Wegene (My Countrymen)

Now-Again drops a real treat, 5 different LPs collecting the complete Works of Ethiopian legend Ayalew Mesfin.

Ayalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. Mesfin’s music is some of the funkiest to arise from this unconquerable East African nation.

Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation.

Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974, he has returned almost 50 years later with this triumphant set albums researched and produced by Mesfin and Egon for Now-Again Records –  the first time that his music has been presented in this form.

These albums give us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in anthologies built from Mesfin’s uber-rare 7” single releases and from previously unreleased recordings taken from master tapes. Each individual album contains an oversized 11” x 11” 16 page book that tells the story of modern Ethiopian music and Mesfin’s role within it. An OBI wrapped “box set” of all five albums is available at a discounted price. The box set only contains one booklet.

Tracklisting 

A1. Teregew Nebere (You Used To Understand)
A2. Neye Temelesh Belwat (Tell Her To Come Back)
A3. Wegene (My Countryman)
A3. Ambassel (Ambassel)
A5. Rehab (Rehab)
B1. Endetnesh Belulegn (Ask How She’s Doing)
B2. Tizitash Zewetir (Your Memories Always)
B3. Wubalem (Stunning)