Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra
I recently picked up Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra’s album entitled Liberation Afro Beat, Vol. 1.
Wow. The mothership has landed! This is an album full of tight, funky, jams with “world beat” overtones. (Really, “world beat” just means “rhythms and melodies not familiar to the typical western listener’s ear”).
The entire album is one long funky jam. I’m a long time fan of Parliament, Funkadelic, Deep Banana Blackout, and other Funk Masters.
This album is quickly diving into the heavy rotation list. I am definitely going to have to go and figure out which of Fela Kuti’s albums to pick up.
The only mediocre moment is the last song; more protest with the music taking back stage, but even it has its moment of supreme down stroke.
Update: I picked up Fela Kuti’s Two Sides of Fela: Jazz and Dance. More excellent stuff. Awesome Jazz riffs w/a quite a touch of the funk.
April 6th, 2006 at 12:09 am
“I am definitely going to have to go and figure out which of Fela Kuti’s albums to pick up.”
Much as with George Clinton’s oeuvre, pretty much all of Fela’s stuff is amazingly good. Pick at random, and you won’t go wrong.
And after you pick up a Fela or two, I’d recommend the fundamentally unrelated Orchestra Baobab.
April 6th, 2006 at 12:20 am
bbum, i’ve got one name for you: Tower of Power. Get funky like a bow-legged monkey!