Esengo

Given that Afrobeat was born out of a creative culture clash – funk meeting highlife for a riotous party – it’s natural that it should continue to evolve as it does on this latest offering from the acclaimed eight-piece London Afrobeat Collective. Juanita Euka’s sinuously smooth vocals lead the way across the piece; she has a distinctive style and confident musicality that really help shape the sound. Behind her, though, the funk and soul horns synchronise perfectly with the flawless rhythm section and blissful guitars – just as you would expect from a quality Afrobeat album. Here and there other influences come to the fore, the group slip into a funk-infused Latin jazz style on ‘Take Me to the Sea’ for instance which then turns to nod towards dub in its second act. Elsewhere you might pick up references to more traditional musical patterns, just as you might think that the opening bars of the polemical ‘Freedom’ owe something to the Afro Celts – although it swiftly transitions away from such comparisons. Fundamentally, Esengo is a great record. Full of musical inventiveness, passionate and political, London Afrobeat Collective stay faithful to their roots but not unnecessarily constrained by them. A lot of fun.