t may be a surprise to many that not only did Afrobeat not end with the death of Fela, but contemporary Afrobeat continues to be made that doesn’t sound like a throwback to the 70’s.
Well it’s definitely a surprise to this writer as there is not one familiar artist on the Afro selection of this 13 song promo (6 Afro/ 7 Latin) of a forthcoming double cd set. Whilst the house orientated Raw Artistic Soul is so bland and cafe orientated that it can’t be saved by Wunmi’s impassioned vocals, and Blaze’s ultra smooth lush jazzy, downbeat Afrobeat lite seem totally at odds with their attempts to be Gil Scott Heron, riffing endlessly about ‘the revolution,’ some of the earlier pieces like Aiff (named after a music file format?) a kind of Dutch revisionist band with real instrumentation play this gentle progressive Afrobeat that is sweet, soulful and highly finessed. This half was compiled by New York DJ Rich Medina, whilst the nu Latin side comes from former Rock Steady Crew member Bobitto aka Kool Bob Love.
There’s a couple of familiar names here such as Louie Vega and Rob Swift, so there’s also a touch of scratching, whilst the final album apparently also features Quantic Soul Orchestra. Curiously the Latin side is more overtly, almost triumphantly electronic influenced and at times seems even funkier than the Afro side. The highlight is eight piece English/Brazilian funk ensemble Saravah Soul’s Supersossego, an instrumental cop show wig out of Lalo Schiffrin proportions. The key word here is ‘instrumental,’ as many of the pieces on the Latin side are ruined by horribly lame lyrics. That said though the earthier highly percussive Rumba Cultura with chanting vocals from Totin also hits the mark. The problem is that the hits are few and far between. The collection is presented as an alternative to dusty crate digging, a gentle chiding that not all the great music is behind us, yet this collection is far from convincing. If offered a choice between a dusty crate and a house producer attempting to cram bits of Afro or Latin influences between their monotonous beats frankly I’ll take the crate any day of the week.
Bob Baker Fish
