The Springs Band

This record was produced by the twenty years old Alex Tony Okoroji at the legendary ARC Studios in Lagos, a facility set-up by Ginger Baker. This is the third production for Alex Tony Okoroji's fledgling independent label Love Records, the previous record was the pioneering release by Udu: 'Sound Of The People' (1976) also reissued by Dig This Way in 2020. Musically these two records are poles apart but similar in as much as both the band and producer present a personal musical vision that sounds nothing like their peers at the time. The Springs Band formed in Ibadan (Oyo State) which is roughly 130km northeast of Lagos. The seven members met while training to be Reverend Fathers for the Catholic Church and come from both Nigeria and Sierra Leone... in retrospect as unlikely as this sounds (particularly when you hear the record) the band were the Seminaries event house band at the time... Musically, the record consists of five prime time dancefloor gems with two very subtle afterhours numbers to close - not a bad track on here - which at times in itself is unique for records from the region in the late '70s. The first five tracks are complex hypnotic Afro funk with an almost mesmerizing organ groove, that is deep and raw at the same time which well represent the time, the place and the people involved in the recording... As odd as it may sound the spirituality of the band's chosen profession is reflected in the fluid deep funk of the groove... not being there we can only guess how the live performances of this "band in full flight" must have been. As luck would have it the recording captures all of those elements and that's what the end result sounds like near unbeatable! Judge for yourself via this enlightening release!!!