Prince Bolingo Akaba And His Obubu Sound Of Uokha Airende

Since we started the Dig This Way Records project we always wanted to shed light on music that never really made it to the western musical world , while Afrobeat , Funk , Disco and Boogie from Africa have been widely explored , Highlife still remain a bit of a niche music which we believe deserve more attention. For this reason , in 2019 our 2nd release was the great “Ode-Omore Osarenren – Oyoetigbe” an “Edo-Digital-Synthy-Highlife” production from 1988 made in Benin City and since than that we have been looking for a worthy sequel to propose on the label. Few years ago , during one of our musical Adventures in Nigeria we did spend a couple weeks in the north side of Edo State , an area commonly known as Etsako but also called Afenmai or Owan. The music made in this area is known in Nigeria for its unique touch , slow and deep with hypnotic guitars that drive the rhythm , incredible percussions and meditative vocals , sung in local languages. It's unknown when this style of music was created but some of the early exponents like Chief Anco Mamodu or Chief I.I. Ayeni had their early releases already in the very early 60's and the music had already the magical touch that made it famous in the decades to follow. As said before we have been looking for a worthy sequel of our 2nd release and during this travel we had the incredible luck to find one of the rarer album from the area , Prince Bolingo Akaba – Airende , a mid 80's release that have a lot of points in common with the Ode-Omore album , lot of the musicians are the same and as consequence the synthy cosmic sound is still there but with an “Etsakor” version of it.

“A colourful LP. A native blues with heavy leaning on the organ. It is one of those items that can move a sorrowful soul. The vocals are clear and punchy. The instrumentation is in the mid tempo class with a slightly aggressive percussive background. It's something you cannot fail to appreciate even if you don't understand the language. Check it out, it could be something extra to you”