WELCOME HOME

Yielding to Temptation

Recorded in late 1975 and early 1976, Osibisa's seventh album "Welcome home" comes some time after the period which saw them dabble in prog territories. That said, the sound here is not really that different to their early 70's work, but it is generally more accessible and commercial. Prior to recording this album, the band moved from Warner Brothers to the Bronze label, as Bronze managed the band anyway (hence their appearance on Uriah Heep's "Look at yourself").

The opening "Sunshine day" points the way forward, a well known and highly successful single. The funky, simple, repetitive pop may be enjoyable, but it is a million miles from anything you might expect to find on this site.

There is certainly a pleasant, perhaps surprising diversity to the album which strays well away from the Ghanaian roots of the band. "Chooboi (Heave Ho!)" for example has fine harmonies over Chicago like horns and some appealing organ work too. Those Ghanaian influences do however come to the fore regularly. "Densu" is an African fishermen's song which lists all the varieties of fish which can be caught in the river, in the form of an incessant chant.

"Welcome home" is the most surprising track. This soft acoustic piece is almost a ballad, the accomplished vocal performance being sympathetically accompanied by some fine flute.

After a couple of light pop songs, including the Temptations like "Do it (like this)", the closing tracks finally move into slightly more experimental territory. "Uhuru" veers towards jazz/fusion with the band improvising around the main theme. " Seaside - Meditation" too is somewhat more varied than what precedes it, with tribal rhythms and diverse melodies combining well.

It is difficult to evaluate this album for a site such as this. Taken in isolation it is accomplished and diverse, with ethnic chants and rhythms combining well with funk and pop. In terms of prog, there is very little on offer.

You pay your money, and you make your choice.

Recently I've been re-visiting my Osibisa LP's (which I've owned for almost 10 years) and I am pretty pleased with the results - of their first 6 releases I didn't really go for 'W)Yaya' - nice Roger Dean artwork but there's something about the music I didn't 'click' with. I got rid of it. On the other hand, 'Welcome Home' presented a somewhat commercial direction from the band, but I enjoy quite a few tracks....

'Sunshine Day' was apparently a hit single, and they have used a snippet of the song, plugging a local television station over here in Australia. The song itself is rather good, with an excellent electric-piano solo from keyboarder Kiki Gyan, memorable riff and a cool 70's vibe. The title track heads toward a ballad style, but is still an engaging and well arranged track. 'Densu' is a little bit straight-forward, with a 'groovy' vibe present. 'Chooboi (Heave-Ho)' is basically an instrumental melody with some chanting at various points and shows-off the brass instruments - a fairly enjoyable piece of music, even if a little basic.

'Do It (Like it Is)' is more commercial, but without any 'frills', thus rendering it quite an ordinary track. 'Right Now' is very close to the mundane as the previous song was. What comes up next is a great instrumental composition entitled 'Seaside - Meditation', with a great e-piano progression (poly-rhythmic, I think), well organised percussion, great guitar soloing from Dell Richardson, and could be considered as the high-light of this album - shame it wasn't longer. 'Uhuru' strikes me as a rather standard track, and album closer, 'Kolomashie', is another traditional vocal/percussive arrangement, but not as exciting as previous creations. Overall, 'Welcome Home' teeters between the 'Collectors/ Fans only' and the 'Good but inessential' rating. 2.5.