From one fantastic man – Nelson Mandela – to another, this time from Nigeria, the enigmatic 1970s and 80s electro-funk maestro who was a true original, spreading joy and positive politics in his music. He independently released eight albums between 1977 and 1985, before stopping his career to become a born-again Christian, and died in 2017, aged 70. His music is infectiously upbeat, with subjects ranging from normal subjects such as love, to protesting war and nuclear weapons. This song originally came from the 1979 album, Tomorrow, but in 2013 the label Luaka Bop released a compilation, Who is William Onyeabor?, which brought him to a wider audience, and contains eight of his best tracks. They are all between six and ten minutes, but never seem long. Fantastic Man has also been covered by David Byrne, and other fans of Onyeabor include Damon Albarn, Tune-Yards, and Pharoah Sanders, and in 2014 they and others formed the Atomic Bomb! Band to perform his music.
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