Browse by Artist: KUTI, FELA

Artist:	KUTI, FELA
Title:	Beasts Of No Nation/Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am
Label:	SLOW TO SPEAK
Format:	12"
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	CEL 822EP

"Fela Anikulapo (Ransome) Kuti's life and career were more than anything an attempt to fuse the worlds of music and politics irrevocably. Kuti spearheaded the new fusion of West African originated 'Afrobeat'---a genre of which he was and is the indisputable leader---with a determined militancy inspired by pan African radicalism and to a lesser extent U.S. black nationalism, and, in the process, made him as many enemies as followers; but always carried by the unfettered musical intuitiveness & improvisation that lent his politically abrasive forthrightness an undeniable mass appeal, transcending well beyond his own specific conditions and appealing on a universal musical scale really unmatched by many musical moguls...a true 'empire' that has transcended Kuti's own death and lives on (perhaps unfortunately) in the form of his kin & idolizers alike. His music, that joyous instrument of social change, was his catalyst & albeit integral vessel for radical agitation. It's not that the countless albums stand on their musical merit alone, the truly free method to the relentless and melodically entrancing reiteration of his own Afrobeat---a music that in itself needs no heady articulation to be enjoyed, and it's basically universal popularity testifies to this. But the very volatility of his music at once elevates the songs into something more than relegated culture. On the contrary, you can still sense the urgency in these records, essential battle tools against colonialism and political apathy, igniters of the great fire of agitation while remaining essential and undeniable landmarks of exceptional musical invention. This exclusive 12" pressing of some of Fela's finest work, the undeniably masterful 'Beasts of No Nation' and 'Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am,' presents a formidable example of Fela's finest work, the best possible examples of his own personal unity of theory & practice that has created over 30 full-length albums & an unshakable legacy that lives on with justifiable necessity."

Artist:	KUTI, FELA
Title:	Lagos Baby (1963-1969)
Label:	VAMPISOUL (SPAIN)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	VAMPI 097CD

2008 release. Fela Kuti (1938-1997) was the first and brightest African super star, and a music genius of colossal dimensions, considered by many the unrivalled king of African music for more than 30 years. Vampisoul presents a compilation of his work in the '60s, before naming his band Africa 70 and becoming the first African music rebel. After staying in London between 1958 and 1961, where he studied at the Trinity College of Music, and prior to his first visit to the States, Fela was back in his Nigeria home with his band The Koola Lobitos serenading nightclubbers with jaunty highlife jazz and Afro soul music. What you can hear in this compilation is Fela Ransome Kuti (not Anikulapo) and His Koola Lobitos, doing an irresistible, torrid and infectious rhythmic mix of West Africa's highlife music, jazz, soul and funk. Licensed from the Fela Kuti Estate and Premier Records, this deluxe Vampisoul package features extensive notes by African specialist Max Reinhardt and artwork by artist Victor Aparicio.

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