Confusion (1974)
Artist
Label
Catalogue number
PAT-FEL018-LPALB-0
Release date
- Vinyl
- WAV / FLAC
- MP3
Casual listeners sometimes say that Afrobeat all sounds the same. While it does not, of course, any more than hip hop or opera or jazz all sounds the same, it is true that Afrobeat’s signature characteristics did become codified during the mid-1970s. But Fela continued to experiment musically right up until the end of his life. There is nothing codified about Confusion, for instance, which throws away any alleged rule book. Taking up where Ginger Baker’s trippy production of He Miss Road left off earlier in the year, it begins with a five minute, free-rhythm dialogue between drummer Tony Allen and Fela on electric piano. Full of distorted, spacey textures, it sounds like the overture to a sci-fi movie. And that is just for starters. Originally released by EMI.
Standard black vinyl LP, released in 2014 as part of the Knitting Factory Records re-issues, comes with a download card.
