A.I.E. (A’mwana): The Best of Black Blood

Black Blood are a bit of a mystery — an Angolan band with a Zairean singer, who sang in Swahili and whose biggest hit was originally written by a French-Belgian writing and production team (Daniel Vangarde and Jean Kluger), recorded in Belgium and later covered by Bananarama. In 1975 Zairean singer Steve Banda Kalenga and his band teamed up with Belgian record producer Michel Jaspar to record their first single, the catchy “ Marie-Therese” on the A-side and the soaring “Aie a Mwana” on the B-side, which was an interpretation of the original 1971 “Aieaoa.” It was the latter that became a huge success, although it proved to be more of a one hit wonder than anything, which is a shame, considering the incredible earworm melodies, funky bass guitars, African rhythms, and magnetic vocals on this album.