Africa Seven presents A7 Edits. The African reissue and compilation output slides over to the dancefloor with its new edits label, packing both holsters with edits alongside sought after originals, a combination you don’t see all that often. The man in charge of the first edition is Stefano Ritteri, who has seen recent releases on Freerange and Congoloid, has DJs like Axel Boman regularly playing his edits and has his own imprint Viagio set to drop in 2019. Stefano is a producer where sampling is key to his creative process and unreleased edits of African and other worldly delights have made up a lot of his DJ sets of recent.

With the A-side we see Stefano take on Ekambi Brillant’s 1976 Nyambe, originally released on BBZ productions and later featuring on our African Funk Experimentals series. Stefano takes the Cameroonian’s disco number, extends it, speeds it up and adds a whole lot of dancefloor energy, with a well-constructed break down and party-time drop. Stefano manages to create the perfect dancefloor weapon with this one, maintaining a lot of the original energy and reintroducing it into the 21st century.

On the B-side we have Stefano’s interpretation of one of the more psychedelic numbers that we have released on Africa Seven, with Zinabu from Bunzu Soundz, originally featured on their 1976 in demand Afrodisia album. This edit sees the Nigerian psychedelic highlife lift off into space, with trippy sound effects playing on top of chunky sampled drums and a well thought out bass line whilst the guitar solo competes against the vocals for lead position.
A7 Edits offer with this release the opportunity to see how the artist has interpreted two original works on the same record. This being Volume 1, it goes without saying that we have others on the way.