| Radio Africa | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Aquarium |
| Cover: | Aquarium Radio Africa.jpg |
| Released: | 1983 |
| Recorded: | Leningrad, 1983 |
| Genre: | Art rock, new wave, psychedelic rock |
| Length: | 52:46 |
| Label: | AnTrop (1983 release) Melodiya (1988 release) |
| Producer: | Andrei Tropillo |
| Prev Title: | Taboo |
| Prev Year: | 1982 |
| Next Title: | Ichthyology |
| Next Year: | 1984 |
Radio Africa (Russian: Радио Африка) is an album by the Russian rock band Aquarium.
The album's style presents an eclectic mix of influences: new wave, art rock, post-punk, jazz, psychedelia, honky tonk, free improvisation, ethnic music and others.
According to the liner notes of the remastered version of the album, it was recorded in a mobile studio owned by the Soviet government, after the band bribed its technician.
Many guest musicians participated in the recording, including the notable saxophonist Igor Butman and avant-garde jazz pianist Sergey Kuryokhin.
The album includes some of Aquarium's best known and most cited songs - Captain Africa (Капитан Африка), The Art of Being Humble (Искусство быть смирным), and the bleak anthem Rock 'n Roll is Dead (Рок-н-ролл мёртв), which was chosen by Nashe Radio as one of the top 100 Russian rock songs of the twentieth century.
Due to its eclecticism and historical importance it was dubbed "The White Album of Russian rock".[1]
The title of the "Песня Вычерпывающих Людей" - "Song of the Drawers-Out" - draws on the book of Proverbs, chapter 20, verse 5:
"Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out."