Body Music is a lost-and-found Afrobeat gem originally cut in London in 1975 by a group of West African expatriates who called themselves Afro Funk. Secret Stash Records rescued it for the digital era with a proper 2012 reissue (with a follow-up vinyl pressing a few years later), giving a new generation of diggers access to the deep funk grooves and driving Afrobeat rhythms that had made the original LP a holy grail for collectors.
The record's original runs were famously tiny. It first came out as a private press on Kabana Records in London, then got a similarly limited release via Kojo Asare's Chairman Records in Ghana, which is a big part of why original copies have traded for serious money on the collector market.
Cool stuff:
- London, not Lagos The band was made up of West African musicians living in London in the mid-'70s, which gives the record a distinct UK-Afrobeat flavor you don't get from the Nigeria-based scene.
- Two tiny pressings, zero distribution Original copies came out on Kabana (UK) and Chairman (Ghana) in very small runs, which is why originals are a collector's white whale.
- One-and-done band Afro Funk never released a follow-up; Body Music is the whole of their recorded legacy.
- Secret Stash rescue The Minneapolis label specializes in exactly this kind of unearthed global-funk obscurity and made Body Music legitimately available for the first time in decades.
Spin it for: driving West African Afrobeat with UK-studio sheen, horn-led funk workouts, and the thrill of hearing a record that almost disappeared.
Standouts: "Body Music" · "Right On" · "Ekonton" · "Jungle Beat"
Sources: Secret Stash Records — Afro Funk: Body Music · Bandcamp — Afro Funk: Body Music · KFJC Review · The Perlich Post · Dusty Groove