World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor?

As the first official reissue of this enigmatic figure’s music, Who is William Onyeabor? asks all  the right questions. While it may not quite answer them — very little is known about him to this day — the Luaka Bop record, compiled by Uchenna Ikonne, underscores just how ahead of his time Onyeabor really was: while clearly influenced by the era’s juju music, Onyeabor used drum machines and Moog synthesizers to weave psychedelic, electro-funk tracks that still sounded futuristic when they were “rediscovered” decades later.