith we present the new favorite phonomancer’s tool for all the DJs who experience the dance floor as a sanctuary and a source of freedom and love.
The most fundamental thing that defines African music is that it was created for dancing. In African dance, there is often no clear distinction between ritual celebration and social recreational entertainment - one can seemlessly merge with the other. Because dance and rhythm have more power than gesture and more richness than words, and because they express the deepest experiences of human beings, dance is in itself a complete and self-sufficient language. It is truly an expression of life with all of its emotions – joy, love, sadness and hope – without which there is no African music and dance. For the African people, dance and music are integral parts of the body and soul, thus depicting the expression of life, current emotional states, visions or dreams. Through hypnotic repetitive music and dance, people communicate with each other and with the souls of the dead, the animals, the plants, the stars, the Gods… They free the body and the spirit through ecstatic states, reaching a healing sense of freedom, happiness, and satisfaction.
Throughout history, this transcendental perception of rhythm and dance originating from Africa, influenced popular music worldwide, thus creating new living and breathing forms of musical genres – freeing them from their industrial mold. Funk, disco, soul, boogie, reggae, dancefloor jazz etc., developed in parallel all over the world. It is foolish to perpetually discuss where they originated from and who were the creators of all these fiery dance floor genres – being obvious that they directly or indirectly originate from the African continent and its people who were as well, over the centuries, influenced by disturbing socio-cultural factors of colonialism. However, no one can enslave the soul. The seeds of free and uninhibited dance and rhythm, true to their original form, initially first sprouted onto the USA's fertile fields of clubbing and popular music while later evolving in other parts of the world.
The disco funk club culture manifested itself as a phenomenal explosion of artists and grooves in the second half of the 70s in the USA. Shortly it spread around the world continually reigning over charts in its various forms – to this day. Clubs emerged where the DJ is an almighty shaman and the dancers are a tribe united under one roof. This urban ritual had and still has a single goal: togetherness, freedom, and love. Clubs have evolved into temples where we free ourselves from the burden of a consumerist lifestyle and suppressed emotions - a place where we receive love and give love – to be who we really are.
Disco funk clubbing was such an influential global phenomenon that its influence can be observed in various other genres from the disco funk era i.e. progressive rock, which mutated by layering complex rock arrangements with a disco funk groove resulting in hybrids, highly sought by today's diggers, producers and collectors. The profit-hungry music industry of the 80s very quickly commercialized the original disco funk sound by amputating of its original Afro groove to be able to easily 'sell' it globally. So, the original disco funk groove became underground again, and it has remained so until this day. Today, for a DJ to unearth that ravishing groove that will lead the dancers to the stars, he must dig passionately like a true musical archaeologist in search of that groove that picks you up after just a few initial beats. That groove which forces the atoms in your body to vibrate, that groove which unites the body and releases the burden.
The AfroMagic compilation series is created as a tool for real DJs who stick to the aesthetics and essence of clubbing.
This continuation of the Afromagic compilation by DJ Borovich was created in a private jam session which served as an escape route from intense and complex love problems.
Unconsciously driven by intuition and emotion and following a live mix tape framework where many tunes are arranged instantaneously, Borovich narrates his story with a strong rhythm that cuts loose even the most blocked off energy nodes and restores happiness to the spirit and the body.
The musical experience of the groove is completed by the lyrics of the songs, which symbolically give DJ Borovich universal answers to his questions arising from questioning the boundaries, nuances and other forms of love.
When considering that Borovich's selection was created to facilitate an escape from the burdens of reality through rhythm and dance, we can be sure that Afromagic Vol. 2 will have a 100% uplifting, energized and spaced-out effect on the listeners.
The intro to A1, “Feeling Happy” by the Apostles, introduces us to an experienced and slow, cool and irregularly tight groove containing a confidently sung chorus that instantly gives a sense of freedom and hints at the remainder of Afromagic Vol. 2: “I'm gonna feel happy, ´cause I know I'm gonna be myself.” After the anthemic song mantra of the Apostles, Aigbe Lebarty uncompromisingly continues with a dirty disco rhythm. Acidified by accented synths that elevate it to shamanic levels and held together by a female tribal choir, we embark on an uncompromising ritual disco journey. Without a moment to take a breather the prog funk band Mighty Flames and their Road Man launch a highly vicious and raw, thick funk groove spiced with acid synths and dirty RnR breaks, raising the bar for the A side. Jimi Hendrix himself would surely praise it given the ultimate freedom and virtuosity in the solo sections. With the last tune on A side DJ Borovich decides to burn the floor with Geraldo Pino's psychedelic, acid furious groove and lyrics which describe this HEAVY part of love problems: “The way she walk, the way she talk, the way she does a funky dances, she is really really heavy - that woman”.
While the A side represents a compact intoxicating afro groove machine that separates us from reality and lifts us up to the stars in over 23 minutes, the B side is a treasure trove of proto sub-genres gems. This selection represents the mission of the Afromagic: to find singular events in African recorded discography of popular music from the 70s and 80s that give evidence to the birth of new modern genres on the Dark Continent even before they emerged in the U.S.A. or Europe. The beginnings of electronic music influenced genres are represented back to back with 80s synth jazzy pop, all painted in African colours.
The B side opens big with Jake Sollo and a huge reggae blues number singing about the humiliation of a man – goosebumps guaranteed! “You think I'm nobody that's why, you don't know the way for me, I’m somebody I know, I found myself at last”. Adolf Ahanotu then enters the scene with a hard sliding tackle at B2 and an exotic rare disco funk dancefloor napalm. A ‘Sensation’ that would ignite even the coldest of introverts. While we approach the end of the compilation the narrative revolves again and takes a different turn. No less and no more than to the proto-electro that Baad John Cross serves us in “Give Me Some Lovin´”. The fat and repetitive broken electro synth groove, championing many early 90s electro tracks, is presented here without hesitation and with constant tension accompanied by a mantric chorus “Gimme some, gimme some, gimme some looooovin’, EVERBODY!!!”. Finally, we’re guided to the end of Afromagic Vol. 2 by Eji Oyevole’s 80s synth pop style presented in an authentic afro manner, giving us a glimpse at yet another released Afromagic edition, as well as giving an answer to DJ Borovich’s love problems. A smoothly broken electronic rhythm resembling electrified highlife sounds, carried on the wings of a virtuoso dreamy saxophone on top of which Eji presents the most intimate parts of himself. Finalizing the track with a symbolic chorus, on the surface referring to the dancefloor and simply having fun, but in actuality referring to the skill and happiness of living: “I´m a dancer, I can dance”. So, get up and dance among the stars with DJ Borovich and Afromagic.
