Search - Oriental Brothers International :: Do It If You Can / Onye Ikekwere Mekeya

Must Buy if you love percussions and guitars

Kelechi Eke | USA | 03/29/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Growing up in the Eastern part of Nigeria in the 70s, the Oriental Brothers brought happiness through music when aired via IBS radio station, Owerri. All the tracks in this CD will take you way back to your ROOTS. With natural percussions and guitars, they captured the tune of East African style of music. So the CD is a must buy for Africans and friends of Africans. Enjoy it!"

Highlife In Overdrive

m_noland | Washington, DC United States | 03/14/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Hailing from Owerri in Eastern Nigeria, Godwin Kabaka Opara and his brothers in the Oriental Brothers International and subsequent offshoots (Dr. Sir Warrior et al.) took the relatively gentle guitar highlife music of Ghana and threw it into overdrive. If the Ghanaians are a sleek sedan, these guys are a 4x4 SUV: declamatory vocals (kind of like Kansas City blues shouters) interspersed with spoken parts over relentless guitar- and percussion-fueled riffing. With the advent of the lp as a medium by the 1970s (when this was recorded) these guys were extending the jams to whole album sides in effect creating 12" singles which might run 12-18 minutes. Thematically the material ranges from gospel "Oh Dear Jesus" to modern traditional "Mmawu Egbu Special" to proverb-based title track "Onye Ikewere Mekeya." "Oh Dear Jesus" is particularly interesting: in most parts of the world one can instantly recognize gospel music by its chordal and rhythmic conventions whether one understands the vernacular language or not. Not here: this hymn consists of urgent prayers sandwiched between 12+ minutes of fast tempo guitar solos which would sound right at home in any African club at 2am on Saturday night. Praise be."

The best from Igbo Land

A. Eze Nwagbaraji | New Jersey, USA | 09/24/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Warrior and the oriental brothers represent the excellence that the men and women of their generation gave Nigeria. The oriental brothers and their message provided millions of Eastern Nigerians the soothing medicine in songs that allowed millions to forge ahead in the seventies, irrespective of the barberic mentality of Nigeria of the 1960s. Warrior and the Oriental brothers provided young Easterners who pursued academia in North America and Western Europe with the reminder of our homeland and the reality that we owe a collective responsibility to achieve. Their songs are a treasure for keeps."