s w e e t b e a t s
may.02.2001 - #606
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artist : Fela Kuti
album : Expensive Shit
year : 1975
label : Universal
genre : Jazz
catalogue : 5470302
url : www.femikutimusic.com
quality : CD 192k HQ True Stereo
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01.Expensive Shit 13:14
02.He Miss Road 10:47
03.Monday Morning in Laos 11:15
04.Water No Get Enemy 11:00
04 tracks | 46:16 mins | 63,6 MB
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Afro-beat pioneer Fela Kuti was never more pissed off at his
homeland's military government than in 1974. In that year, the
Nigerian police persistently raided his compound, the Kalkuta
Republic, as a result of Kuti's growing public opposition to the
ruling junta. Having beaten a narcotics charge, the Lagos police
swarmed Kuti's home in an attempt to plant a big fat joint on the
premises and arrest him for possession.
Quick in thought as well as funk, Fela swallowed the joint. The
on-looking officers promptly pushed him into the back of their
wagon. Their immaculate plan was to wait for Kuti to dump his
morning load for proof. They would then test the turd for THC and,
according to the cunning plan, throw Kuti in the choky for a very
long time, effectively ridding the Nigerian police of their number
one gadfly. Though raised in what might be termed a middle-class
environment, Fela Kuti was very much a people's champion, and his
famous testing of authority was what saved him in the end-- he was
able to exchange his stool for a less-enhanced specimen.
Fela Kuti had been an attentive apprentice when he jammed with some
of James Brown's band members in a Los Angeles recording studio in
1969. But sadly, Kuti failed to secure the proper work Visas, and
after four days, the Immigration and Nationalization Service threw
him out of the country. Of course, Kuti had already gotten what he
needed-- James Brown's funk and some Black Panther literature. He
would turn his old band into a JB's-style groove machine, re-name
it the Africa 70, and bring it on to the worms in power.
1975's Expensive Shit is paired on this new MCA reissue with He
Miss Road, another Kuti release from that same year. The album's
centerpiece, lead-off and title track was undoubtedly one of the
most influential tracks to the Afro-beat movement, and to artists
like the Talking Heads, who experimented with similar tribal
rhythms on Fear of Music and their landmark album, 1980's Remain in
Light. Its complex, bongo- centric percussion is tempered with funk
guitar, discordant piano, and brass eruptions. And when, six
minutes into the semi-improvisational, instrumental jam, Kuti
awakens with a yowl and begins his political rant, he changes music
forever.
"Water No Get Enemy," Expensive Shit's second track, is more
philosophical than political, postulating the motion of water as a
metaphor for human interaction and the rhythms of society. The
music is lighter-- almost poetic-- but no less moving. After these
two extended, 10+-minute affairs come three more, in the form of
Kuti's follow-up album, He Miss Road. The title track here is a
less strident affair than either of the cuts off Expensive Shit.
Lyrically, Kuti comments on people's stupidity; he mocks an
incompetent lawyer for handing over his brief to the prosecution,
and tells of a band that turns up at a colony for the blind and the
deaf. After a squall of noise, a summery, psychedelic groove
settles the mood until finally giving way to an ambient organ.
Fela's tenor saxophonist, Igo Chico, surpasses all his other
performances on this disc during "Monday Morning in Lagos," which
is up there with the Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" for magical
evocations of cities. Chico's glimmering lines perfectly represent
the rays of the rising sun while Kuti's Yoruban vocals add the
necessary otherworldliness to the track.
The disc closes as it begins-- with bombs. On "It's No Possible,"
drummer Tony Allen imposes a polyrhythmic torrent that locks in the
rest of the Africa 70. They have no choice but to grab hold of the
music and further jazz it up. Fela's lyrics denouncing those who
break promises effectively counterpoint Africa 70's joyous riot of
uplifting funk. But then, that was Fela. Always contradictory-û a
champion of women's rights who kept a harem of dozens of girls
(pictured on the front cover of Expensive Shit). But there's no
denying the guy's blatant courage in the eye of government, or the
legacy of his musical vision.
With DJs steadily picking up on Francois Kervorkian's championing
of Fela Kuti's work, it's all too easy to get caught up in Kuti's
discography. Start with Expensive Shit and don't miss the road
onward. --pitchforkmedia.com
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s w e e t b e a t s
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greetings to klangwerk, mgc, sour, dh, impg & sfe
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