Posts Tagged Afrobeat
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June 26, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Ebo Taylor: Yen Ara
Ebo Taylor Yen Ara Mr. Bongo Ebo Taylor, “Mr Highlife” – the Ghanian bandleader, composer, guitarist and singer now in his 80s – might have just made the best album of his career; certainly a highlight, one of several high points, granted. But the effortlessness, the joy, the political energy and anger, the sheer musicality […]Archive
June 25, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Angelique Kidjo: Remain In Light
Angelique Kidjo Remain in Light KRAVENWORKS Angelique Kidjo is African Music Royalty – even if she’s suffered some claims of (somehow) not being “Authentic”. Hers is a fine body of work, moving and political, so often utterly joyous and accessible too as she creates a version of Afrobeat that integrates mainstream international music; hers then […]Archive
October 4, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Antibalas: Where The Gods Are In Peace
Antibalas Where The Gods Are In Peace Daptone The first new Antibalas album in five years is a rebuild – in many ways. The long-running American tribute to Afrobeat orchestra has shed several key members to top pop and indie bands (The Roots, The Black Keys, Mark Ronson, Arcade Fire) and has gathered up some […]Archive
September 25, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Tony Allen: A Tribute To Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers (ep)
Tony Allen A Tribute To Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers (ep) Blue Note Records Originally released as a 10” EP – two tracks per side – this tribute to Art Blakey by Tony Allen is full of magic; for a start it welcomes Allen to Blue Note and has him playing his version of […]Archive
March 11, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: #194 – Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Wellington, 2010
I think maybe this was the most disappointing show I’ve been to based on expectation – shit I was looking forward to it. Antibalas as they’re now called – it used to be Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra – had released this fucking-killer record, called Who Is This America? And it had arrived to me in the […]Archive
December 16, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
Drummers You Just Can’t Beat: # 7 – Tony Allen
You know when you see a really great juggler – the balls are all up in the air, the hands are simultaneously a blur and seem far too casual, you keep wondering how they’re going to make it, how will the circle hold, how is it that everything can stay up in the air and […]Archive
October 19, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
Ikebe Shakedown: Stone By Stone
Ikebe Shakedown Stone by Stone Ubiquity Afrobeat-informed soul-jazz instrumentals, always good stuff right? And then you think about how when people try to fill an album with them – unless it’s the real stuff – you can get a bit bored. But the Brooklyn-based Ikebe Shakedown have got that sound down – it’s a bit […]Archive
June 25, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
tUnE-yArDs: Nikki Nack
tUnE-yArDs Nikki Nack 4AD Merrill Garbus has been making music under the annoying moniker tUnE-yArDs for three full albums now, across a half-decade, her voice a key element – stretching out to embrace hip-hop and dance music ideas, coiling back in on various indie-rock templates too. One minute she’s a one-woman Dirty Projectors and on […]Archive
December 15, 2013 by Simon Sweetman
Cave: Threace
Cave Threace Drag City You know how that new Arcade Fire album was fucking absurd – particularly when it tried to be funky – well here’s the antidote. Cave’s latest, their third, as the title tells us, has the hypnotic grooves – via Afrobeat and Krautrock – that Arcade Fire was flailing about and (still) […]Archive
November 10, 2013 by Simon Sweetman
Tony Allen: An Autobiography of The Master Drummer of Afrobeat
Tony Allen: An Autobiography of The Master Drummer of Afrobeat Tony Allen with Michael E. Veal Duke University Press Books So, in the end, I was quite disappointed with this book – I had been pretty excited about reading it; the best thing about this book is that it has in no way dulled my […]Archive
July 10, 2013 by Simon Sweetman