- Thanks to labels like Soundway, Sofrito and Analog Africa, there's been a recent and ever-growing appetite for reissues of neglected oddities from around the world. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the music of William Onyeabor, reissued by David Byrne's Luaka Bop label in 2013. Since then adoration for the Nigerian has snowballed, finding fans and plaudits much further afield than you'd expect for a reclusive musician from the late '70s and '80s who spent his days toying around with (then) newfangled synths.
Even before the release of Who Is William Onyeabor?, the Nigerian's records had begun to find their way into DJs' record bags and onto tracks (the sample in Daphni's "Ye Ye," for example). Crucially, Luaka Bop embraced Onyeabor's connection with the dance floor, commissioning remixes and covers from the likes of JD Twitch and Hot Chip. This is what has helped his music become so much more than just a historical curiosity, bringing to the fore a proto-dance floor sensibility in his future-facing studio pursuits. With that in mind, I did have some reservations about the recent Atomic Bomb! show at The Royal Festival Hall in London. When performed by a live band in a huge, seated auditorium, would his music translate as well as it does in the club?
At some point during the band's first two songs, I felt that my suspicions had been confirmed. There was lots of enthusiasm onstage, mostly marshalled by The Beastie Boys' Money Mark on keys, but it didn’t really infect the audience. But then Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor took up his position as frontman for "Good Name," and people rose swiftly from their seats. By the time David Byrne joined the band for “Fantastic Man,” everyone was freely screaming the chorus while getting down in the aisles.
As members of the 20-strong band were carted on and off stage at various intervals, a carnival atmosphere took hold of the place. Even considering the venue and the older crowd, the freewheeling vibe was a notch above anything you're likely to come across in most London nightclubs. "When The Going Gets Smooth And Good" was the band's finale, joined by a huge choir that covered all three sides of the stage. While the bleeps-and-strings simplicity of the original might be part of its charm, seeing it fleshed out in such spectacular fashion was amazing. That closing moment ranks up there in my long list of sweat-soaked, hands-in-the-air club experiences, even if the clock was only just passing 9:30 PM.