Zazou Bikaye Mr Manager CD

Following the acclaimed 2017 vinyl reissue of the 'Noir et Blanc' album, Crammed Discs presents a special edition of Zazou Bikaye's second record, 'Mr. Manager', which only ever came out on vinyl, in 1985. This edition comprises nine additional tracks, including six previously-unreleased recordings, and three which were only included on limited-edition singles.
In 1984, after the Afro-experimental adventures of Noir et Blanc, Zazou Bikaye turned into a proper band, and started developing their own special brand of digital Afrobeat/Afrofunk. Hector Zazou took on the task of writing and programming the music, and Bony Bikaye expanded on the more extrovert side of his vocal styles. They set out to record a large number of tracks, five of which came out in 1985 as Mr. Manager, a 32-minute mini-album.

For all of these 1985-86 recordings, Hector Zazou and Bony Bikaye had surrounded themselves with a stellar team of musicians, including Philippe de la Croix Herpin (aka Pinpin) on woodwinds, Tuxedomoon's Luc van Lieshout on trumpet & harmonica, Vincent Kenis on guitar, three wonderful backing singers (Mwamba Kasuba, Nicole MT & M'Bombo K) and two percussionists (Chris Joris & Bigoune). Marc Hollander played a bit of sax & keys and produced some of the recordings, alongside Hector Zazou and engineer Gilles Martin.

The vinyl version includes eight tracks, plus a download card giving access to all fourteen tracks. All fourteen tracks will appear in the digital and the CD versions.

"A fusion of African chants and polyrythmic percussion strung across hip-hop drums and coloured with synths reminiscent of Kraftwerk... A sensual synthesis of Afro-European electro-jazz. An exercise in transcultural musicianship and hypnotic tribal repetition." (i-D, UK, 1986)