nigeriaspecial

Not only does music change over time, but so does the way people listen to it. Back in the 50’s US Rock’n’Roll was specially produced to sound its best on the local diner’s juke box. Motown then came along and perfected the ultimate sound for a car radio. A few years later, Dub and Hip Hop records were then produced to be blasted out on walls of speakers stretching up to the ceiling (if there was one).

The music produced in Nigeria from 1970-76 is remarkable in many ways. In the 1960’s Rudy Van Gelder perfected the ultimate means of balancing sound levels in US Jazz recordings (both mono and now stereo), using new micing techniques and low-cost magnetic master tape he developed a style that would become industry standard by the 70s. It was only after this time that sound quality stored on vinyl records became good enough to sample and it is with this technology that labels such as EMI, Decca, and Polydor recorded in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s problems with preserving its sound were different. The high quality materials needed for pressing were expensive and high temperatures damaged the vinyl. Add to this, 30 years of storage and neglect and you begin to get close to the problem faced when re-issuing obscure Nigerian music, particularly when there are no master tapes and the only copies left are the original vinyls.

As the proud owner of a few original Nigerian pressings, what really surprised me about Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds and Nigerian Blues was how all the recordings had been re-mastered and balanced to sound as if they had all just rolled out of the same modern recording studio and straight onto CD. Just like most listeners, lack of space means I have micro speakers, designed perfectly for the latest digital recordings but not for the full and earthy sound of Nigerian groove from 1970-76. A tough mastering challenge if ever there was one!

However, I’m pleased to say that the work done by Nick Robbins at Sound Mastering Ltd is really something else. Sound Mastering are the in-house digital transfer and re-mastering people at Ace Records, who along with Soundway, also re-master for the likes of Soul Jazz. I can’t tell you what they did to it or how they did it, but Nigeria Special is a great example of how modern digital sound processing can now reclaim the sound of original analogue records. The results are just lovely.

Rare old Nigerian music has simply never sounded so good. Even on my Mickey Mouse speakers.

Timjim 2008