#afrofunk

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

Baba L'oke Ba'wagbe · Super Borgou de Parakou

70's

Pure Benin heat

One of Benin’s standout orchestras, Super Borgou de Parakou crafted a sound rooted in northern traditions, fused with Afrobeat’s drive and electric instrumentation.

[burlveneer-music]

La BOA (Bogotá Orquesta Afrobeat) Meets Tony Allen (through the magic of Comet Records' archive of Tony Allen drum tracks)

Few sounds transcend time and space quite like the driving pulse of Afrobeat, and few artists, for that matter, have defined their own domains quite as profoundly as Tony Allen—the very beat of Afrobeat itself. In 2011, Allen recorded one of his inimitable rhythmic dialogues as part of the Afrobeat Makers Series for the Parisian imprint Comet Records. Charged with the same fervour for uninhibited expression that defined his trailblazing career, Tony Allen’s drumming, free from convention and charting its own course, emanates a cadenced stream of consciousness that speaks its own truth. If Allen’s language was his beat, then on this record, La BOA—La Bogotá Orquesta Afrobeat—becomes his latest and most fitting interlocutor. What began as a tribute—a song named after Allen—now feels like the prelude to a deeper dialogue in a meeting that seems more like fate than mere happenstance. Led by producer Daniel Michel, the ever-evolving band has spent over ten years embodying the fluid, transformative spirit of Afrobeat, imprinting it with their distinctly Colombian sensibilities. From Casa Mambo in Bogotá, Michel’s Mambo Negro Records has become a cornerstone of Colombia’s underground scene championing Afro-Colombian and independent music throughout that time. Across this LP, Allen’s recordings lay down the canvas upon which La BOA paints its own vision of Afrobeat—raw and expansive, locking step with his drum tracks while building around the unmistakable blueprint of their Colombian rhythms: exuding Caribbean beat, rolling with Pacific groove, and, above all, shaped by the rarefied air of the Andean melting pot that is Bogotá. What ensues is an enduring conversation that crosses eras, borders, even life and death—a celebration of the passing of the baton and the boundless nature of Afrobeat as a genre that refuses to settle. Where the beat of Lagos meets the brass of Bogotá, so too La BOA meets Tony Allen.

[cinnamoncee]

1975

[funksoul]

Lijadu Sisters - Life’s Gone Down Low - funky joint coming to you outta Nigeria

[dustedmagazine]

Amayo — Lion Awakes (Self-Release)

Amayo was the only actual Nigerian in the Brooklyn afrobeat juggernaut Antibalas, reigning from 1999 to 2021 in colored face paint and elaborate headdress over pulsing Fela-obsessed grooves. A devotee of martial arts, he is a practitioner of Kung Fu’s Chinese Lion Dance, as well as Nigerian Edo traditional arts. Lion Awakes celebrates all these elements of the Amayo creative package, unfurling frantic blasts of brassy syncopation around intricate narratives of supernatural kicking, punching might. This is not a long album, but it has epic scope that’s well beyond the limitations of the usual five-song EP.

It begins with Amayo’s tribute to his grandmother, a black magic shaman woman in touch with supernatural energies. The song, “Black Magic Sister” stutters on skittering, bunching syncopation, threading wheedling keyboards and off-beat cowbells through a sinuous call and response. Amayo holds court, letting the spirit move him as he sings, swaying with the back-slanted rhythms of reggae-adjacent afrobeat as he rides the current.

“Lion Awakes” runs steamier and funkier, guitars insinuated into a smolder of percussion, the beat rambling on, purposeful but not too fast. It’s too hot to run. The lion is the main character in three out of five of these tracks, strutting militantly in the snare-shot “Happy Lion,” triumphing over all comers in the final “Ascending Lion.” The Lion, I should mention, is Amayo, and of course he’s the hero of his own story.

Amayo brings the kung-fu-fighting samurai motif out into the foreground in “Shadowless,” a track whose bristling horns and burbling organ smoke but never erupt in flames. The menace is implied, never thrust forward, as Amayo whispers “Shadowless” against a slithery cadence of funk.

Amayo surrounds himself with an able collection of afro funk musicians from Africa and Los Angeles and Brooklyn. The backing is tight, in the sense of everything landing where it should, but also loose, with a give in the joints that makes you want to move. You probably didn’t know you needed an Afro funk concept album about a mighty kung fu warrior, but you did. You can thank me later.

Jennifer Kelly

[ultrafuturist]

[c-40]

A-T-5 067 Tony Allen Road Close (Dance Dub)

Another great track from Fela Kuti's Africa '70 musical director and drummer. From the album N.E.P.A. (Never Expect Power Always) - a dig at the Nigerian Electric Power Authority. Recorded after he'd moved to France

I shared tracks from N.E.P.A. last year, there's a bit on confusion over when it was released 84/85

[soundgrammar]

Listen/purchase: Ziglibithiens by Analog Africa