VA - Journeys Into Psychedelic Africa (A Butterboy Compilation) (4 x CDs)

AFRICAN PSYCH

VA - Journeys Into Psychedelic Africa A Butterboy Compilation) (4 x CDs)

African psychedelic music was never a single sound. It was not a scene in the way London, San Francisco or Berlin were scenes. It emerged in fragments, in port cities, university halls, roadside studios, national radio rooms, desert camps, nightclubs, political ceremonies and half-functioning pressing plants. Across the continent, musicians absorbed rock, funk, soul, traditional rhythms, spiritual music, electric blues and homemade electronics, then reshaped them into something stranger and far more personal. What survives on these recordings is not simply “African rock” or “Afro-funk.” It is the sound of musicians discovering entirely new emotional languages in real time.

This collection follows that journey across four discs, each one moving deeper into a different psychological space.

CD1 begins at ignition point. Raw guitars, distorted organs, fuzz pedals and ecstatic rhythms collide with highlife, Afrobeat and local ceremonial traditions. These recordings carry an incredible sense of possibility. Bands like Witch, Ofege and The Funkees were not imitating Western psychedelic music, they were transforming it into something rooted in entirely different landscapes and spiritual traditions. The energy is youthful, restless and alive.

CD2 moves inward. Rhythm becomes ritualistic, hypnotic and cyclical. Desert blues, modal repetition and trance structures begin to dominate the music. The pulse slows down, but the intensity deepens. Here, artists such as Tinariwen, El Wali and Fela Kuti stretch music into long-form spiritual movement. Songs become journeys rather than performances. Time itself starts to dissolve.

CD3 represents the electric city at night. Psychedelia mutates into urban groove systems, cosmic disco, deep funk and hypnotic repetition. Synthesizers appear beside traditional percussion. Studio experimentation becomes part of the language. Artists like William Onyeabor, Manu Dibango and Steve Monite create music that feels futuristic even decades later, balancing dancefloor motion with something deeply mysterious beneath the surface.

By CD4, the journey reaches dissolution. The music becomes spacious, reflective and dreamlike. Voices drift through desert air, rhythms fade into memory, and songs feel suspended between continents, histories and states of consciousness. What remains is atmosphere, emotion and distance. The recordings by Francis Bebey, Ali Farka Touré, Mamani Keïta and Tinariwen do not simply close the collection, they transform it into something almost cinematic, as though the listener is slowly travelling beyond the physical world these recordings came from.

Many of these tracks survived against impossible odds. Small pressings, unstable political climates, collapsing studios, disappearing master tapes and decades of neglect nearly erased this music entirely. Yet the recordings endure because they contain something timeless, discovery. The feeling of musicians pushing beyond known forms and finding sounds that still feel radical today.

This box set is not intended as an invitation into a different way of hearing music, where rhythm becomes landscape, repetition becomes trance, and psychedelia is not escapism but transformation. And it is not a definitive anthology. It is but a structured listening environment, one that encourages one to hear psychedelia not as a sound, but as a series of evolving systems of perception across African musical history. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Witch - Introduction 3:14

02 Cicada - Let the Bread Flow In 3:29

03 Osibisa - Music for a Gong Gong (Single Version) 4:38

04 Monomono - Give The Beggar A Chance 5:57

05 Moussa Doumbia - Keleya 6:42

06 Ofege - It's Not Easy 4:20

07 Sorry Bamba - Porry 8:17

08 BLO - Time to Face the Sun 4:03

09 The Funkees - Dancing Time 3:19

10 Question Mark - Love 5:12

11 Marijata - No Condition is Permanent 7:04

12 El Rego et Ses Commandos - Feeling You Got 3:44

13 Thermometers - Babalawo 3:35

14 Nkengas - Anyi Bundi Igbo 3:07

15 Fubura Sekibo - Psychedelic Baby 3:10

16 Tunji Oyelana and The Benders - Ifa 4:59

17 Super Eagles - Love's A Real Thing 2:59

18 Amanaz - Khala My Friend 3:40

19 Hygrades - In The Jungle (Vocal) 3:17

20 Tony Grey & The Black 7 - The Feelings 4:47

CD2

01 Tinariwen - Cler Achel 4:23

02 Tamikrest - Adagh 3:09

03 Imarhan - Temet 5:01

04 El Wali - Dreams and Nostalgia 4:20

05 Les Abranis - Akoudar 4:13

06 Orchestre National de Mauritanie - Chabab El-Bilad 2:09

07 Orchestra Baobab - Diarabi 5:15

08 Nass El Ghiwane - Essiniya 6:48

09 Super Mama Djombo - Dissan na m’bera 5:12

10 Attarazat Addahabia, Faradjallah - Albaki 7:06

11 Assagai - Telephone Girl 3:27

12 Fela Kuti & Africa 70 - Alu Jon Jonki Jon 12:41

13 Orchestre Regional De Kayes - Sanjina 6:00

14 Ebo Taylor & Uhuru-Yenzu - Love and Death 8:19

15 William Onyeabor - good name 10:08

16 Francis Bebey - Forest Nativity 4:23

17 Peter King - Ajo 4:00

18 Opotopo (Easy Kabaka Brown) - Agboho 8:53

19 Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey & His International Brothers - Ajoyio 6:39

20 Philip Cohran and The Artistic Heritage Ensemble - On The Beach 17:30

CD3

01 William Onyeabor - Fantastic Man 6:26

02 Ebo Taylor - Heaven 6:04

03 Manu Dibango - Big Blow 5:39

04 Francis Bebey - New Track 8:17

05 Segun Bucknor - Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrow 12:34

06 Mombasa - Nairobi 7:30

07 Steve Monite - only you (disco jam) 6:29

08 Pat Thomas & The Sweet Beans - False Lover 3:22

09 Black Truth Rhythm Band - Save D Musician 8:06

10 Orlando Julius & His Afro-Sound - Afro-Blues 6:11

11 Amadou & Mariam - Ce N´est Pas Bon 4:22

12 Getatchew Mekurya - Eywat Setenafegagn 5:05

13 Hykkers - I Want a Break Thru' 3:02

14 Buari - Karam Bani 4:22

15 Dr Victor Olaiya's International All-Stars - Kinringjingbin 4:29

16 Question Mark - Love 5:12

17 Funkees - Slipping Into Darkness 4:23

18 Tony Grey & The Black 7 - The Feelings 4:47

19 Ice - Time Will Tell 4:45

20 Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou Dahomey - Minsato Le, Mi Deyihome 3:19

CD4

01 Francis Bebey - The Coffee Cola Song 5:05

02 Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder - Ai Du 7:10

03 Mamani Keïta - Yelema 4:45

04 Boubacar Traore - Mali Twist 5:57

05 Malouma - Yarab 5:02

06 Ismael Lo - Tajabone 4:04

07 Oumou Sangare - Saa Magni 7:36

08 Salif Keita - Madan 5:07

09 Youssou N'Dour - Birima 3:47

10 Farafina - Dounounia 5:22

11 Ali Hassan Kuban - Mabruk (Egypt) 6:33

12 Waves - Wake Up You 4:01

13 Rokia Traoré - Kounandi 5:23

14 Dhafer Youssef - A Kind of Love 4:51

15 Group Bombino - Amidinine 4:35

16 Abdallah Ag Oumbadougou - Imidiwan 3:42

17 Tinariwen - Izarharh Tenere 5:01

18 Bassekou Kouyate & Lobi Traore - Banani 3:39

19 Getatchew Mekurya - Eywat Setenafegagn 5:05

20 Hugh Masekela - Stimela (Coaltrain) 6:26

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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