The Confluence

If there’s anything negative to say about Fela Kuti’s music in particular and Afrobeat in general it’s that it don’t ’alf go on sometimes. As a part of Fela’s Egypt 80 colossus, Hackney-born keyboard player Dele Sosimi would have participated in half-hour-plus live versions of the leader’s classics. But he was also a co-founder of Femi Kuti’s more concentrated Positive Force. With keyboard and vocal cohort Sam Duckworth and the rest of The Estuary 21 band (including guest percussion star, Snowboy), Sosimi has distilled things into a form of bonsai Afrobeat. All the customary ingredients are here, but it’s as if the album’s three-to-four-minute miniatures take their cue from, say, that simmering preamble before Fela’s monumental ‘Water No Get Enemy’ explodes into life. Miniatures like the opening ‘Ride Out the Storm’, for example, or ‘E Si Medo’ or ‘Otto Ti Jade’ typically start with a simple riff to which the ingredients are gradually added to build almost subliminally to a kind of phantom climax. The latent power and sense of anticipation mesmerise. While the hard-hitting ‘Alagbara Ma Me Ro’ ramps up the power, the closing ‘Stories’ offers a sweet dessert of highlife. A terrific album by an impeccable band.