This one came as an unsolicited pleasant surprise. I love Afrobeat and am slowly developing a healthy respect for Afro-House, and if I delve further into the genre, it’ll be because of artists like Cameroon’s Nkom Bivoué. What is best about the disc is the absolutely sharp percussion of the album. This is dance floor-ready material that you can also appreciate on its own merits.
Cut Chemist is an institution in Los Angeles. I first came across his work as a member of Jurassic 5, and it seems he still has the skills of a groove surgeon. Both tracks are bangers, but the first one is my favorite, as it’s a keep originally recorded by Belaynesh Wubante & Assegedetch Asfaw and arranged by the venerable Mulatu Astaké.
The first time I had the pleasure of hearing Afrobeat was in Skopje, Macedonia, of all places. There isn’t a lot of variance to the music on this comp, though there are a few gems on this comp, but I have to be honest – how do you better Fela Kuti and Tony Allen? It’s a tough sell. This is the future of Afrobeat you’re listening to on this compilation, and the best part is that the genre is exploding everywhere. You will find bands from Nigerian diasporas in places like France and Spain, but it was interesting to see…
High Pulp hail from Seattle, Washington and are currently being published by Anti- Records, best known for releasing albums by Tom Waits, Neko Case and Antibalas. This sounds like none of them, and it caught my attention in a most pleasant way. Motel Money is a single track, and it’s a burner. This is an instrumental track, and it mixes in everything from avant-garde jazz to beat-driven R&B to psychedelic synthesizer-heavy electronica, as their release page indicates. Add to this the stellar trumpet playing by Takuya Kuroda, and you have something that can equal any of the nu jazz bands…