Pressure to Pleasure
Author: Nigel Williamson
View album and artist detailsAlbum and Artist Details
Artist/band: |
Femi & the InRhythms |
Label: |
Joyful Noise |
Magazine Review Date: |
March/2018 |
Recorded live in studios in Lagos and London by a sprawling Afrobeat band led by bassist and vocalist Femi Sofela, there's energy enough here to suggest the InRhythms are probably in their natural milieu in a sweaty club.
Sofela is a skilled producer, as he showed when helming the last release on the Joyful Noise label by the Nigerian diva and leader of the Yoruba Women's Choir, Funmi Olawumi. Pressure to Pleasure is essentially a party soundtrack on which stonking Afrobeat grooves with Yoruba-English vocals are ‘cosmopolitanised’ by a variety of other global dance styles, especially on the terrific ‘No Lele’, which sounds like the Fania All-Stars on a night out in downtown Lagos. ‘Ayekooto’ and ‘Morning Chant’ act as a great showcase for the Yoruba chanting of female singer Esther Mabadeje, while ‘Stand by Me’ and the sultry ‘White Lies’ are Afro-soul ballads for the dance floor. The title-track adds a futuristic jazz-funk vibe. Yet the band are probably at their throbbing best on tracks such as ‘Ranti Ile’, which sticks closest to Fela Kuti and Tony Allen's Afrobeat template.
Sofela is a skilled producer, as he showed when helming the last release on the Joyful Noise label by the Nigerian diva and leader of the Yoruba Women's Choir, Funmi Olawumi. Pressure to Pleasure is essentially a party soundtrack on which stonking Afrobeat grooves with Yoruba-English vocals are ‘cosmopolitanised’ by a variety of other global dance styles, especially on the terrific ‘No Lele’, which sounds like the Fania All-Stars on a night out in downtown Lagos. ‘Ayekooto’ and ‘Morning Chant’ act as a great showcase for the Yoruba chanting of female singer Esther Mabadeje, while ‘Stand by Me’ and the sultry ‘White Lies’ are Afro-soul ballads for the dance floor. The title-track adds a futuristic jazz-funk vibe. Yet the band are probably at their throbbing best on tracks such as ‘Ranti Ile’, which sticks closest to Fela Kuti and Tony Allen's Afrobeat template.
