320 kbps | 78 MB | UL |
Many of the countless Doors live albums are far from essential, but this one feels genuinely important. The recently discovered 1966 audience recording from a gig at the Los Angeles club London Fog captures the band in their lesser-known embryonic period. Their sound is already in place and Jim Morrison is on the verge of becoming the Lizard King, using the near-empty Sunset Strip venue to develop the necessary stagecraft to get his mojo rising. The various covers range from smouldering, sensual blues (BB King’s Rock Me) to raw, roughhouse rockers (Big Joe Williams’ Baby Please Don’t Go). The two originals – a tightly wound, thrillingly focused You Make Me Real and a particularly ominous, spooked and spooky Strange Days – may be respectively two and four years away from their studio versions, but already sound eerily fully formed. Throughout, disinterested audience chatter and the chink of glasses belies the fact that within months, the London Fog’s unknown house band would be among the hottest groups in the world.
U.S.-based neo-soul singer 
Bantu igniting the main stage on night one.
Mary Akpa with Bantu.
Ayo Awosika with Bantu.
Gospel singer Nosa touched the crowd with soulful originals.
Oghene Kologbo, an alumnus of Fela’s Africa 70, rocked the stage with blistering guitar solos and a bright smile.
Terry Apala, a young self-described “apala hip-hop” artist, lifted the crowd with apala vocal inflections and hip-hop swag.
Powerful all-female vocal group Adunni and Nefertiti took it to the roots.
It’s fuji time! The legend Kollington Ayinla in profile.
Nigerian film director Kunle Afolayan moved to dance to Kollington’s classic fuji music.
The stage filled with dancers, lost in the heavy grooves.
Nigerian rocker Keziah Jones shared songs and stories at the acoustic sessions.
Abiodun Wurasamba Oke leading a drum circle.
Bantu takes the stage for the second night.
Cameroonian soul singer Danielle Eog Makeda.
The Bantu horns.
Nigerian dancehall originator General Pype.
It’s fuji time again!
Saheed Osupa brought strong, street-wise energy to the stage.
