Seun Anikulapo Kuti

Seun Kuti + Fela’s Egypt 80

Disorient Records

The late father, Fela Kuti, invented Afrobeat, and now another one of his sons aims to take that infectious sound and move it to the next level. Using his elder's band, Egypt 80, Seun Kuti is on fire, the kind of front man that is born to become a rapturous force himself. It takes one song to hear that kind of greatness, and this debut album--along with a show that needs to be seen to be believed--feels like a revival meeting from the other side of the world that has arrived to save us all. There is an inevitably in this music, built from the ground up using a percussive sound that comes from the middle of the earth. The melodic additions, whether played by guitars, keyboards or horns, all chase the beat like dedicated warriors, willing to lay down their lives in the name of cohesion. There isn't room to slip a saxophone reed between them. And there's Seun Kuti himself. He's got the primal charisma of Wilson Pickett or James Brown, except it's direct from the motherland, and with Egypt 80 behind him to push their gargantuan groove, he floats above the big band, landing now and then to blow saxophone or deliver prophecies like "Many Things" and "Think Afrika." There were the groups of Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Then James Brown and Bobby Bland, Sly Stone and George Clinton and, now, Egypt 80. It's a family affair that cannot be broken, and is always ready to accept followers from near and far.