London Afrobeat Collective “Humans” (London Afrobeat Productions)

London Afrobeat Collective
“Humans”
(London Afrobeat Productions – 2019)

Gorgeous Afrobeat from UK´s London Afrobeat Collective is once more pouring out of my speakers and filling my dojo with love and happines. Their new album is called HUMANS, and that´s what it´s all about – people, relationships, not only between lovers, but as a community. OK, that´s what you´d expect from afrobeat artists with a sense for the tradition of the genre anyway, but here we have hope lying underneath it all, not only incriminaton. Check out the sweet, to-the-point video „Power To The Women“, where a dystopian run-down planet led by militant men is taken over by a heroine and her following women after attending a concert by LAC in a juke joint.

As clearly as the lyrics from singer Juanita Euka are conjuring the revolution, the instrumentalists are sticking to traditional 70ies afrobeat style. Tight and tasty, but without much openness to nowadays music or even foregone styles which have not yet been already integrated into Kuti-esque style.

So, is all this talk about revolution just a cliché that fits oh so well to afrobeat music? Let´s not hope so, as UK is facing historic changes in so many aspects concerning the PEOPLE right now.

David Nesselhauf