On its debut record, Scare Tactics, the Afromotive takes on the choppy, brass-punctuated style of Afrobeat conceived and perfected by Nigerian band leader Fela Kuti. Technically, the gig qualifies as “politically charged" by virtue of Afrobeat’s militaristic pep and chaotic birthplace (Nigeria, circa 1970.) But an Afrobeat band from Asheville, North Carolina can only be [...]
Like Modal Jazz, opium or both, Afrobeat is a timebender: a release from the rigid tyranny of Clockword, into a more relative—you might even say Einsteinian—soundscape. Songs which would otherwise be pared down to four minutes unfold into 20, conventional verse-chorus arrangements bend into less recognizable structures, night becomes morning and the nine members of [...]
Black Africa’s first liberated colony, Gold Coast became Ghana in 1957 and raced away from the confines of history—the rural economy and limited possibilities of colonialism—towards a bold modernity that never panned out. The cities grew, only to fester with joblessness. By the early ’80s, starvation became a pressing concern. Military regimes put an end [...]
