{"product_id":"1331854","title":"Various - Cameroon Garage Funk  [VINYL]","description":"Brand New From Reputable UK Company With 30 Years Experience In Retail, Please Note Not All Our New Items Are Shrink Wrapped.\u003cbr\u003eAll items shipped within 3 working days of payment.\u003cbr\u003ePlease note that all our DVDs are Region 2.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYaound\\xe9, in the 1970\\xb4s, was a buzzing place with every neighbourhood of Cameroon\\xb4s capital, no matter how dodgy, filled with music spots but surprisingly there were no infrastructure to immortalise those musical riches. \\r\u003cbr\u003eThe country suffered from a serious lack of proper recording facilities, and the process of committing your song \\r\u003cbr\u003eto tape could become a whole adventure unto itself. Of course, you could always book the national broadcasting \\r\u003cbr\u003ecompany together with a sound engineer, but this was hardly an option for underground artists with no cash. \\r\u003cbr\u003eBut luckily an alternative option emerged in form of an adventist church with some good recording equipment \\r\u003cbr\u003eand many of the artists on this compilation recorded their first few songs, secretly, in these premises thanks to \\r\u003cbr\u003eMonsieur Awono, the church engineer. He knew the schedule of the priests and, in exchange for some cash, he \\r\u003cbr\u003ewould arrange recording sessions. The artists still had to bring their own equipment, and since there was only \\r\u003cbr\u003eone microphone, the amps and instruments had to be positioned perfectly. It was a risky business for everyone \\r\u003cbr\u003einvolved but since they knew they were making history, it was all worth it. \u003cp\u003e\\r\u003cbr\u003eAt the end of the recording, the master reel would be handed to whoever had paid for the session, usually the artist himself..and what happened next? With no distribution nor recording companies around this was a legitimate \\r\u003cbr\u003equestion. More often then not it was the french label Sonafric that would offer their manufacturing and distribution structure and many Cameroonian artist used that platform to kickstart their career. What is particularly surprising in the case of Sonafric was their willingness to take chances and judge music solely on their merit rather \\r\u003cbr\u003ethan their commercial viability. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe sheer amount of seriously crazy music released also spoke volumes about the \\r\u003cbr\u003eopenness of the people behind the label.But who exactly are these artists that recorded one or two songs before disappearing, never to be heard from \\r\u003cbr\u003eagain? Some of the names were so obscure that even the most seasoned veterans of the Cameroonian music \\r\u003cbr\u003escene had never heard of them. A few trips to the land of Makossa and many more hours of interviews were \\r\u003cbr\u003enecessary to get enough insight to assemble the puzzle-pieces of Yaound\\xe9's buzzing 1970s music scene. We \\r\u003cbr\u003elearned that despite the myriad difficulties involved in the simple process of making and releasing a record, the \\r\u003cbr\u003emusicians of Yaound\\xe9's underground music scene left behind an extraordinary legacy of raw grooves and magnificent tunes. \\r\u003cbr\u003eThe songs may have been recorded in a church, with a single microphone in the span of only an hour or two, but \\r\u003cbr\u003ethe fact that we still pay attention to these great creations some 50 years later, only illustrates the timelessness \\r\u003cbr\u003eof their music\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chalkys.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55293293265281,"sku":"1331854","price":31.98,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0056\/8043\/1219\/files\/51XNlFIR_yL._SL1500_190c2be5-77b5-47a9-b967-e7be29d4fa93.jpg?v=1769717904","url":"https:\/\/chalkys.com\/products\/1331854","provider":"Chalkys.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}