my latest digging trip to Cotonou...

Frank

Gilles, the son of Gnonnas Pedro with a friend.Some more Poly Rythmo LPs...The Black Santiago LPs are amazing! Watch out for the next mix!The Les Volcans has a smoking Afrobeat/Latin trackThe two Stan Tohon LPs are the same record as Benin and Cote d'Ivoire releasewith the great track "mi tchinker"And here are some of the 45s that I scored, I'm only posting the ones that came in picture sleeves...

Skip Drinkwater

Wow dude, truly some cool shit

robert_murt

Yeaah mate,

Your pictures reports are priceless. Thanks for that. Would love to hear all that sounds.

JRoot

As always, Frank's finds are the most unique. Thanks for sharing them with us.

The Lijadu Sisters looks like artwork from Mingering Mike.

Flomotion

Hi Frank - are you back in your house again or still a refugee? Beautiful haul - what does that Faces one sound like?

Take care, Olivier

DJPrestige

nice haul.

Fatback

Thanks Frank!

You and Sheep's travel/diggin/eating/etc. adventure threads are the best of the best of this site.

izm707

oh oh, finally someone wit taste!!!
i've lived a couple of weeks in Cotonou (Sikecodji if you know about that). I had a girl over there. I ended up living in Ivory Coast after that and the Shakara LP was already a classic in Treichville. I started my Fela authentik collection over there. Unfortunately, the tons of LPS i bought wasn't in such good conditions as yours. I spent countless hours to clean them mofockers. I'm so proud of my Sonike/Wolof OST. Too bad i had to leave because of the civil war that took place in 2000/2001. Great moments.

Flomotion

oh oh, finally someone wit taste!!!
i've lived a couple of weeks in Cotonou (Sikecodji if you know about that). I had a girl over there. I ended up living in Ivory Coast after that and the Shakara LP was already a classic in Treichville. I started my Fela authentik collection over there. Unfortunately, the tons of LPS i bought wasn't in such good conditions as yours. I spent countless hours to clean them mofockers. I'm so proud of my Sonike/Wolof OST. Too bad i had to leave because of the civil war that took place in 2000/2001. Great moments.

Hello mate - were you living in Abidjan? I was there ten years before you but had to leave for the same reasons. Whiskey a Go Go?

HairyBelafonte

as always, very impresive records and stories as how you got them.

keep up the mixes and stay safe!

PABLO

Frank, you should put together an African album cover art book.
Lord knows there's one for every other genre (and I think I have them all).
Love analyzing all your pics & covers. Very inspiring on a design & digging level.

Lumin

hey frank, how about you save some records for the rest of us that want to travel to africa and go diggin!
nice freakin finds. i would like to hear another mix

crashcourse

i was wondering if you've found/discovered anything previously unknown? (most are unknown to me)

rootlesscosmo

keep up the mixes and stay safe!

mylatency

Frank, these posts from Africa are truly inspiring. Be safe and keep on with the mixes!!!

Cheers, looking forward to more posts from you

-M

Frank

First off, some great news:
The new prime minister of Guinea has announced a new government yesterday.
President Cont?? will remain "in power" but this is merely a formality to keep him from loosing face. He looses his command over the army and he did not get to keep his farming minister ("I need him, he controls the export of all the products from my many plantations"). He also lost his traffic minister who was his son in law and controlled the port and with it all import and exports (Guinea is the worlds largest exporter of Bauxite, sitting on more than 30% of the world reserve which resulted in exploding prices on Aluminum during the crisis a few weeks back. No bauxite exports are officially declared, no taxes were ever paid, the population has never seen a dime of the country's riches.)

Reuters wrote yesterday:

"The new government represented a complete renewal of the Guinean administration, bringing in respected technocrats and economists, some with international experience."

This is incredible!



Now back to the records...

Hi Frank - are you back in your house again or still a refugee? Beautiful haul - what does that Faces one sound like?

Take care, Olivier

yeah, I returned to Conakry three or four weeks ago...

The Faces has partially very annoying partially amusing off-key female vocals that sometimes are background and sometimes lead. Side A is questionable in my book but on Side B, there is one cool Funk track with said background vocals, one very good Afrobeat track and a really catchy love song, totally off-key but very charming and great (funny) lyrics. I will include one track on the next mix.

oh oh, finally someone wit taste!!!
i've lived a couple of weeks in Cotonou (Sikecodji if you know about that). I had a girl over there. I ended up living in Ivory Coast after that and the Shakara LP was already a classic in Treichville. I started my Fela authentik collection over there. Unfortunately, the tons of LPS i bought wasn't in such good conditions as yours. I spent countless hours to clean them mofockers. I'm so proud of my Sonike/Wolof OST. Too bad i had to leave because of the civil war that took place in 2000/2001. Great moments.

I spent a day in Abidjan on the way back to Conakry.
When we landed in Ivory Coast to pick up more passengers, some bird kamikazeed into one of our engines, ruining it completely. After a few hours waiting around, we were shuttled into town to the Ibis Plateau Hotel. I thought I might use the time to go on a digging spree but the overwhelming army presence on the streets and the recent string of dramatic events in my life led me to stay inside the Hotel instead, ordering a nice meal and two bottles of Bordeaux...

Frank, you should put together an African album cover art book.
Lord knows there's one for every other genre (and I think I have them all).
Love analyzing all your pics & covers. Very inspiring on a design & digging level.

I guess there are people with much bigger collections than me who could do a much better job at this... also, most records I find around here have at least some amount of water damage, even if the vinyl is fine, high humidity and unbelievable amounts of rain over three decades always leave their traces.

hey frank, how about you save some records for the rest of us that want to travel to africa and go diggin!
nice freakin finds. i would like to hear another mix

I'll do a new mix early next week. RAJ has agreed to host this one, I'll have to figure out how to do yousendit or mail a CDR which naturally would take a while...

i was wondering if you've found/discovered anything previously unknown? (most are unknown to me)

Hard to say, I never really knew much about African Music before I moved down here almost two years ago so I don't really know what's "known" or not... I have a few friends who have deeper knowledge and I did find some stuff that neither one had ever heard before.



Thanx for the feeback!

best

Frank

99Problems

Hey Frank, got any extra copies of that Lijadu Sisters??

Frank

Hey Frank, got any extra copies of that Lijadu Sisters??

yes,

contact me at soulpusher AT soulexplosion.de

99Problems

Hey Frank, got any extra copies of that Lijadu Sisters??

yes,

contact me at soulpusher AT soulexplosion.de

Done. Mucho thanks!

izm707

im gonna post up some African LP considered as "classics" for local DJ's and such very soon...I've worked in many studios in Abidjan and i had the oportunity to work with the greatest people i've ever met over there, talking about records all day. For the reggae heads in here, i've been chillin with Alpha Blondy (he lives near a hood called Rivieira). The Ibis Plateau Hotel is still th main monument of th city...lol. Some damages in th hotel lobby during th riots, but th hotl stayed intact since politicians and ambassadors seeked refuge in that very same hotel. I was living in Cocody for a while, i know you remember Cocody if you remember the Plateau. If i mentionned treichville, it was also a hint to where you need to go to buy records. You ask to old mens in small shops to bring th crates for you. They sell tapes and CDs only but when you asked them, they have backyards full of old records they couldnt sell in the past. It's a museum. I nevr been to Guinea, but now you gave me a taste for it. I'm an afro-beat groupie til i die. Matter of fact, we should do a mixtape one of these days.

PS : im eagerly waiting on the next presidential election to go back in IC. I was about to buy an appartment when th shit went down. This is my second home.

pcmr

.

PS : im eagerly waiting on the next presidential election to go back in IC. I was about to buy an appartment when th shit went down. This is my second home.

the new prime minister looks to be a step in the right direction

I will be goign down to senegal/benin one of these days...for a while I hope

izm707

well, since you're tuned in...Mr Soro is more a solution than a problem. With that said, Guillaume Soro is mofockin' 35. What's happening here if i'm not wrong is a political trap. Gbagbo is facing a dead end and Soro is so much on his ass that he basically try to give him the "best spot" (prime minister) to let him do better then his predecessors. Problem is if he don't do better and fast, he's going to be the next scapegoat (as Ouattara once was, as Guei once was, as Konan Banny is now). Konan Banny went from being the most beloved to the most hated in 6 months. Soro may face th same premises. And can also end up being another fuse for the government. The only difference i see this time is Soro have a lot of people hoping. The North (the Muslims), the students (Bl?? Goud?? just voted for him as a prime minister), etc...If he don't succeed a bit, i can say goodbye to Ivory Coast for another 5 years if not more, because the country will not recover easily. Very tight situation. I get reports daily from my people over there. They are not hopeless, which is a good thing. It's not Zimbabwe (yet). Gbagbo is not Mugabe. But one thing i know is this : if the next presidential elections are not clear and if the candidates have to face the same bullshit as in 2001, the country will fall into a civil war.

izm707

PS : Senegal is the shit. There's a big studio (the biggest in West Africa) called Xipi. It belongs to Youssou N'Dour. I wont disrespct you, you know who that is. Try to go over there by any means. Xipi. You ask for it anywhere in Dakar they will tell you. From there, you'll get in touch with vinyls owners. Crazy dudes...