Fela Kuti: Afrodisiac [KNITTING FACTORY]

Why you'll love it

This Knitting Factory reissue puts Afrodisiac back on vinyl with a download card tucked inside. Its four tracks are London re-recordings of Fela's Nigerian 45s, and "Jeun Ko Ku" alone sold over 200,000 copies at home.

This edition

• Download card included
• Stereo mix

About the album

Most bands cut the single first and the album later. Fela Kuti did both, then went back and did the singles again, at full length this time. In 1972 he took Africa 70 to London and re-recorded a run of his Nigerian 45s at full length, and the result came out on Nigerian EMI the following year as Afrodisiac.

There are four tracks and not a wasted minute among them. "Alu Jon Jonki Jon" and "Je'Nwi Temi (Don't Gag Me)" both stretch past twelve minutes, riding Tony Allen's endlessly supple drumming, Maurice Ekpo's bass and a horn section that answers Fela's sax and electric piano like a congregation. "Jeun Ko Ku (Chop And Quench)" is the hit, tight and grinning, and "Eko Ile" is a hymn to Lagos with a backbeat. AllMusic heard the jazz in it without losing the dance floor, which is about right.

Years later Talking Heads used the album as a template for Remain in Light, so a fair bit of 1980s New York owes its rhythm section to Lagos. Fela composed every note here, and he was not, we gather, a man who believed in the three-minute single.

Also at Kops: more Fela Kuti on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Knitting Factory / Kalakuta Sunrise (cat# KFR2008-1), a reissue of the 1973 album.