Dusted Off. Allez Allez – African Queen (Scalp 1981).
As well as giving you the latest releases we like, we’re going to serve you, every now and then, classics we think you should know. Let’s begin with an early 80s one made in Belgium. Partly because that’s one of our favourite periods in the history of music, partly because we’re digging deep lately into the rich musical output our country had in those years. The album we present is also very hard to pinpoint to any well-defined genre. Something we like a lot. It’s also far from rare and thus not expensive at all. It’s good, that’s what counts.
The album is a certified classic in several scenes. Play ‘Allez Allez’ at a party with New Wavers, (Nu)Disco lovers or even musically illiterates, you’ll get the dance floor moving. The relentless PunkFunk groove is just too infectious to ignore. But pretty much all other tracks on the (mini-)album are tight with ‘African Queen’, an ode to Grace Jones, being another essential tune for the more adventurous DJ.
Allez Allez formed after the experimental Funk band Marine split. Frontman Mark Marine (aka Mark Du Marais) decided to leave the band when in London to record a Peel Session. He went on to form another legendary Belgian band called La Muerte. The other band members, together with American singer Sarah Osborne, formed Allez Allez and made quite an impact in the short stint they existed. 2 albums and a couple of EPs later and after the frontwoman left the band to marry Heaven 17 singer Glenn Gregory the group lost its momentum and disbanded shortly afterwards.
In 1997 Virgin re-released the 2 albums on CD and in 2006 NuDisco label Eskimo released remixes by Aeroplane, Quiet Village, Optimo and Prins Thomas & Lindstrom of the 2 tracks we mentioned before. Resulting in a best of 2 years later on the same label.
But we recommend you go look for the ‘African Queen’ album original first. It’s by far the most essential thing they released. And explore from there on if you like it.
‘Allez Allez’ on Youtube.
‘African Queen’ on Youtube.