| Soundway Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Founder | Miles Cleret |
| Genre | African, Caribbean, Latin, and Asian music |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Location | London |
| Official website | soundwayrecords |
Soundway Records is a British, London-based independent record label, founded and run by English DJ and music producer Miles Cleret. Since its initial release of a collection of Ghanaian music in 2002, it has released compilation albums of African, Caribbean, Latin, and Asian music from the 1950s to 1980s.
The label started in 2002 with the release of Ghana Soundz: Afrobeat, Funk & Fusion in '70s Ghana. Composed of Ghanaian music from the 1970s, the release was compiled from a hoard of dusty LPs and 45s that Cleret discovered whilst on a search mission to Ghana. [1] With immediate critical acclaim from Joe Tangari, writer for Pitchfork Media and creator of Africa 100, Cleret was encouraged to set off again on a number of expeditions around the world. [2]
As a result, the label has released a series of critically acclaimed compilation albums and re-issues of African, Caribbean, Latin, and Asian music from the 1950s to 1980s. [3] These include the Nigeria Special, Ghana Special , and Kenya Special compilation albums, as well as Doing It In Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Nigeria , and a retrospective from Ghanaian disco legend Kiki Gyan. [4] [5]
Highlife on the Move (2015) features one of the earliest recordings of Afrobeat founder Fela Kuti. Fela recorded the song "Fela's Special" in London in 1960 for the Melodisc label with his band Fela Ransome-Kuti & the Highlife Rakers. [6] [7] In the sleeve notes, Markus Coester adds that "Even though [the recordings] had been discographically tracked and people interested in Fela's musical life knew of them, they kept hiding for more than 50 years. Before I came across them, I was even in doubt whether they had been released at all. These are amazing first recordings, however". [8]
Since 2012, the label has issued a series of original contemporary releases as well as re-issued older music. [9] These include releases from acts such as Batida, Ibibio Sound Machine, Debruit & Alsarah, Fantasma, Fumaça Preta, Ondatropica, The Meridian Brothers, Los Miticos Del Ritmo, Chico Mann, Bomba Estereo, My Panda Shall Fly, KonKoma, Family Atlantica, and Dexter Story. [10]
The Guardian included Soundway Records on its list of the "10 British recording labels defining the sound of 2014". [11]
In January 2017, Soundway Records was awarded 'Label of The Year' by Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards held at Koko London. [12]
Afrobeat is a Nigerian music genre that involves the combination of West African musical styles from mainly Nigeria such as the traditional Yoruba and Igbo music and highlife with American funk, jazz, and soul influences. With a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms, and percussion. The style was pioneered in the 1960s by Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who is most known for popularizing the style both within and outside Nigeria. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa's most "challenging and charismatic music performers."
The music of Nigeria includes many kinds of folk and popular music. Little of the country's music history prior to European contact has been preserved, although bronze carvings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries have been found depicting musicians and their instruments. The country's most internationally renowned genres are Indigenous, Apala, Aurrebbe music, Rara music, Were music, Ogene, Fuji, Jùjú, Afrobeat, Afrobeats, Igbo highlife, Afro-juju, Waka, Igbo rap, Gospel, and Yo-pop. Styles of folk music are related to the over 250 ethnic groups in the country, each with their own techniques, instruments, and songs. The largest ethnic groups are the Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. Traditional music from Nigeria and throughout Africa is often functional; in other words, it is performed to mark a ritual such as the wedding or funeral and not to achieve artistic goals. Although some Nigerians, especially children and the elderly, play instruments for their own amusement, solo performance is otherwise rare. Music is closely linked to agriculture, and there are restrictions on, for example, which instruments can be played during different parts of the planting season.
Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì, also famously known as Abàmì Ẹ̀dá, was a Nigerian musician, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. He is regarded as the King of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre that combines West African music with African-American funk and jazz. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa's most "challenging and charismatic music performers". AllMusic described him as "a musical and sociopolitical voice" of international significance.
Kiki Gyan, also known as Kiki Djan, was a Ghanaian musician. He was the keyboardist of the band Osibisa which was popular in the 1970s. He also recorded and produced a series of disco records. He was a prodigy who could play the keyboard exceptionally well.
Tony Oladipo Allen was a Nigerian and French drummer, composer, and songwriter who lived and worked in Paris, France. Allen was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti's band Africa '70 from 1968 to 1979, and was one of the founders of the Afrobeat genre. Fela once stated that "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat". He was described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived".
Afro rock is a style of rock music with African influences. Afro rock is a dynamic interplay between Western rock music and African musical elements such as rhythm, melodies and instrumentation. Afro rock bands and artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s included Osibisa, Assagai and Lafayette Afro Rock Band.
John Collins is a UK-born guitarist, harmonica player and percussionist who first went to Ghana as a child in 1952 for a brief period and later became involved in the West African music scene after returning to Ghana in 1969. He is a naturalised Ghanaian.
Chopteeth is a Washington, D.C.- based afrofunk big-band. Although rooted in Fela Kuti's Nigerian afrobeat, Chopteeth's music is an amalgam of Ghanaian highlife, Senegalese rumba, Jamaican ska, Mande griot music, 1970's West African funk, Ewe dance drum rhythms, Kenyan Taita afropop, soul-funk, and jazz. Chopteeth's writing and arrangements feature unique driving syncopations, and occasional odd meters. Chopteeth vocalists sing in eight different languages including English, Nigerian Pidgin, Swahili, Wolof, Mande, Twi, Taita, and French.
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou is a band from Cotonou, Benin, originally active from the 1960s to the 1980s and founded by singer-guitarist Mélomé Clément. They reformed in 2009 to international recognition. Their work has mixed styles such as funk, afrobeat, psychedelia, jazz and local voodoo influences. The Guardian called them "one of West Africa's best dance bands."
Victor Abimbola Olaiya, , also known as Dr Victor Olaiya, was a Nigerian trumpeter who played in the highlife style. Though famous in Nigeria during the 1950s and early 1960s, Olaiya received little recognition outside his native country. Alhaji Alade Odunewu of the Daily Times called him "The Evil Genius of Highlife."
"Psychedelic Woman" is a 1973 Ghanaian song by Honny & the Bees Band. It was written and sung by Ernest Aubrey Honny, who worked mainly as a session keyboardist and recording engineer. Over a medium-tempo groove, the song begins with a spoken-word story concerning a "psychedelic woman" first spotted at a nightclub. The story ends with a transitional climax to a sung chorus of several voices. There are several more choruses, interspersed with solo singing, then a funky, jazzy electric organ solo, finishing with a brief recap of singing. Part and parcel of the afrobeat sound then becoming popular in Ghana, influences include reggae, James Brown, and perhaps even Britain's mods.
Ebo Taylor is a Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, record producer and arranger focusing on highlife and afrobeat music.
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is a Ghanaian highlife musician, songwriter, producer, and composer. The first musician from Ghana and the world to formally incorporate rap forms into local highlife rhythms, Ambolley created the musical genre Simigwa.
Doing It In Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Lagos is a compilation album released in 2016 by Soundway Records. It collects Nigerian pop and club culture tracks released in the late 1970s through the 1980s. Though afrobeat, led by artists like Fela Kuti, dominated Nigerian music during the 1970s, Doing It In Lagos chronicles Nigerian music's move away from the afrocentric style of afrobeat and toward more American forms of pop music in the 1980s. Many of the tracks are rare and, prior to this album's release, were sold for high prices in online auctions.
Afrobeats is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, Ghana, and the UK in the 2000s and 2010s. Afrobeats is less of a style per se, and more of a descriptor for the fusion of sounds flowing majorly out of Nigeria. Genres such as hiplife, jùjú music, highlife and naija beats, among others, were amalgamated under the "Afrobeats" umbrella.
Orlando Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode, known professionally as Orlando Julius or Orlando Julius Ekemode was a Nigerian saxophonist, singer, bandleader, and songwriter closely associated with afrobeat music.
Ọmọ́rìnmádé Kútì known professionally as Made Kuti, is a Nigerian afrobeat singer, songwriter and instrumentalist. He released his debut album titled For(e)ward in 2021.
Bayo Martins (1932–2003) was a Nigerian jazz musician. A drummer and conga player, he is considered a pioneer of Afro-jazz. He was a member of some pioneering African musical ensembles.
Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968–1981 is a compilation album released by Soundway Records on 2 November 2009. The compilation is focused on highlife, a Ghanaian musical style that gained popularity across western Africa in the first half of the 20th century. The tracks from the compilation date from a period of political and economic instability in Ghana.
