Dig This Way Records is more than delighted to announce its second project of the Maxi 12” series, an adventure started last year - 2020 - with the “ Imo Special Release”
We moved from Imo State to Enugu, southeastern Nigeria. We are in the early 80s. In these years the Nigerian Music Industry was on fire and the city was at that time a beehive of musical activities. The western music, especially Funk music was getting the mind of the youths becoming so popular widely influencing the local music scene.
PSK - Disco Season is one of the most in demand and surely rarer Disco-Funk/Reggae LP ever made in Nigeria and for us at DTW records it is the continuation of a cooperation with our friend Austin Rigar who was also one of our references for the Jicco Funk project as being the lead singer of "The Combats"
This release features the two best tracks of the LP on a phat sounding 12'' pressed at 45rpm which is housed in a full colour disco sleeve !
"Spell Bound (Beware Of Magic Charms)" is the main track on the LP, it's an explosive Disco-Funk track full of crazy hypnotizing synths, short slapback delayed funky guitar, layered over a strong bumpin' bassline by the mighty Willy Nfor. The tune keeps on going for about 7 minutes with unpredictable raw variations, keeping you truly spell bound!
On the flip you find "Revolution" which is a militant Roots Reggae Track with a strong Nigerian mood flavour into it, comes with a devastating bassline and the crazy synths that distinguish the short lived PSK Project. We consider it an evolution of "Rock On" By the Combats (Best Of Jicco Funk Vol.1)
Some words from Austin Rigar, the lead vocal:
PSK is a funk band formed in 1980 by some great musicians: Christan Okanazu ,Austin Rigar, Jones Coakly ,Michael Byyon, Willy Nfor, Danny Black, Pius Masoso, Papa Nfon Joe.
The group PSK was formed thanks to a connection we had with a friend during a trip to Enugu. I remember, one day, I received a call from a friend of mine, Uche, who informed me that one of his friends, a good musician, had written some songs and wanted to record an album. Of course he was looking for some good musicians. So, Me, Modjo Isidore and Joans Coakly without even thinking about it, you know music was part of us, we jumped on my in my vwbeetle car to the Enugu direction, around three hours far from Onitsha, Anambra State. When we arrived in the city KC aka Christan Okanazu was waiting for us in his house. After some chats about life and music, we were very curious to hear his songs. Unfortunately, as soon as he started singing we realized that those song were not good, were not powerful enough. After some disscussions on how to make our music heavy, we agreed to pool our strengths together and that's how PSK began.
PSK means POP SOUNDS and KC,
Pop Sounds was the the group i formed with Modjo and Joans while KC is the name of
Okanazu who worked with us.
After that, the group met Obunike Obiorah, a friend of mine who was the ceo of Jeantos Enterprises that was one of the big marketing companies of the 80s. After having listened to some of our songs he suggested that if we wanted to come out with a great album we should have try and do some Funk.
At the bass and guitar there was the cameroonian Willy Nfor, who was one of the best bass players in the world, sadly passed away in 1998. Jones Coakly was the guitar player and singer of one of the songs in the album. Mike Byon and Danny Black played the keyboards. Papa Nfon j played the rythnm guitar. The most amazing percussionist i know was Pius Masoso (the elephant) who palyed in groups like First Planet and Mighty Flames.
We had some incredible moments together, we were young and fully inspired and influenced by the situation we were living, by the new, vibrant and the psychedelic sounds filtered out from the western countries and which had become the model for a hybrid sound, a mix between local and foreign, that spoke only of the future. After that we went to Godiac Studio with Goddy Oku as Studio Engineer and recorded the album. The album was finally released in august 1980 as a solo album.We gave it the title DISCO SEASON based on the music happening in the learly 80s and 90s then wish is DISCO MUSIC
The song "Spell Bound (Beware Of Magic Charms)" was written when my friend Eddy was rejected by his girlfriend Ada. We found out that she was dating an older guy and some of our friends told me that she was cast with a spell and that she was bound with a love potion. Ha Ha Ha! Eddy was heartbroken but when he heard the music he loved the song so much. At that time we were young guys and I remember we were harassing the man who took Eddy's girl, one of our friends told the man to his face that he hypnotised ADA, so we started going to the man's street to call him hypnotiser.
The song “Revolution (Work Hard In Your Life)” was written when our country was recovering from the civil war (also known as Biafran War, 1967-1970). I had just finished my secondary school and i was founding out that many guys were thinking and talking about getting scholarship to go to Europe and/or Usa which were seen as a mirage, a better place of life than a Nigeria which was facing many social, economic and cultural problems. The purpose of this song was to encourage young people not to leave their country but to fight and work hard to create a better place where to leave in peace and prosperity. A chant for a good future.
italian independent label born with the idea to dig out the best underground and forgotten music from Africa and expanding our project to new music productions
supported by 7 fans who also own “Psk - Spell Bound / Revolution”
Why do you love this album? Well, it is the quality of ALL the Analog Africa releases , the astonishing presentation- artwork, AWESOME booklets, the mastering, the music first of all and the feeling you connect with it and the artists involved. Due to not earning enough I changed from vinyl to CDs, but I am glad for the high quality downloads of the vinyl only releases that you are able to burn to disc. Together with a chosen few others AA is a greater than great label. Period. Markus Bader
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