TOP OF THE WORLD by FIRST PLANET

Afro-space-disco contagion � shuffling and wiggling, synthy and bubbling � from this re-incarnation of Willy Nfor�s Mighty Flames, recruited mostly from the wave of Cameroonian musicians drawn to Nigeria in the late-1970s by its heavy new funk sound. Check!After a stint at the Right Time studio in Onitsha, the FP cadets ended up at Phonodisk in Lagos, quickly in high demand as session-players, running First Planet on the side with other Nigerian session players from the Onitsha/Awka axis. Its name was intended to evoke the cool obliqueness of US handles like Brass Construction and Lakeside, and the mothership connection of chocolate-city P-Funk. The Troutmans are in the mix, too. Soon Vincent Omoko and the other Planeteers would travel to Port Harcourt, working in Geraldo Pino�s band for several years. They also ran a side-project called The Extended Family, fronted by Cameroonian keyboardist Etienne T-Boy.