Album Of The Issue

Paul Dale finds pioneering Nigerian musician Fela Kuti on uncompromising and brilliant form with the reissue of his 1972 classic Afrodisiac

The fifth in a series of gorgeous and glorious Fela Kuti 50th anniversary reissues (previous releases include London Scene and Open & Close), Afrodisiac reasserts Kuti’s belief that ‘classical music gives musicians a kick but African music gives everyone a kick.’

Nigerian artist, musician, producer, Afrocentric spiritualist navigator, agent provocateur, and sociopolitical voice, Kuti was the Pan-African titan of a different age. Indeed, his oft-cited views on the matriarchy, homosexuality, AIDS and monogamy would likely see him a contender for cancellation by some of today’s audiences.

By 1972, when he and a nascent version of Africa ‘70 (including the late great Tony Allen on drums) entered Abbey Road studios to record Afrodisiac, Kuti had already witnessed casual and reverberating racism first-hand on the streets of London and Los Angeles. It was his experience of the latter in particular, through his discovery of the Black Power movement, that propelled his conviction that his music ‘must awaken people to do their duty as citizens and act’.

Already hits in his homeland, the songs on Afrodisiac were re-recorded in London to give them international kudos and a marketing reach that only the famous studio and its uptight besuited producers (in this case Jeff Jarratt who does a commendable job) could offer. It was a rare act of imperialist hat-doffing from Kuti, something he would not revisit once he established his Kalakuta Republic compound and his club Afrika Shrine within the next few years. An album of four tracks, Afrodisiac (released under the name Fela RansomeKuti & The Africa ‘70) features throbbing funk, punchy blues and raw live riffs in ‘Alu Jon Jonki Jon’ for which Kuti employs Yoruba mythology, parable and metaphor to preach ethics and freedom. The best-known song on the album, the instrumental ‘Chop And Quench’, is a satire about colonial greed which was Kuti’s first major hit across West Africa.

‘Eko Ile’ (Eko being the pre-colonial name for Lagos) is a rumbustious elegy to the city while in the brilliant final track, ‘Je’nwi Temi (Don’t Gag Me)’, he marshals a multi-instrumental funk war cry against the political and military establishment of Nigeria, a portent for the persecution and indignities Kuti was yet to face at the hands of the powerful.

For vinyl buyers, sonically this is a step up from the 2014 reissue curated by Brian Eno, and the red and green marble vinyl is a joy. Indeed it was Eno who played Afrodisiac for David Byrne ahead of Talking Heads recording Remain In Light, an experience that fundamentally altered Byrne’s production of that album and everything to follow. An influence on many other musicians and artists, the spirit and legacy of Fela Kuti remains stronger than any government or institution.

Afrodisiac is released by Partisan Records on Friday 2 December.