Artist: Tony Allen
Album: Afro Disco Beat
Label: Vampi Soul
year: 2007 (complete recordings 1968-1979)
Reviewed by: Woodstock Slim
I ran out of adjectives when I wrote the review for Orlando Julius... and now I've got to somehow retell the truly African Journey I had when I started listening to Tony Allen. Wow! I felt like a tourista in my own country. In my own head. In my own Skin! This is the essence of funk, the dawning of the African people had a sound track. A lone drum beat... the soul of funk had the same drum beat and planes of Africa and the people followed the sound of the drum. All the people heard it and followed it too. Soon it was the sound of Africa. When you heard it, when anyone heard it they knew it was the African sound. The chances are you have not even accidentally heard Tony Allen and it's hard to explain why. Who hid him from us?
"Complete 70s anthology of the drummer and music director of african superstar FELA KUTI's band AFRICA 70, from 1968 until 1979, the creators of a new style called "Afrobeat" one of the (if not THE) hipest rhythmic music styles of the 70s. This monster pack includes Tony´s first four solo albums: Jealousy (´75), Progress (´76), No Accomodation for Lagos (´78), and No Discrimination (´79). The first three produced by Fela Kuti himself and with Africa 70, the last one with Tony´s band The Afro Messengers. Complete extensive liner notes inside.
Mild-mannered, but iron-willed, Tony Allen is the co-creator of afrobeat, and one of the most distinctive and in-demand drummers on the planet. No one swings like this Nigerian rhythm man – with that amazing, loose-limbed, poly-rhythmic technique that has powered some of the funkiest and most challenging dance music ever created.
Best known for his involvement with the late, great Fela Kuti, Tony Allen is very much more than Fela’s – or anyone else’s – drummer. Bandleader, composer and husky rapping vocalist, Tony Allen has recorded a string of groundbreaking solo albums since parting company with Fela in 1978 – sides that draw together African rhythm, funk, jazz, soul and hip hop. His inimitably propulsive skinwork has enhanced the work of an amazing range of artists, from afro-giants Manu Dibango, Ray Lema and Sunny Ade to British-Indian songstress Susheela Raman and Californian rock-rappers Spearhead.
But now after two decades of fusion adventures, Tony has come home, returning to his roots in one of the world’s most steaming capitals of rhythm, for his most powerful and personal album to date, ‘Lagos No Shaking’.
The recent upsurge of interest in afrobeat has seen this music drawn into every conceivable kind of crossover encounter, from endless dance remixes to hip hop and reggae collaborations. But ‘Lagos No Shaking’ is a return to core values: a testament to the fact that afrobeat is best served straight – hot, hard and percussion-heavy."
You walk around your house bopping and shaking your bum and your shoulders without noticing. Its great. When I put it on after dinner parties everyone sort of stops halfway to the kitchen and shakes a little and walks further without even wondering why. Others drum on the dinner table with their fingers. I love watching the madness of subliminal funk infestations.
It electrifies all!
No one can resist it!
Intoxicates!
Revelates!
Infects!
..read more...
visit: Vampi Soul
