Lafayette Afro-Rock Band: Malik [STRUT]

Why you'll love it

Strut's edition is the first official remastered reissue of Malik, remastered by The Carvery from the original tapes with the full original artwork. The horn line from "Darkest Light" turned up in tracks by Jay-Z, Public Enemy and Wreckx-N-Effect.

This edition

• Remastered from the original tapes
• Original artwork
• Pressed in Germany
• Stereo mix

About the album

Deciding the American funk scene was too crowded, this band did the sensible thing and moved to Paris. Formed on Long Island as the Bobby Boyd Congress, the group moved to France in 1971, played regularly in the Barbès district among the city's North African community, and ended up as the house band at producer Pierre Jaubert's Parisound studio.

By Malik, their sound had soaked up African rhythms and rock guitars on top of hard American funk, and most of it is instrumental. "Djungi" and the title track roll along on percussion and horns, "Conga" is pure drum break (it later turned up on the Ultimate Breaks And Beats series), "Raff" and "Avi-Vo" stretch out, and "Baba Hya" closes in a heavy haze. Then there's "Darkest Light," whose opening horns became one of hip hop's best-known motifs. Pierre Jaubert, who ran rehearsals with the band, gets the producer credit.

The band called it a day in 1978, and their audience kept growing for decades afterwards through the samplers. Not many records get a second career as a building block, but this one has kept DJs busy for decades.

Also at Kops: more Lafayette Afro Rock Band on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Strut (cat# STRUT299LPB), a reissue of the 1974 album.