El Rego is a true legend of African Soul Music. Here for the first time on album are 12 of his greatest recordings from the late 60's and early 70's hand-picked by Daptone Records. Afro-Soul collector/DJ Frank Gossner had spent years combing West Africa tracking down 45's by Theophile Do Rego (aka El Rego) before finally meeting him face to face in his home in Benin. From that relationship came this album, which we present to you here in a 20 page hardcover Bookcase CD featuring El Rego's own story of his life and music along with pictures from his personal collection and artwork from his original 45's. The music has been remastered with great care, and the vinyl contains an exclusive BONUS 45' (while supplies last) of Se Na Min, one of his most sought after afro-funk tracks, backed with E Ma Non Tin Me, a beautiful and somewhat more traditional song about two blind men who agree to go together and leap to their deaths into a river.
G**R
Excellent, but with some overlap....
How exciting to finally have a really well selected comp. of the great El Rego! My only quibble with this release is that some of the tracks overlap with the prior released compilation by Analog Africa called 'The legends of Benin' (get it-it's great). These are "feeling you got', 'e nan main nuku' and 'djobime'. Also if you buy the lp version one of the bonus tracks on the 45 is already out on Analog Africa's 'African Scream Contest'. With so many other fine tracks not compiled anywhere i wonder why they decided to release a bunch that were already readily available. Seems like a curious decision but i can't pretend to know what they were thinking. Still grateful and delighted that daptone released this, it's long overdue.Other than that this is a well thought out compilation that will be a great addition to your music collection. So enrich your ears with some El Rego!
A**R
Great Compilation!
This is a great compilation with a nice mix of different styles, from funk to blues. It will definitely get you out of your seat and dancing. Highly recommended.
Trustpilot
2 months ago
2 weeks ago
