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

The third volume in Luaka Bop’s World Psychedelic Classics series (David Byrne, curator) comes with an eminently descriptive title: Love’s a Real Thing: Funky Fuzzy Sounds From West Africa. One listen to the clamorous Afro-Beat contained within and you realize that those sonorous “Funky & Fuzzy” descriptors mean what they say. Love’s a Real Thing is a take no prisoners delivery of wild and deranged sounds from the musically fertile milieu of early ‘70s West Africa. The musicians featured on the album made music that was boldly experimental, bracingly contemporary and stridently political. Uncompromising tracks like the wild, fuzz-choked battle cry of Ofo & the Black Company’s “Allah Wakbarr” and the sinuous, challenging funk of the Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo’s “Minsato Le, Mi Dayihome” give the listener a vibrant picture of West African life in the psychedelic era; the burgeoning night-clubs full of aspiring James Browns competing for floor space, the unrelenting beat, and the birth of political consciousness. Love’s A Real Thing is more than a compilation of superlative music; it's a compelling document of an overlooked moment in African musical history.