Various Artists: Living Is Hard

Honest Jon’s HJRLP 033 (Do LP) - € 29
West African Music in Britain, 1927-1929, unearthed from the EMI Archive
First in a series drawing on some of the earliest recordings in the EMI Hayes Archive — recovered
from more than 150,000 78s, staggering music from Iraq, Turkey, Caucasia, the Lebanon, Iran
(including sides made in Old Street, London, in 1909), Egypt and the Belgian Congo.

This opener presents the music of the West African underground of 1920s Britain, recorded at Hayes and released on the Zonophone label (which exported nearly all the records to West Africa).

You can hear Caribbean influences here, the promise of highlife there, but Living Is Hard mostly
disavows fusion and assimilation. And by contrast with antecedents in the history of black music
in Britain — minstrelsy and spirituals, for example, ragtime and jazz — these recordings are unhitched from the protocols of a white listenership.

This is startling, trenchant, elemental roots — carrying troubled news home, and signs of the new African nationalism — and an enthralling glimpse of other lives, another time here.

A heavyweight gatefold with a booklet in the same style as London Is The Place For Me.

Tracklisting:

Oni Johnson: Garse Yer Fido

Isaac Jackson: Nitsi Koko Ko Ko

Ben Simmons: [Blank]

Harry E. Quashie: Anadwofa

Ben Simmons: Mu Kun Sebor Wa Wu

Douglas Papafio: Kuntum

Prince Zulamkah: Ligiligi

The West African Instrumental Quintet: Adersu - No. 2

The Ga Quartet: Abowe Dsane Nmaka Tso

Domingo Justus: Buje

Ben Simmons: Obu Kofi

James Tucker: Rue Bai Rue Bai

John Mugat: Bukay

Kumasi Trio: Asin Asin Part 2

Douglas Papafio: Sakyi

James Thomas: Jon Jo Ko

Nicholas De Heer: Edna Buchaiku

George William Aingo: Akuko Nu Bonto

Nicholas De Heer: Ewuri Beka

George William Aingo: Agur Bi Dzi Mansu Aba

James Brown: Mukorin-Mantun

Nicholas De Heer: Wasiu Dowu

John Mugat: Alahira