Album Review: Psycho African Beat-The Psychedelic Aliens

The name says it all. Psycho African Beat, the compilation out October 26th on Academy Records, is an unabashedly in-your-face collection of jams that are about as funky as anything you're likely to come across. The Psychedelic Aliens are a 1970's Ghanaian Psych-Soul band that had virtually fallen into obscurity. Academy Records and Frank Voodoo Funk Gossner kept that from happening by scouring crates in different corners of the globe for bits and pieces of their music in hopes of releasing this compilation.

Their efforts have paid off. Frank Gossner has once again completed his mission of reviving forgotten funky music from West Africa, and this could be one of the funkiest projects he's ever undertaken. The Psychedelic Aliens combine elements from several of the American musical genres that made their way back across the Atlantic--soul, fuzz rock, and psychedelic funk. Listening to this album almost makes me wonder what Funkadelic's first album might sound like if it was recorded in Accra.

While this album could start a great conversation about cross-cultural exchange in African and African-American musics in the 1970's, most of all, this is downright funky music made for dancing (especially the type of dancing one might find at a 1970's freak out full of Nigerian college students). Put simply, don't listen to this album if you can't handle some serious funk.

Extraordinary Woman by afrobeatblog