We Used to be Africans

The opening track on this album by Cacique ’97, ‘Mahala’, simmers for half a minute before a barrage of horns brings it to a roiling boil. To suggest it's reminiscent of something like Tony Allen's Secret Agent is praise indeed. Certainly, this Portuguese and Mozambican collective do a potent line in bruising Afrobeat. Listening to their second release is a little like being caught in the fast lane of a teeming motorway: just put your foot down and hold on tight.
With the basic music tracks laid down in Lisbon and certain guest vocals recorded in Mozambique, Nigeria and Brazil, the band sings – roughly half in English, half in Portuguese – of poverty, corruption and war. While there's always just a little sense of déjà vu, they perform brilliantly and most convincingly on Portuguese numbers such as the splendid ‘Filhos de Primavera’. Marcos Alves deserves special mention for the kind of unobtrusive but mesmerising drumming that makes this band a tower of funky power. He surely graduated summa cum laude from the Tony Allen Polyrhythm Polytechnic. If you like your Afrobeat loud, proud and direct, this album will keep you firmly on the good foot.