afrobeat
News: Rey Sapienz & The Congo Techno Ensemble announce a July album; hear a new track, ‘Eza Makambo’
IN CASE you hadn’t noticed, the sound of afrobeat is taking on a new dimension: riding on a surge of youthful energy; absorbing rap’s bite and electro’s drive; committed to the cutting edge but respectful of sources. Rey Sapienz and his new collective The Congo Techno Ensemble look set to add their dynamic to this …
Album review: Kasai Allstars – ‘Black Ants Always Fly Together, One Bangle Makes No Sound’: maybe more restrained, but still surprises
SOMETIMES a record comes along that disrupts your expectations. Since their debut album in 2008, Kasai Allstars have been one of the cornerstones of Congotronics, that vibrant assemblage of polyrhythms and scrapyard instrumentation which bolted a whole new wing to the afrobeat star-liner. Buzz drums, wired-up thumb pianos, hubcap percussion and salvaged guitars mixed with …
See: Blood Wine or Honey feat. Zoe Brewster – ‘Testing Time’: popping with colour, welcome this hypno-Afro-tropicalia funk into your world
THEY call their particular thang hypno-tropicalia, and it certainly is that; and whoah! so much more. Much more. They paint their irresistible, off-the-wall, deliciously weird groove styles in the brightest colours, and it’s kinda, hmmm, hypno-Afro-tropicalia-jazz-funk-disco, strongly declamatory, punk-funk-jazz, all the compounds and inversions of that. It’s out there on an underlit dancefloor in the …
See: Moonshine – ‘Ginseng (Zaire Space Program: Act I)’: utopian Afrofunk where Congo meets Canada
LINKING together the musics, the aesthetics and traditions of Paris, Portugal and the the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pan-African collective Moonshine have dropped a brace of singles – “Malembe” and the deeply bassy, Afrofunk groove of “Ginseng (Zaire Space Program: Act I)”, which we’e concerned with here, featuring the Paris-African talents of Bamao Yende, …
Album Review: Femi Kuti + Made Kuti – Legacy +
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no afrobeat scholar, but there’s something undeniably enticing about a double album calling itself Legacy+ that’s attached to the Kuti name. I don’t even think this is necessarily limited or limiting, either, because the work of Fela Kuti is something that you’re likely aware of even if …
TRACKS: See the video for Femi Kuti’s ‘Pà Pá Pà’ and hear Made Kuti’s ‘Your Enemy’ ahead of February’s twin albums
AFROBEAT founding father and steely political activist Fela Kuti gifted us a wondrous back catalogue investigating jazz, funk, hiphop, rock, traditional Nigerian musics, so much more, before passing in 1997. Of course, he also gifted us his son, Femi; and in turn Femi’s gifted us his son, Made, to continue that legacy and take it …
ALBUM REVIEW: Soothsayers – ‘We Are Many’: conscious beats science for straitened times
Soothsayers’ latest tickles your ears in all the right spots; the music evolves and shifts from a strong and aware roots through jazz and Afro and more, all the while softly educating you and guiding you and letting you know you have to be watchful, stay alert, and also stay strong and connected. That’s how we’re gonna get through all and any of this.
ALBUM REVIEW: Scrimshire – ‘Believers Vol.1’: eclectic soul-jazz bliss that’ll wash you clean
Among all the circumstantial dirt and viral grime and societal schisming of 2020, hearing Believers Vol. 1 is like having your brain washed and massaged
Track: Made Kuti signs to Partisan, with debut single
THE RECENT announcement of Made Kuti’s signing on the dotted line for Partisan marks him as the third generation of his family to join the record label, after legendary and revolutionary grandfather Fela Kuti and four-time Grammy nominee father Femi Kuti. The debut single “Free Your Mind” exhibits a myriad of Kuti markers but also …
TRACK: Jimi Tenor – ‘Afroeuropean’: rousing Afro grooves
FINNISH groovemeister Jimi Tenor, who’s all set to release his second album for Berlin’s Philophon imprint, has been out in Ghana getting deep into the Afro thang for new album Aulos; and commendably excellent his efforts have been. If you caught his 7″ release back in July, “Sugar And Spice”/”Lover’s Bridge (Instrumental)” your mouth will …