William Onyeabor — Atomic Bomb
Atomic Bomb · 1978
Label: Luaka Bop · Genre: Funk / Synth-Funk · Country: Nigeria · From: Enugu, West Africa
William Onyeabor pressed every record himself in Enugu, Nigeria — no label, no distributor. He drove them to market in his own car. He taught himself synthesizer programming from imported technical manuals. Then, after converting to Christianity in the 1980s, he refused all interviews, licensing, and acknowledgment of his music for decades. He called it a mistake. The music survived without his cooperation.
Did you know: Luaka Bop spent five years attempting to license this music for reissue. Onyeabor refused every meeting, every offer, every phone call. The documentary filmed to accompany the compilation had to interview everyone except Onyeabor himself — who appears briefly, silent.
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