Then there's Albarn – one of the pioneers of Africa Express – who put Afrobeat into the mainstream with his supergroup The Good, The Bad and The Queen. Afrobeat is not new to the history of Scottish indie rock: Orange Juice's drummer Zeke Manyika is from Zimbabwe and incorporated African rhythms into the band's music – sometimes even steel drums. "We must be fed up with British music!"Īnd after the legions of post-Libertines, post Arctic Monkeys outfits that have been springing up over the past few years, perhaps they're right. So why, I ask McCarthy, does he think there has been this sudden explosion of interest in African music? His reply is typically down to earth. In the UK, there is the Oxford quintet Foals, who, among the techno pulse of their intricate guitar and drum beats, have given an Afrobeat feel to their new single "Cassius". Most are emerging from across the Atlantic, in Brooklyn, where Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer and Dirty Projectors have led the trend.Īnother Brooklyn band, Antibalas, are a 12-piece modelled on Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band and Eddie Palmieri's Harlem River Drive orchestra, using primarily Afrobeat styles, but also incorporating jazz, funk and dub over Cuban rhythms and traditional West African drumming. Some of the most exciting new bands of the moment are mixing indie music with Afrobeat. But the Senegalese singer told them how much he adored the song and that he had been listening to it repeatedly on his journey up to Liverpool in preparation for the show.īut it is not just the daring live collaborations put on by Africa Express that are attracting attention. Maal was the one who requested their opener "Take Me Out", which they were originally not planning to play. McCarthy explains how they met Maal and Kouyaté for the first time that evening, and showed them the chord progressions of their songs and what to play on their guitars.
Backstage at the Olympia, in a rabbit warren of rehearsal rooms, there were artists from all over the world meeting up and working out what songs to play.
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