What do you get when you have an African athletic hero studying music in New York who became obsessed with baseball and disco and with bringing his native music into dance clubs in 1979? You get Sidiku Buari‘s fun album Disco Soccer.
Mixing English and his native Ga language vocals along with West African rhythms and disco beats, Buari came to make everyone have fun in 1979. “Koko Si” is a song encouraging everyone to make love and get down when you’re feeling blue. The song is complete with women moaning in orgasm, lush strings, wah-wah’s guitar, and basically everything you want in a disco track. The funky bass on “I’m Ready” will be stuck in your head for days, and that’s not a bad thing. “I’m Ready” was the first song I heard by Buari and I knew right away that I had to track down this album after hearing this great jam about being open for anything.
“Let me feed your body, baby, with my natural thing,” Buari sings on “Feed My Body.” You can pretty much guess where the song is going from there, and the track speeds up to a horn section-heavy groove. “It’s What’s Happening” could easily have been a theme song to a cool 1970’s film. It’s the first track on the album in which Buari sings in his native language, and you can tell right away that he’s loving the chance to do it. “Hard Times” is the soundtrack of an (unfortunately) unmade Shaft film. Buari sings about poverty, world hunger, and suffering on both sides of the Atlantic as his drummer (Errol “Crusher” Bennett) goes wild on the track with some of his heftiest grooves that sound like he’s about to break his high-hat at any moment.
“Born with Music” slows things down a bit, but the African hand percussion beats are still prominent. Disco synths and piano take the forefront on “African Hustle.” “Kinyi Kawali” has bold brass and guitar licks that sound simple but are trickier than you think. It blends well with “Adesa A,” which flows well into “Minyo.” The three tracks make for a sweet mix of African disco (and the violin work on “Minyo” is sharp). The closer, “Games We Used to Play,” sends you out on a bit of a synthwave note.
It was great of the UK label BBE to reissue this gem because it deserves to be heard by a lot more people.
Keep your mind open.
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