concrete winnebago: beat it!

the afrobeat influence.

as far as i know, it is universally agreed that afrobeat was created by fela kuti. wikipedia states "afrobeat is a combination of traditional yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader fela kuti, who gave it its name... it was kuti who coined the term afrobeat... afrobeat features chants, call-and-response vocals, and complex, interacting rhythms.". but i'm not going to talk about that; there is plenty of info about him out there and it's not what i'm really into.

what i like is where his influence rubbed off on others who melded it further with whatever they were experiencing and had experienced at the time. bands like the talking heads and the great song writer paul simon took that funky, earthy, soulful rhythm and added it to their traditional and contemporary musical backgrounds to take their sounds into a whole new place. afrobeat styles are like a chilled, less polished, funk. and like funk the heavily syncopated rythmic style of the percussion intruments, and also pretty much every other instrument too, speaks to us on a primal level. before there were any instruments man could clap his hands and stamp his feet.

from those earlier bands and musical artists came a much more diversified appriciation of what is usually refered to a "world music" and ever since the public have let it in to their lives from time to time, whether they know it or not!

the last five years have seen indie bands take up the torch of that strange hybrid byrne and simon created by learning from the legacy of kuti. these modern bands and artists too have melded what has gone before with what is current and come out winners. here are some of my favorite examples:

jack peñate "everything is new"

almost every ~~trck~~ track is dripping with that beat that seems to speak straight to your heart mind and feet at the same time, and that is a very special gift from mr peñate. forget his first album, i wouldn't touch it with your severed hand. god knows where this came from but we all should be thankful that someone or something came into his life and gave this dude a big thwak that showed him there was more to the world of musical expression than shakin stevens.

yeasayer "all hour cymbals"

for me yeasayer definately pick up where talking heads left off. check out their performance of 2080 on jools holland by clicking here and see if your not just completely blown away.

vampire weekend "vampire weekend"

vampire weekend "contra"

ignore the wy way the band look and just listen to these two albums. the second one just builds on the first, replacing the janglyness with more afrobeat! And what wonderful cover art; objet trouvé indeed!