Contreband Mentality

Les Frères are a 14-strong Paris-based Afro-beat collective who, for some bizarre reason, all take the same surname in the tradition of 3 Mustaphas 3. From the only pic I could track down (on the excellent Mondomix website) most of them are not Africans, but of white European stock, but they make a mighty fine noise that would go down a storm at the Shrine in Lagos on a Saturday night. They’ve painstakingly absorbed every nuance of the music of Fela Kuti. His familiar Afro-beat trademarks are all here: the lissom rhythms, gloriously riffing horns and that bubbling, pulsating backbeat. Tony Allen and guitarist Oghene Kologbo from Fela’s Africa 70 lend the project the highest possible endorsement by helping out on one track apiece. But there is also an admirable spirit of adventure here that journeys beyond the customary Afro-beat parameters. ‘Le Manlnomee’ is an angular experiment in avant-garde Afro-jazz. ‘La Marche des Smith’ is a slow and slinky snake-charmer’s tune, with an almost Oriental feel. ‘Gondwana’ has a touch of Miles Davis’ ‘Bitches Brew’. In place of Fela’s pidgin English, Les Frères seem in places to have adopted an Edward Lear approach to the lyrics: ‘Doucement’, for example, contains name-checks to Fela and Manu Dibango, but for the rest appears to be a bunch of nonsense that roughly transliterates as ‘o-yo-we-oyo-wo-wah.’ Yet it still manages to sound great and authentic. The entire album oozes a sense of playfulness which suggests they’re probably even better live.