Adieu. Ofege. 1976. EMI.

 In 1976, Ofege released its second album, The Last of the Origins, after having formed earlier that decade, all band members still in their teens at St Gregory’s College in Lagos. Taken from that second album, Adieu is both loose and tightly wound, the work of serious young men with a talent for rhythm and dense sonic texture. It’s an accomplished music that easily recalls the furious control of Santana’s debut record. Music played at this level of rhythmic virtuosity establishes such a direct, visceral connection with the listener that the effect can be erotic. It’s remarkable that Ofege’s band members began playing together at that age when our carnal instincts are still fresh and we’re learning to personalize our desires until they become intrinsic. On The Way Young Lovers Do, Van Morrison romanticized the intensity of young passion, giving it a poetic vocabulary that still quakes the ground of anyone who hears it, destabilizing what we only thought we knew about ourselves. Adieu digs at that same ground, that passion, stripping the experience of romance. It reminds us of the power of becoming human. From the 2008 Soundway release Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock and Fuzz Funk In 1970s Nigeria


May 29 021

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