LIVING IS HARD. WEST AFRICAN MUSIC IN BRITAIN, 1927-1929

"This collection draws on EMI's Hayes Archive, a deposit of recordings dating as far back as the nineteenth century. Up until recently, the archive was mainly used by researchers in the field of classical music, but Honest Jons have taken on a more ethnographically concerned agenda, documenting the specific indigenous musics of certain cultures - in this case the music of West African music as documented in the late 1920s, mainly by British residents and immigrants. Of course, West Africa is a big place, so there's a variety of different cultures and languages in use across this compilation, with musical styles ranging from the qutie universal, pop-friendly sounds of George Williams Aingo and his jaunty guitar playing, to the far more folksy repetitions and chants of Domingo Justus' 'Buje'. Perhaps an indicator of the sort of social circumstances that greeted Afriacan immigrants in 1920s Britain, The Ga Quartet seem to adapt their percussion arrangements around whatever comes to hand, in this case it's what sounds like the chinking of bottles accompanying an ensemble vocal performance. This release marks the opening of a proposed series of publications based on material from the Hayes Archive, and if the standards met by this first instalment are maintained, it'll be something worth following very closely indeed. Highly Recommended." (www.boomkat.com)