ABOUT THIS ITEM

Soundway and Tummy Touch are proud to present two blistering albums of Afro rock and funk from Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Joni Haastrup and his band MonoMono.

Soundway have been championing Joni Haastrup since day one featuring MonoMono tracks on both the ‘Nigeria Special!’ and ‘Nigeria Rock Special!’ releases. Most recently Joni appears as a guest keys players on Black Goddess, an Afro-jazz soundtrack collaboration with Remi Kabaka.
Growing up in a royal household in Nigeria, Joni Haastrup began his musical journey performing for his brothers band Sneakers and was quickly snapped up as a vocalist for OJ Ekemode and his Modern Aces’ ‘Super Afro Soul’ LP, one of Afro-beat’s formative LPs. Soon after, Ginger Baker of Cream fame replaced Steve Winwood with Joni on keys for Airforce’s UK concerts in ‘71 and the success of the collaboration led to further shows with Baker as part of the SALT project before he returned to Nigeria to set up MonoMono.

Amid the OPEC oil embargo, Watergate and IRA bombs, the sound of MonoMono's follow-up record, 1974's 'Dawn of Awareness', took on the bluesrock grooves of Santana and Hugh Masekela but with their own unique Yoruban flavor. A deeply spiritual record, 'Dawn of Awareness' was Haastrup's reaction to what was going on in the world around him. One hears echoes of the Allman Brothers' 'Revival' on MonoMono's 'Awareness is What You Need' and after listening to 'Plain Fighting' you could easily imagine the band sharing the stage with the Doobie Brothers at an East Side San Jose street festival.

Tracklisting :
01. Plain Fighting (Your Life Is What You Make Of It)

02. Ipade Aladun

03. Get Yourself Together

04. Awareness Is Wot You Need

05. Make Them Realise (Everybody's Gotta Be Free)

06. Tire Loma Da Nighbehin

Vinyl Bonus Tracks :
A: Water Pass Gari (Pts 1 & 2 Edited Together)

B: Kenimania (7" Version)