Synopsis
Fantastic Man celebrates William Onyeabor, the Nigerian synth pioneer who released nine albums in just eight years in the 70s and 80s.
“A fascinating watch with an unbelievable soundtrack”
Documentary Weekly
Nigeria | 2014 | 31 min
Did you know?
Onyeabor was only discovered internationally in the early 2000s when “Better Change Your Mind” was included on cult crate-digger releases like Strut’s Nigeria 70 and Luaka Bop’s World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's A Real Thing - The Funky Fuzzy Sounds Of West Africa.
Comb & Razor blogger Uchenna Ikonne pitched the idea of a best-of compilation to Luaka Bop and then spent nine months in Nigeria trying to get Onyeabor to sign off on the rights.
The result, Who is William Onyeabor?, was Time Magazine’s fourth best album of 2013 and Pitchfork’s best reissue of the year.
"I was going to call the record This Is William Onyeabor, up until the point we realised we didn't know anything about him," Luaka Bop label head Yale Evelev told NPR's Arun Rath. "And then we changed the title to Who Is William Onyeabor?"
Despite the internet age, Onyeabor was, to quote BBC, “one of modern music’s greatest enigmas.”
Evelev had already tried calling for more context on his music. “He said to me, 'Why would I want to talk about that? I just want to talk about Jesus.' And then he hung up the phone.”
So they released his best-of compilation without the usual context, and without him doing interviews or touring.
Instead the label rounded up a super-group of his fans to perform his songs live, including Dev Hynes from Blood Orange, Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip, David Byrne of Talking Heads, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, Luke Jenner of The Rapture, Money Mark, The Lijadu Sisters and more. Remixes followed from Hot Chip, John Talabot and more.
“Who is William Onyeabor?” is the mystery that drives Jake Sumner’s documentary for Noisey, Fantastic Man, which follows Luaka Bop’s attempts to track him down at his palace in Enugu and find out more about the mythical cult figure.
The mystery remains at the end of the film, but you’ll have a sense of wonder too, after seeing Onyeabor through the eyes of fans like Femi Kuti, Human League’s Martyn Ware, Caribou’s Dan Snaith and Blur’s Damon Albarn.
“This is exactly the kind of music I would love to be able to make.”
Damon Albarn on William Onyeabor
Onyeabor passed away peacefully in his sleep in 2017. A year later, Apple soundtracked its iPhone 7 commercial, Barbershop, with “Fantastic Man”, winning Golds at Cannes, The Clios and The One Show, as well as Best in Show at ADC. The spot is now part of the AICP permanent collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
After decades in obscurity, Onyeabor’s music continues to find new audiences. “Fantastic Man” has appeared in Sex Education, Shameless and Our Flag Means Death, while “Body & Soul” features on the soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto.
Onyeabor’s music was ahead of its time but remained largely unheard outside Nigeria for decades until it found champions willing to distribute and market it to the world.
That's part of the reason this Substack exists: to help more people discover the remarkable African films that are already out there, waiting to find their audience.
And here’s the Apple ad, directed by Dougal Wilson:
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