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elcome to the Digital Meltd0wn Music Blog. The aim of this blog is to introduce the readers to music that is out of print, commercially unavailable, released under a creative commons license, or with approval by the featured artist. The majority of the music posted here would be considered underground. Don't let that fool you into thinking that the music featured here might be any less enjoyable than that of the mainstream artists you hear on the radio, as this couldn't be further from the truth. Please keep in mind that the majority of the artists that appear on this blog, along with their respective record labels, are not wealthy and need your support. If you enjoy the material that you find here, please support the artists/labels by purchasing their material afterwards. If you are an artist/label that would prefer to have your material removed from this blog, simply leave me a comment, and I would be more than happy to promptly remove the offending post. In addition to running this blog, I also work on a few other projects during my spare time. You can find links to those, as well as a few other important links associated with Digital Meltd0wn in the menu bar above.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Blo - Chapter One

By Request, this post was re-uploaded 01/17/2015. NØ



Blo (aka BLO) were an early 70's African band that fused the Afrobeat rhythms of their native Nigeria with the mind-expanding psychedelia and funk of late 60's rock from the Western world. The three members, Berkely Jones, Laolu Akintobi and Mike Odumosu created the name BLO from B for Berkely, L for Laolu and O for Odumosu. Their debut record, Chapter One, is considered by many to be one of the most sought after albums from Africa. While it isn't nearly as funky as their following albums, it still stands as one of the best psych-funk albums to ever come out of Africa.

Chapter One walks the line between rock, funk and psychedelia. Perhaps the most obvious reward in listening to this album is the great guitar work featured prominently throughout the length of the album. At times it is straight forward and driving, yet most of the time it has an "out of this world" psychedelic sound to it. On the instrumental track, "Miss Sagitt", it even sounds Arabic towards the latter half of the track. The bass and drums are fantastic also, but most of the “African beat" was reduced to traces because they were in fact completely absorbed into the heavy rock drive. As for the vocals, they are sparse throughout, and the majority of these tracks would be instrumentals were it not for the occasional vocal outburst. The group would change direction after this album after being pressured by their label to make a more funk dominated record.

Year of Release: 1972
Label: EMI
Genre: Afrobeat, Funk, Psychedelic
Bitrate: 320kbps

Track List:
1. Preacher Man
2. Time to Face the Sun
3. Beware
4. We Gonna Have a Party
5. Don't
6. Chant to Mother Earth
7. We are out Together
8. Miss Sagitt (Instrumental)

Download: BLO - Chapter One
Download Size: 74.8 MB

14 comments:

Subcomandante Marcos said...

If you dig this, check out a comp called "Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock and Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria". bluntvision.blogspot.com has a copy posted.

Zer0_II said...

Subcomandante Marcos: Thank you for the recommendation. In return I would also like to recommend "Nigeria 70 "The Definitive Story of 1970'S Funky Lagos". If you haven't had a chance to listen to it, it's a great three disc set of Nigerian funk well worth listening to.

Anonymous said...

Your posts just keep getting better - nice one

Nick (Bewilderbeast on MySpace)

Anonymous said...

fucking awesome music man much appreciated

Zer0_II said...

@Anonymous: You're very welcome. I'm glad you are enjoying it. Let me know if there is anything else you would like to see posted here.

zach v said...

awww this doesnt work. would love to hear it:)

Zer0_II said...

@Zach V: You caught me at a bad time. We're in the middle of "Sci-Fi September", with the "Halloween Countdown" coming up in October. It wouldn't really be fitting to post this album during that time, however, I can work around that for you.

If you're interested, and haven't managed to obtain this album elsewhere, please respond back and I will take the time to reupload it for you. I'll have to update the post, and keep the same publishing date so that the post doesn't get bumped to the top of the blog though.

zach v said...

i would love for you to repost, but take your time. no rush. I cant seem to find it.

Zer0_II said...

@Zach V: I don't mind re-uploading this at all, in fact it is much easier for me to simply reupload albums because I don't have to take the time to write a review. I planned to work on re-uploading albums once the Halloween Countdown ended. I plan to re-upload the Born Bad series, but I will re-upload this as soon as I am finished with it. Once I replace the download link with the new one I will change the post's publication date so that it will appear at the top on the main page of the blog.

Zer0_II said...

@Zach V: I was having a little trouble with the Born Bad series so I decided to go ahead and upload this for you. I hope you enjoy it. Please drop back by and let me know what you thought about it once you have a chance to listen to it. If you enjoy this you might also want to check out my Ofo The Black Company post here: http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com/2008/11/ofo-black-company-allah.html

Anonymous said...

This looks awesome, but the link is down. Is it possible to upload again?

Unknown said...

hey this link is not working, do you think you could send me a ink to download this, I have phase three but I would like to hear the first one from blo. let me know, thanks.

Unknown said...

shalom, this link is not working, do you think you could send this to me somehow, I would love to hear this early blo.

said...

To anonymous & Shlomo,

Sorry it took so long to re-upload this. I am not the original poster, but I have been trying to go back through requests for re-ups & see what I can do. Enjoy.