Alo

The second album from the Japanese ten-piece Ajate is full of surprises as leader John Imaeda and his group provide insistent Afrobeat grooves, but include some of the most interesting instrumentation to be found on any of the plentiful Afrobeat style albums released every year around the world. The piechiku is a bamboo instrument using strings usually found on the Japanese shamisen, becoming a kind of Japanese version of the West African ngoni, often played through an amp with added effects. Additional percussion bubbling in the background is the jahte, a bamboo xylophone using pick-up mics with each key; both these instruments are hand made by John Imaeda himself.

More immediately noticeable on the album is the shinobue (Japanese flute), used to great effect on the song ‘Mammamelie’ as the rhythm section lays down a hypnotic groove over which the flute soars in perfectly, sounding like a renegade visitor from a local Japanese festival. I'm really intrigued with Ajate and, like the similarly experimental Minyo Crusaders, though very different in execution, they combine elements of Japan with mighty Afrobeat, creating much more interesting music than the myriad of Afrobeat cover bands who dominate this corner in Japan.