Fela Kuti: Open & Close [KNITTING FACTORY]

Why you'll love it

Knitting Factory's reissue brings back an early Africa 70 album with Tony Allen in the drum chair. Fela composed, arranged and produced all three tracks himself, and the album marks the moment Afrobeat locked into its long-form groove.

About the album

Three songs, two sides, no hurry. That is the Fela Kuti deal, and Open & Close is one of the early records where it fell into place. After early years abroad, Fela had funk and jazz in his ears, and with Africa 70 he fused them with West African rhythms into something he called Afrobeat, the sound that made him a star across Nigeria in the 1970s.

The title track rides a call-and-response chant over interlocking guitars, a horn section that punches in right on the beat, and Tony Allen's drumming, which is so loose and so precise at the same time that drummers still study it. "Suegbe and Pako" turns up the heat on side two, and "Gbagada Gbogodo" rolls in with a groove built to keep a dance floor going all night. Fela composed, arranged and produced the lot, and his saxophone and keyboard solos take their time in the best way.

Knitting Factory has spent years bringing his catalogue back into shops, with his son Femi Kuti overseeing the reissues, and in 2026 he went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Talking Heads took notes, and so should anyone whose party playlist currently runs out of steam by 11 PM.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Knitting Factory Records (cat# KFR2005-1), a reissue of the 1971 album.