Afrobeat Down started as a tribute to Nigeria’s Fela Kuti, a musical figure so fearlessly larger than life that even something on the scale of a Civil War re-enactors’ group couldn’t capably recount the most famous Fela moments. (Example: The Nigerian military attack on Fela’s micro-nation the Kalakuta Republic.) But well-chosen covers and now their own Afrobeat originals align Afrobeat Down more closely to the still-supercharged Fela legacy—rhythm adjusted to a tidal or tectonic dynamic and righteousness in the face of systemic depredation.
Thu., Sept. 3, 2009
