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EXTRA GOLDEN
Extra Golden
was formed rather casually in
May of 2004 when Ian Eagleson,
Alex Minoff and Otieno Jagwasi
began fiddling with each other’s
compositions in an apartment in
the Buru Buru neighborhood of
Nairobi. For rhythmic
inspiration, the trio used
isolated drum tracks by Onyango
Wuod Omari that Eagleson had
recorded earlier that year.
After several song ideas were
hashed out, Omari came by the
apartment and, tapping pencils
on a table, familiarized himself
with them. The next afternoon,
the four musicians met at the
Annex Club and Restaurant in
Kariobangi South Estate.
Positioning themselves on a
concrete slab between the tables
and the restrooms, they set up a
laptop and mixing board, a
broken-down drumset, a couple of
amplifiers and several
microphones. Three hours later
they packed up and left, the
majority of Ok-Oyot System
completed.
A year after this initial
recording session, Otieno
Jagwasi succumbed to his long
struggle with liver disease.
Besides causing great sadness,
Otieno’s passing spurred
Eagleson and Minoff to bring
these recordings to the public.
Chicago’s Thrill Jockey Records
agreed to release the album and,
in May 2006 – exactly two years
after the group’s formation –
Extra Golden was introduced to
the world.
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Ok-Oyot
System’s unique blend of Kenyan
Benga music with American Rock
and other, assorted African
guitar stylings met with
widespread critical praise. The
immediate demand for Extra
Golden concerts was deafening.
After months of hard work and
determination, that demand was
finally met, as the group (now
featuring popular Benga star
Opiyo Bilongo) arrived at the
2006 Chicago World Music
Festival. Many weeks of
engagements followed, after
which Extra Golden holed up in a
house in Pennsylvania’s Pocono
Mountains to tackle the task of
recording a follow-up to their
beloved debut. Five days later
the group emerged with twenty
new tracks, eight of which
constitute Hera Ma Nono.
At first, Extra Golden seems an
unlikely entity. However, this
project that was birthed on a
whim, a crazy “what if…”
scenario between friends, has
steadily grown into a
fully-realized, musical dynamo.
It remains to be seen where
Extra Golden will go next, but
with more touring and recording
undoubtedly ahead, the future
sounds good.
Extra Golden
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