Getting amped up for some live afrobeat on Sound Travels. With Sound Travels recently added to the bill on the Antibalas show next Wednesday at Turner Hallas an opener, I think it perfectly natural to combine business and pleasure, by playing a week of music I really love. So afrobeat is the theme, but when I hammered out the playlist I decided that this afrobeat theme would be about the future more than the past.
For the most part, afrobeat has been a revivalist scene as much as its been one based on the now. Fela Kuti, the oft-chronicled master of the afrobeat game set such a standard that just getting the 'sound' right has for many years been an effort of imitation. While for many bands, just getting the sound right was the objective, many others are growing it, making it their own and evolving it even further. Today, I played new stuff for the most part, The Funkees at the start was the lone exception. All of it is recommended, feel free to find more on your own...
Tracks:
The Funkees "Ole"
Bixiga 70 "Balboa Dub"
Ikebe Shakedown "Tame The Beats"
KonKoma "Me-Kyin-Kyin"
Rocket Juice & The Moon "Follow-Fashion"
