Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – We’re OK. But We’re Lost Anyway

I could imagine the Fire! Orchestra doing this in their more accessible moments.

Probably this would not be considered accessible by most people, but I may or may not be most people. For all I know, these, and indeed many other artists I post, could be so ubiquitous in your lives that you look upon these posts with scorn and say ‘you call that obscure?’ My finger has dim and distant memories of the pulse; the pulse knows not what my finger is and cares even less.

I’ve started using that ‘may or may not’ phrase quite a lot recently, which may or may not be influenced by both my children now using it regularly.

The youngest of these – currently 11 – said to me she had an idea for a song title – ‘Slave to the algorithm.’ I thought that if, when I was 20 or so, these hyper-connected times in which we live were going then, that may have been an angle I’d be going so it goes without saying I’m pleased to see she shares my cynicism. Doubt I’d have got there at 11, though.

Fela Kuti – Zombie

 

You know, I’d forgotten why I started this blog, which was actually to say nice stuff about fabulous music regardless of how long I’ve known about it. The pursuit of novelty is not one of the modern age’s better drugs.

So, Zombie, then. In truth I could post any Fela Kuti album, I just happen to be really digging on this one at the moment. Six tracks, all between 10 and 15 minutes long, with such a righteous groove. This is ‘Afrobeat’ at its best, funky and hypnotic. All players get to express themselves in the rhythm, the singers get to do the call and response thing which is a brilliant way of putting words to music. And the brass – the brass is brilliant.

Because I haven’t noticed an obvious way to embed the album, here’s some youtubes of some songs on it. First, the title track:

Mister Follow Follow:

Observation is No Crime:

My favourite on the album -Mistake:

Everything Scatter:

Monkey Banana:

Turns out I found the whole album on Youtube! If you’ve got an hour to spare, sit back and enjoy this fantastic music.

As I said earlier, any album by this man will bring you joy, should you happen to be a fan of long, funky, snaking grooves as I am.