In 1972, Orchestre Abass released two incredible singles on Polydor. These records - featuring Samarin Banza, Haka Dunia and other afrofunk masterpieces - were powerful enough to knock any music head out, but it wasn’t until the discovery of some unreleased material by the band that the seeds for this project were planted.

Similar music also existed in northern Benin and Nigeria, an area that spread from northern Ghana to northern Cameroon, an area called "The Islamic funk belt", bands like Super Borgou de Parakou, Napo De Mi Amor, Uppers International and Hamad Kalkaba, to name a few - all come from this "belt" - mostly groups of musicians with Islamic backgrounds. 

This can be felt and heard in the music and especially in the singing, as many of the musicians had attended Koranic schools and the languages used in the songs often contained Arabic elements - Orchestra Abass was one of them. With their heavy, organ-driven sound, combined with the most deft musical accents, these records were the work of a rhythmic powerhouse.