Everything is Broke

Muito Kaballa is a multiinstrumentalist, working in Cologne. This debut album features a spread of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, flute, reed and brass horns, plus lead vocals. A pair of horn players guest on two tunes, but the rest is apparently a solo effort. Although, the mysterious Niklas Mündemann is credited as composer/arranger. Is this Kaballa's real identity? Or is there a curious relationship going on between playing and penning? Afrobeat is the principle style, with drums that are very much in the Tony Allen mode.

Most of the tracks are instrumental, and Kaballa's two vocal forays are ill-advised, tipping those tracks into blandness. Indeed, pleasantly retro-fused as most of the numbers are, this album does have the character of music destined for a mildly adventurous restaurant. Afrobeat appears in its most polite guise. Kaballa isn't reticent when it comes to providing short solos on different instruments, so the palette is continually refreshed, but there's not much to spark excitement, perhaps due to the lonely work of diligently overdubbing each part. The title seems like a strange downer, when its contents are so deliberately swimming with summery optimism.