Biography
The formation of Extra Golden arose from Ian Eagleson's fieldwork on the Benga music of Kenya and Nairobi, material that underpinned his doctoral thesis. Beginning in 2000, Kenyan musician Otieno Jagwasi aided Eagleson's research while performing with drummer Onyango Wuod Omari in the band Orchestra Extra Solar Africa. Eagleson traveled back to Africa in 2004 to extend his studies, this time carrying a portable studio. That April his bandmate from Washington, D.C.'s Golden, Alex Minoff (also of Weird War), arrived in Nairobi and thereby brought Extra Golden into existence. The resulting collaboration between African and American musicians produced Ok-Oyot System, captured largely in a single afternoon inside a Nairobi nightclub. Liver failure ended Otieno Jagwasi's life in May 2005. Thrill Jockey Records, moved by the earlier sessions, proposed in 2006 that the surviving members record a successor album. Onyango Wuod Omari, Otieno's brother, soon joined the lineup alongside Benga star Opiyo Bilongo. After five days of recording inside a Pennsylvania home, the group completed Hera Ma Nono, released in October 2007. Extra Golden continued with Thank You Very Quickly in early 2009.
Albums
