Word: afropop
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...like they were laid down in the midday sun. "Inevitably it seeps into the sound of the vocals," says Albarn. "It is a very elemental record, it is informed by the weather and environment it was made in." But Think Tank is more than a grown-up-rocker-discovers-Afropop indulgence. The production involvement of Norman Cook (Fat Boy Slim) and remix-master William Orbit was an inspired stroke, but their hand is light, quelling fears that this would be Blur's dance album. The opening track, Ambulance - which would sit easily on David Bowie's Low - begins with...
...answers are various and not simple. Nigeria's Femi Kuti, son of Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, has, like his father, created a vibrant, pulsing, sweaty, sexy sound that's half African by way of Africa and half African by way of James Brown. His politically conscious music (Kuti heads the political party MASS--Movement Against Second Slavery) reflects that same complex consciousness of borders. Kuti knows, for instance, that African kleptocrats have often used nationalism for their own ends, and he gives neither Western cultural imperialism nor African corruption a pass. "We get the wrong people for government," he sings...
Perhaps NPR's liveliest offering is Afropop Worldwide, which is buoyed by the wide knowledge, melodious voice and infectious enthusiasm of host Georges Collinet, a Cameroon native. The program explores contemporary African music and its influence on pop sounds. Among performers recently featured: Brazil's Gilberto Gil, the Ivory Coast's Alpha Blondy and the "Lion of Zimbabwe," , Thomas Mapfumo...
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