World’s End Girlfriend: Seven Idiots (Erased Tapes)

World's End Girlfriend: "Teenage Ziggy"

World’s End Girlfriend is the wild, hyper-melodic project of Japanese composer Katsuhiko Maeda, whose vivid arrangements have created a following in his homeland and been used in critically acclaimed films. Originally released last year in Japan, Seven Idiots is his tenth studio album.

The music is a dense, larger-than-life blend of post-rock, classical music, and electronica, and within just the first minute of Seven Idiots, the listener is hit with a beautiful union of Battles-esque guitar lines, funky bass slaps, classical melodies, glitch beats, and squiggly synth lines. As the album progresses, it delves into polyrhythms, improvisation, and other complexities — particularly during the “Bohemian Purgatory” triptych — but a robust sense of melody and an opportunity for head-nodding are almost always at its core.

Helms Alee: Weatherhead (Hydra Head)

Helms Alee: "8/16"

With its 2008 debut album, Seattle trio Helms Alee forged a sound all its own — part metal, part post-punk, part melody-driven rock, and all abandon.

If it was Isis joining up with The Breeders for a quick outing into the wilderness, then the band's sophomore effort, Weatherhead, returns to the woods to find our friends older, craftier, and better bonded.

As a trio, the band's personal contributions are easier to discern: the driving, effected guitar and guttural screams of Ben Verellen, the distorted low end and breathy, light-weight vocals of bassist Dana James, and the steady, pounding aggression of Hozoji Matheson-Margullis.

On top of alternately punishing and pulchritudinous riffage, Verellen and James again are paired for vocal harmonies.  But this time around, they're joined by the assertive vocals of Matheson-Margullis, who leads a call-and-response exchange with the two in the standout single "8/16" and who adds screams to the title track.  James, however, takes the lead at other points, and she frequently harmonizes with Verellen's clean vocals to produce some of the album's most hypnotic tracks.

The egalitarianism of the vocals is nearly matched by the diversity of the music — albeit music that nearly always rocks.  But the soft moments are pronounced, and the acoustic interlude of "Anemone of the Wound" is a welcome change of pace.  This contrast and disparity makes Weatherhead just as compelling as its predecessor, while featuring additional growth as a trio.

3:33: The First Thousand Days (Parallel Thought Ltd.)

Stream the entire album here.

Just two months ago, the mysterious, experimental electronic group 3:33 released its debut album, 333LP1. Its follow-up has an uncharacteristically communicative title — The First Thousand Days (Bandcamp) — but the group's mechanical, idiosyncratic number/letter combinations are still present in the track list.

If it weren't so amorphous and downright sinister, The First Thousand Days would fall somewhere in the experimental electro-hop territory typified by musicians like Prefuse 73. It is set apart by a rawness of texture that recalls Amon Tobin's field-recording-style compositions, where the line between digital and analog is scuffed beyond recognition.

The mystery of the music, and of the artists themselves, is compounded by spare, muffled vocals and crunchy, textured instrumentation. The group's ability to simultaneously plod and pulsate, to move swiftly from tribal percussion to glacial ambience, is unmatched — and unsettling.

- Text by Kyle Gilkeson.

Seun Anikulapo Kuti: From Africa With Fury: Rise (Knitting Factory)

Seun Anikulapo Kuti: "Rise"

The youngest son of Afrobeat legend and political dissident Fela Kuti, saxophonist and singer Seun Anikulapo Kuti is the latest to continue the cherished legacy of his last name.  Similarly to Femi Kuti, Fela's eldest son, Seun maintains his family's tradition of activism and rump-shaking funk, both of which are prevalent on his sophomore album, Rise.

For the second time, Seun is joined by his famous father's Egypt 80 ensemble, a group that played with Fela 30 years ago.  The music, though not treading new ground, is chock full of tightly wound horn harmonies and dance-inducing rhythms, as filtered through the one-of-a-kind sounding board that is co-producer Brian Eno.

As per the album's title, there's plenty of political fury: "African Soldiers" addresses the cyclical nature of military governments throughout modern African history, and "You Can Run" dissects the cowardice of brutal dictators who flee when the prospect of justice is threatened.  "Rise," meanwhile, emphasizes tribal heritage, rejecting the imposed demarcations placed upon Africa by the Western world.

The fact that the music doesn't delineate from the Afrobeat legacy is irrelevant.  Africa, perhaps as much as ever, needs a messenger like Seun Kuti.

Honorable Mentions

Bon Iver: s/t (Jagjaguwar)

Cassettes Won’t Listen: Evinspacey (Daylight Curfew)

The Devin Townsend Project: Ghost (Century Media / Inside Out)

Elitist: Fear in a Handful of Dust (Season of Mist)

Father’s Children: s/t (Numero Group)

Grieves: Together/Apart (Rhymesayers)

Laurel Halo: Hour Logic (Hippos in Tanks)

Mark Wingfield & Kevin Kastning: I Walked into the Silver Darkness (Greydisc)

Painted Palms: Canopy EP (Secretly Canadian)

Ty Segall: Goodbye Bread (Drag City)

So Hideous, My Love…: To Clasp A Fallen Wish With Broken Fingers (Play The Assassin)

Viva Voce: The Future Will Destroy You (Vanguard)

White Hills: H-p1 (Thrill Jockey)

Download the podcast for This Week’s Best Albums: February 1, 2011 and subscribe to This Week’s Best Albums for free with iTunes.

Stream the podcast for This Week's Best Albums: February 1, 2011.
This Week\'s Best Albums: February 1, 2011

Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi: Still You Lay Dreaming – Tales for the Stage, II

Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi: "The Gyre"

Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi: "Wandering Secret"

Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi are two adventurous members of avant-metal band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum; each is involved in a plethora of projects, including Tin Hat (Trio), The Book of Knots, 2 Foot Yard, and Skeleton Key.  With Sleepytime bandmate Dan Rathbun, the two released an album a few years ago called Ravish, consisting of scores for dance and theater companies, and now the couple has self-released a sequel of sorts, called Still You Lay Dreaming — a download-only collection of tracks that were written for the Deborah Slater Dance Theater’s production of Men Think They Are Better Than Grass.

The music, though not as massively far-reaching as each musician’s career, is an eclectic assortment of unorthodox instruments, unusual melodies, and dynamic vocals.  Kihlstedt’s usual vocal power leads the way on half of the tracks, but her superlative violin skills take a back seat to duo’s “closet arsenal” of bass harmonica, pump organ, bathtub percussion, flour sifter, and other oddities.

A general compositional diversity – in addition to distorted, pitch-shifted, and reverberated instruments and vocals – makes the collection a wonderful listen from start to finish.  Fans of the duo’s previous work won’t want to miss it either, as there’s little that resembles what has come before.

V/A: Generation Bass Presents Transnational Dubstep (Six Degrees)

Fleck & Fish Finger: “Rude Profile” (Pan Agnostix flamenco-step version)

Featuring 15 world-infused dubstep tunes, Generation Bass Presents Transnational Dubstep is a journey around the globe as filtered through the pulsing beats and whirring, mechanical sounds of a dance subgenre that continues to flourish.  Compiled by the co-founders and editors of the dance-music blog Generation Bass, in conjunction with Six Degrees Records, it’s a continent-hopping collection of thumping grooves alongside sounds from India, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, South America, and more.

The majority of the tracks, at some point, adhere to the key dubstep directive – blown-out bass lines in triplets – but they often begin or build in very un-dubstep ways.  This is best experienced on tracks such as “Kaliyuga,” which takes a sweeping string melody – possibly from a sarangi – and coalesces it around, sitar, veena, tabla, and a dirty synth line before a wobbling bass line and hip-hop beats break it down.  It’s one of the comp’s best tracks and a great fusion between East and West.

Jono El Grande: Phantom Stimulance (Rune Grammofon)

Jono El Grande: "Borrelia Boogie"

Known musically as Jono El Grande, Norwegian guitarist/composer Jon Andreas Håtun uses his nom de plume to combine theatrical, progressive, classical, jazz, and absurdist styles for performance-art and dada-inspired live shows.  Though you’ll find this on his Wikipedia entry, his music might be best described as a mix between his confessed influences: Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, King Crimson, and Igor Stravinsky.

Following his outstanding and eclectic release Neo Dada in 2009, Jono has now released a collection of re-recorded stage songs and unreleased material.  It picks up where Neo Dada left oft, with fanciful, melodic meanderings that can sound like an acid-soaked version of countrymen Jaga Jazzist – only with strange, often nonsensical vocals in the mix.  Named Phantom Stimulance, the collection is a synchronized mélange of guitar, xylophone, harpsichord, organ, synthesizer, horns, singing saw, and more.

Buck 65: 20 Odd Years (Warner Music Canada)

Buck 65: "Who By Fire"

Last year, Canadian hip-hop artist Buck 65 released a series of digital mini-albums to commemorate 20 years of creating music.  Despite his recent connection to Warner Music, he’s always had an unusual and avant-garde style of rapping and lyricism, collaborating with a host of great artists with independent roots that include Sage Francis, Feist, Tanya Tagaq, Boom Bip, John Herndon of Tortoise, and more.

20 Odd Years is made in that daring, collaborative spirit, with a number of vocal and instrumental guests who take the music in copious directions.  Over the course of 13 tracks – four unreleased and the rest from the mini-albums – it moves through acoustic folk hop, piano-laced trip hop, synth rock, western cinematics, French pop, Eastern-tinged string melodies, and vocal balladry.  It’s often both dramatic and delicate – usually thanks the dynamic guest vocalists – but it also has a little fun, notably with a song about zombies. Ultimately, 20 Odd Years might be the best and most adventurous collection that Buck 65 has created.

Honorable Mentions

Abysmal Dawn: Leveling the Plane of Existence (Relapse)

Arthur's Landing: s/t (Strut)

Tommy Guerrero: Lifeboats and Follies (Galaxia)

Kotchy: Two (Done Right)

Fela Kuti: Vinyl Box Set 1, Compiled by ?uestlove of The Roots (Knitting Factory)

Noisear: Subvert the Dominant Paradigm (Relapse)

Rot in Hell: As Pearls Before Swine (Deathwish)

Seefeel: s/t (Warp)

Various artists: Angola Soundtrack: The Unique Sound of Luanda, 1965-1976 (Analog Africa, 11/22/2010)

Ngoma Jazz: "Mi Cantando Para Ti"

For its ninth catalog release, Frankfurt-based record label Analog Africa digs deep into the soul of Angola, the former Portuguese colony in south central Africa.  The compilation gives yet another exciting perspective into the remarkable number of African music styles that have bore into the global sound stage.  Angola Soundtrack: The Unique Sound of Luanda, 1965-1976, with its 44-page accompanying booklet, is one of the most complete Angolan music exhibitions released to date, bringing to light one of Africa’s most underestimated music scenes.

Unlike the West African-coined Afrobeat style, home to juggernauts such as Fela Kuti, the Angola sound takes origin and influence from Latin grooves and old-school Caribbean merengue.  Angola’s rhythmic quality is more hypnotic than commanding with vocal performances that follow the same philosophy.  The soundtrack challenges listeners to reexamine the African music scene, transcending the music epicenters that have become a permanent mainstay in the world’s musical lexis.

But this is more than a story about contrasting music styles; it’s also about a country that didn't gain independence until 1975 and the political instability and widespread violence that accompanied it.  The standard narrative of Angolan nationalism begins in the 1950s, but it can be dated all the way back to the 15th Century.

Under Portugal's political tyranny, over 4 million people were shipped as slaves to Brazil and the Caribbean before Portugal outlawed slavery in 1836.  But unrest came to a head in 1932 with the rise of António Salazar’s fascist regime, the Estado Novo (New State) in Lisbon.  Unlike other European leaders, Salazar refused to leave Portugal’s centuries-old African colonies.  The anti-liberal and authoritarian regime sought to continue Portugal’s colonial empire, promoting a new wave of Portuguese immigration to Luanda in the 1940s.  Colonial society became more culturally segregated and racist, fueled by government-forced African labor and failure to modernize and reform the country.

By this time, proto-nationalist sentiments began sweeping Angola, particularly in the capitol of  Luanda, where organized demands for civil and human rights became louder.  As expected, the Portuguese regime squelched any talks of independence, exiling and jailing anyone who showed even remote interest in cultural sovereignty.  Armed struggle broke out in 1961, when the colonial state responded violently to three unrelated guerrilla rebellions in Northeast Angola.

From 1965 to 1976, the years that Angola Soundtrack covers, racial tensions were extremely high.  In a national “discovering our identity” moment, three different liberation movements arose: the Movimento Popular de Liberação de Angola (MPLA), the Frente Nacional de Libertção de Angola (FNLA), and the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA).  These three groups would receive tense international attention after the onset of Angola’s liberation in 1975, fighting over different political agendas and dooming the country into another violent time period, the Angolan Civil war.

But in the years leading up to Angola’s liberation, Angolans were in desperate search for a culture that they could call their own.  Beginning in the late 1960s, the spread of radio technology and the institution of a recording industry may have played a huge part in creating a brand of independence.  In music, Africans found dominion and empowerment.  Two record labels, Fábrica de Discos Angolano and Valentim de Carvalho, set up pressing plants in Luanda, turning out singles that spoke directly to the revolting population.

Angola Soundtrack is heavy with swinging tracks that are indebted to the emerging rumba scene in neighboring Congo at the time.  But the country’s indigenous rhythms shine through.  Styles such as the semba (predecessor to the Brazilian samba) and the rebita (successor of Caribbean rhythms such as merengue) give the album its distinct groove.

The compilation covers a gambit of musicians, including renowned band Jovens Do Prenda, whose legendary guitarist Zé Keno graces the album’s cover.  “Ilha Virgem” is one of the comp's instrumental tracks, showing how the electric guitar fit into the diverse array of percussion sounds from Angola.  The electric guitar also took a prominent role in bands such as Os Kiezos, Ze Da Lua, and Os Karimbos, all featured here and all using guitars passed through distorted and wah-wah effects.

At one point or another, the musicians on the compilation were held as symbols as national patriotism, instilling a voice and a character into a tumultuous political climate.  But in cases such as David Zé, national popularity proved to be a dangerous undertaking.  Aligning with the leftist MPLA group during independence years, Zé used his songs as gestures for strength and optimism for Angola’s future.  Zé’s “Uma Amiga” is an upbeat offering, his voice boasting hope for a homeland with new possibilities.  Sadly, he never saw an outcome; he was murdered in a shroud of political mystery on May 27, 1977.

Angola Soundtrack is a testament to those courageous singers and musicians, like David Zé, who revolutionized Angola’s musical and political landscape in the 1960s and '70s.  Beyond it being a soundtrack for a 400-year liberation in the making, the music from Luanda, Angola still remains as one of the most under-represented music scenes in Africa.  Tremendously melodic, highly danceable, and always electrifying, Analog Africa's ninth offering accomplishes something special.

Mikrokolektyw: Revisit (Delmark, 6/15/10)

Mikrokolektyw: "Running Without Effort"

Hajduch: Mikrokolektyw (pronounced micro-collective) is the Polish duo of Kuba Suchar and Artur Majewski. Together, they make a very primal sort of experimental jazz, rooted in Suchar's one-man rhythm section of drums and Moog. Atop this framework, Majewski adds restrained, thoughtful trumpet lines. The result is head-nodding and hypnotic, and at times would not sound out of place in an Italian horror film scored by Goblin.

It also sounds like classic Chicago jazz fusion, like what Rob Mazurek's Isotope 217 and various Chicago Underground ensembles have accomplished.  The sparse, melodic trumpet playing owes a lot to Miles Davis' In a Silent Way, and there's a punchy moment of ensemble playing (here, "ensemble" means Majewski doubled) in "Watermelon from the 80s" that sounds like a riff from a Fela Kuti song.  This guy would definitely call the cops on this album.

Morrow: The comparisons to Mazurek and Isotope 217 are right on, but I feel that Mikrokolektyw emphasizes the loops and electronics much more.  There are also elements here, with the loops and jazzy, circular beats, that remind me of DMS, a one-man operation (later a duo) by American Football drummer Steve Lamos.  The later DMS material, which really never was released, was criminally unheard.  And the earlier stuff, in fact, included a great cover of "In a Silent Way."

Really, enough can't be said for the importance of Mikrokolektyw's loops.  Whether it's the trumpet, drums, the marimba melody on "Running without Effort," or a Moog that acts as a bass line, they're a vital component to each song.  They keep the whole thing grounded for Majewski's improvisations, yet they leave enough room for Suchar's beats, which quickly repeat but are impeccable — particularly his rapid drum rolls on the toms.

Hajduch: Yeah, the looped nature of the music is what keeps the whole thing together.  The music has hooks everywhere, which keep it from being some sort of impenetrable riff fest.  Not only is it hooky, but it's also sparse, so the tracks have a lot of room to breathe.

Restraint is important.  I love Ken Vandermark, for example, but a lot of his compositions with The Vandermark 5 or his gigantic Territory Band come off as so crazy that you get overwhelmed by listening.  Mikrokolektyw understands restraint.  The music is uncluttered not because they're a duo — plenty of jazz duos overplay — but because they are patient, accomplished musicians who know when it is best to be quiet.

Morrow: For sure, and restraint is something that wasn't as evident in their last band, Robotobibok — a four-piece contemporary-jazz ensemble that was much busier.  The music was great, and it crossed into electronica and groove, but it got a little too loaded at times.  Mikrokolektyw's Revisit strikes a great balance, and it's one of those gateway albums that can get your friends into some jazz crossovers.

Hajduch: This album is excellent.  Delmark, if you read this, please consider vinyl pressings of more of your releases, starting with this one.

The group's classic, political third album saw renewed interest after Fela! opened to rave reviews, so Ropeadope answered the call, even adding a previously unheard bonus track called "Money Talks," produced by Scotty Hard.

Buy Who Is This America? on presale here.

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou: Echos Hypnotiques, Vol. 2 (Analog Africa, 11/10/09)

I’ve never been to Benin. I’ve never walked the streets of Cotonou or ridden on one of their motorcycle taxis.

I’ve never walked along the beaches of the Bight of Benin and seen the fishermen hauling in their catches. I’ve never had a klui klui (a deep-fried peanut-butter stick sold on the city streets).

But I have listened to Orchestre Poly-Rythmo. I have danced my ass off to “Noude Ma Gnin Tche De Me.” I have screamed along to lyrics that I don’t understand.

This band is at once the purest form of afrobeat and its strangest outlier. It is a microcosm of the Northwest African musical history.

It has the primal thump of ancient Vodoun (Voodoo to the Western world) chant rhythms, always charging forward, undeterred by the madness going on around it. The beat is the spiritual underpinning carefully guiding the mad genius of the band. The Sato rhythms that are present on this disc were picked up from Vodoun ceremonies used to celebrate the dead, creating a musical bond to the history of the Fon people.

And on top of all the history, the band was always moving forward. In “Mede Ma Gnin Messe,” the Orchestre employs a disco hi-hat beat to augment the subtle Sato backing, but it also throws in a heavily distorted guitar and organ solo in which the two instruments have a call-and-response jam with a saxophone section. This is the Las Vegas all-you-can-eat-buffet of African psychedelia.

Rappers today talk about “swag”: that overtly cocky sense of pride that can either make you embarrassed for yourself or embarrassed for them. The Orchestre has the type of swag that leaves you feeling like a younger brother watching your older brother and his taller friends play basketball.

The band's style is impressive, and yes, at some times showy and cocksure. But that only adds a layer of mystique to the aesthetic. On some tracks, you can hear the Orchestre making music to show that it can do it better than anyone else. But it's the best.

I’ll try explaining this mathematically.

Consider the following equation:

Music = sound/time represented as m

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo represented as O

Funk = m/groove

O(m/groove) = (O x m)/(O x groove) = Euphoria.

Quod erat demonstratum.

To all those familiar with African music, you know how serious even mentioning Fela Kuti is. But here it goes: Orchestre Poly-Rythmo is at Fela’s level, if not exceeding it at times. I don’t know if you could ask for a better endorsement.

No matter your preference in format, there is no wrong way to listen to this band. If you turn up the volume loud enough on anything, you will still dance with the same near-spiritual conviction that takes hold of you during the course of an especially groovy track. You could be underwater wearing earmuffs, and if someone played a HitClip of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, it would still send you into dopamine overdrive.

If I ever make it to Benin, I’m going to spend all my time walking around Cotonou asking people about this band. I don’t think the language barrier will be a problem. Someone will nod, smile, and pull out one of its records and let it play.

- Arthur Pascale

World in Stereo is a biweekly column that examines classic and modern world music while striving for a greater appreciation of other cultures.

The Afrobeat star and son of Nigerian genre pioneer Fela Kuti had to postpone his US tour due to illness. Femi's new album, Day by Day, is another step forward in a storied career, but we'll have to wait until he's better to catch him live again.

Femi dished out one of the best performances of Lollapalooza 2007; read our Day 1 recap, with photos by Tanya van Kampen, for a little nostalgia.

Also, you can find a fabulous cover story on Seun Kuti, Fela's youngest son, written by New York Public Radio staff writer Siddhartha Mitter in our newest issue, ALARM 33.

Doppler Shift, Family Order @ Beat Kitchen (Chicago)

Drawing tangential comparisons to Squarepusher and John Zorn's Naked City, heavy jazz-rock quartet Doppler Shift headlines this late show at Chicago's Beat Kitchen. Influenced by IDM, funk, and dropped-D riffs a lá mid-'90s Helmet, Doppler Shift creates a powerful, beat-driven jazz intersection that shows no mercy.

The quartet leans on electric trumpet and distorted bass for its dirty sound, but the style is equally sophisticated, employing its share of acrobatic duels between trumpet and saxophone. With a quality opener in the form of jam/groove four-piece Family Order, this show is a bargain for $6.

Bustle in Your Hedgerow @ Abbey Pub (Chicago)

Led Zeppelin cover bands are a dime a dozen, but not when one includes keyboardist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo (who, together, make up the Benevento/Russo Duo). Watch the group lay down jam-rock renditions of Zep classics as Benevento tones up for the release of his great, new, covers-laden album Me Not Me, out February 3.

Jazz bassist Melvin Gibbs is an extremely diverse musician, and this musical diversification is exemplified by his new project, Melvin Gibbs' Elevated Entity.

Hailed by some as the "best bassist in the world," Gibbs expands his palette further on his forthcoming record, Ancients Speak, including tastes of Brazilian hip hop and African Yoruba culture.

In a conversation with contributor Joe Kurowski, Gibbs discusses Brooklyn's influence on his music, the effects of a trip to Brazil, and his time as the world-music buyer at Tower Records.

You grew up in Brooklyn. Tell me how you started making music.

Essentially, I started to make music with this guy who lived next door to me. I always wanted to play bass or percussion, or be a DJ, but he told me that there was no money in DJing and that I needed to learn to play an instrument.

There was this place I played at called The Muse, which was kind of like a cultural center where I met Reggie Workman, who played with Coltrane. I met Vernon Reid (Living Colour) in one of the practice rooms at Medgar Evers College through a mutual friend, and that's how I ended up joining Vernon's free-jazz band. Then I ended up in a band playing with Alphonia Tims. We'd rehearse over at Ornette Coleman's loft and he would sit around and critique us.

Then there was The Mama Theater, which was on the Lower East Side on 3^rd Street. There were always musicians in there that you could just go and jam with. I met Joe Bowie there, and it was through him that I met James Chance. I had a little "try-out" with him, and that's where The Contortions came from. And later that turned into Defunkt.

What was the Defunkt scene like?

There is a whole part of history in the '80s that they left out. There were a whole lot of scenes, but ours is usually skipped over.

Actually, the person who introduced me to Vernon Reid was my roommate and one of the very first graffiti artists in New York. He went by the tag name WG. One of my other friends was the head of these ex-vandals, not really a gang, but this organization with all the graffiti artists in Brooklyn.

For a while in the late '70s, there was a loft jazz scene. A bunch of people would get together at someone's loft and we'd have little shows. Any jazz musicians that would come through town would always come and play with us. Warren Smith had some places where we would go and jam. James Chance used to go to these jazz lofts.

What was one album growing up that influenced you to start writing music?

In Brooklyn at that time, I obviously came up listening to funk. I was big into the DJ culture, into the remix guys and all that. I was a big avant-garde head, listening to Ornette Coleman, Pharoah Sanders, and what ended up becoming acid jazz, like The Blackbirds.

There was this one record store that I used to walk by everyday, and one day I was walking past and heard a record and just flipped out. I was like ‘Who is that?!' It turned out to be a Fela Kuti record.

This guy imported all of the African records, and I spent a lot of time in that store. I probably bought out the guy's whole catalogue. (Laughs) It's hard to pick one, because they're all good. But I'd have to say The Gentleman is probably my favorite Fela Kuti album.

Femi Kuti - Day By Day

As the eldest son of Nigerian activist, Afro-Beat originator and certified legend Fela Kuti, who passed away in 1997, Femi Kuti has certainly had some enormous figurative shoes to fill. Fortunately for us, he’s thus far done a bang- up job, and his latest, Day By Day from Mercer Street Records, is not only a worthy addition to the catalog, but is perhaps his finest and most focused to date.

Femi’s earliest recordings were with his father’s legendary outfit, Egypt 80. By 1986 he was out on his own with his band Positive Force, though it wasn’t until Shoki Shoki (MCA) in 1999 that his musical prowess truly began to shine. The album garnered wide critical acclaim, the volume of which would be well surpassed by its 2001 follow-up, Fight To Win (MCA), which featured guest spots from artists like Mos Def and Common in an attempt to help shed some light on the connections between Afrobeat and American hip-hop.

With each successive release, [Femi Kuti's] lineage becomes less of a determiner as it becomes more and more apparent that he is very much his own man, and an unprecedented musician in his own right.

Day by Day is Femi’s first record in seven years, and though for many that has been an excruciatingly long dry spell, it’s safe to say that it has been well worth the wait.

As the rightful heir to the Afrobeat throne, it makes sense that Femi Kuti would be turning out some of the finest grooves the genre has to offer, but with each successive release, his lineage becomes less of a determiner as it becomes more and more apparent that he is very much his own man, and an unprecedented musician in his own right.

Day by Day is nearly flawless. Each track is rhythmic and rollicking, and the lyrics are poignant, political, and appropriately stirring. Title track “Day by Day” is a slow-building triumph, eloquently describing the plight of a people. Each verse is sung in a bordering-on-reggae-dub style as traditional African percussion and a choir of voices fill the surrounding waltz-tempo choruses.

The following track, “Demo Crazy,” is a frenetic, funky, free-jazz-influenced explosion taking on the pitfalls of Christianity in Africa. “Do You Know” opens with an Isaac Hayes-style rap before peeling back layer after layer of perfectly synchronized instrumentation laden with saxophones, Hammond organ riffs, and blistering wah-wah guitar funk.

Throughout the record, politics are key, and all is dealt with in a highly engaged and passionate manner — the kind that’s only plausible coming from someone who’s seen disunity and hardship firsthand.

As each track builds carefully upon the elements of the last, the mind of the maker shows itself aptly capable of a kind of calculated restraint necessary to sculpt the frantic rhythmic ruckus of Afrobeat into something new, exciting, and current.

Day by Day makes one hope its not another seven years before we hear from Femi Kuti.

- Pete Klockau

Femi Kuti: www.myspace.com/femikuti
Mercer Street Records: www.downtownrecords.net

NOMO, the alternative Afrobeat collective from Ann Arbor, Michigan, marches to its own beat, or more accurately, to the beat of four different percussionists.

Led by the lanky, baby-faced founder and composer Elliot Bergman, the nine-piece multi-ethnic/gender brigade is a mash-up of cultural and musical influences.

Defying classification to create an Afrobeat/funk/electronic hybrid (think Remain in Light-era Talking Heads with the sensibilities of Fela Kuti), the band has old-school jazz purists, hipsters, and indie rockers cocking an ear and taking notice.

With choice gigs at Bonnaroo and the 2007 Chicago Pitchfork Festival, along with opening slots for Ozomatli and Earth, Wind, and Fire, the road warriors of NOMO warmly embrace any scene or genre that will have them. In an industry obsessed with genre profiling, the band defies categorization, opting simply to attract the uninitiated with freewheeling live shows and an “all are welcome” credo.

“NOMO is a big melting pot of ideas and influences,” explains Bergman from his home in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. “It started with a bunch of us getting together and saying, ‘Let’s have a big Afrobeat jam.’

"I met most of the band through the University of Michigan, and we unified the vision to have a sound that is mostly instrumental, with a lot of horns and percussion that would get people dancing. I was always into jazz, particularly electric Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, but when I got to college, the doors opened.

"Ann Arbor is a pretty arts-orientated community, and when I started working at crate-digger's paradise Encore Records, I started getting parallel educations. I got really into Indian and African music, as well as European bands like Gang of Four and Can.”

During the early incarnations of NOMO, Bergman moonlighted as an active member of indie-pop darlings Saturday Looks Good to Me, which acted as an outlet for his rock leanings.

With the recording of New Tones (Ubiquity) in 2006, Bergman and co. harnessed the improvisation of their live shows by filtering rhythmic horn lines through a tight funk gauntlet. While the interlocking of horn, percussion, and thumping bass are tight, the arrangements never feel rigid, and the continuous groove ebbs and flows but rarely falls flat.

A large part of the album’s sound can be credited to His Name is Alive founder Warn Defever’s role as producer.

“He’s a Pro Tools genius who engineers from a moral and ethical standpoint,” explains Bergman. “He had very specific ideas about how every instrument should sound and how it all fit together. However, it’s a very collaborative process and I’m always sitting there with him when he’s mixing.”

Much of NOMO’s appeal stems from the raw energy of its live shows. “Since the music is mostly instrumental, it may be a bit more challenging to connect emotionally, but there can also be a very strong visceral and emotional response," Bergman says. "We’ve had people come up crying and wanting to hug us after a show, so there can be a very powerful connection.”

Aided by the critical success of New Tones and the strong word of mouth generated by the live shows, NOMO landed a slot on the 2007 Pitchfork Festival. On a sweltering July afternoon in Chicago’s Union Park, NOMO dared the typically reserved crowd to resist the groove and shed hipster inhibitions.

“It was a weird day," he says. "The stage sound was disastrous, but people didn’t seem to mind. It was like senior prom, where you wait and plan for it forever, and then it’s over and done so quickly. At the end of the day, I was like, ‘Shoot, I forget to check out all the other bands.’”

As for any tales of debauchery or star-struck moments, Bergman offers none except for a backstage mix-up. “If this is my chance, I’d like to apologize to Menomena for accidentally drinking all of their beer. There were ten of us on tour and it gets very confusing. I think we also ate their veggie trays.”

After the Pitchfork gig, the band headed directly into Key Club Studies in Benton Harbor, Michigan with Defever to start work on its third album, Ghost Rock.

“Our drummer was leaving for India, so we booked two days immediately after our five-week tour,” recalls Bergman. “The band was super tight but also burned out. Everyone’s chops were busted, but we laid down some good stuff.

"The next day we focused on loops and electronics. People talk about a natural progression in our records, and I feel that this is a big artistic, if not necessarily logical, step forward for us. It’s a lot more minimal.”

Set for a June 17th release on Ubiquity Records, Ghost Rock finds the band mining much of the same territory of New Tones, while diving deep into the European electro soundscapes of Can and Brian Eno. It is at once swirling and dense, but completely approachable and funky as all hell.

“World music, jazz, electronica, Afrobeat…I hope that we don’t get marginalized by any of these terms,” says Bergman. “We are an American band, and in our hearts, I think we’re more of a rock band than anything else, but we do love so many different types of music.”

What’s ultimately mystifying about the band is how it is able to deftly integrate itself into rigidly defined social scenes of music. In a crude summation: the jazz people get it, the indie rockers dig it, and the jam and electronic crowd feels it.

“In the same year, we played Pitchfork and the Montreal Jazz Festival,” says Bergman. “We played with Dan Deacon to a bunch of young kids, but we also played punk clubs. We played a gig in Iowa City for maybe ten people. One time we had a group of swing-dancing elderly couples at the show who heard about us on NPR. I don’t want to turn anyone away. I just want to get this music out to as many receptive people as possible.