Seun Kuti Talks Brian Eno's Assist on 'Rise,' Shares New Music Video

Posted by Nameless Poseur On 2011-06-30 00:17:53"...his father Fela's Egypt 80 band sound turbocharged compared to the patriarch's latter days."

Are you kidding!? While Seun is OK, he's not a patch on his old man. Have you listened to Fela's last album, "Underground System"? Would you describe that as "not turbocharged"?

Fela was and still is Africa's only classical composer - By that I mean his pieces are structured like symphonies with an introduction, crescendo, climax and then decrescendo... One day the critics will cotton on... Long after everyone else has.

So, smart guy, which of Fela's records are not turbocharged?

Posted by Nameless Poseur On 2011-06-30 12:48:27Hi, thanks for commenting.

Well you got me on Underground System/ODOO: the two most frenetic songs put to record by Fela in his latter years. But go back to Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense, Army Arrangement and the majority of his output from the 80s and Fela, too, missed not having Tony Allen in his band. He styled himself as a classical composer, true, with bigger and more complex horn arrangements and longer-formed composition but these were also more rhythmically static.

Having seen Fela live in 1992 I can tell you it was far from a turbocharged experience. It was sloppy, plodding and Fela clearly wasn't into it.

Seun's still finding his own voice; Eno has really helped him in this regard. Let's also remember when Fela was Seun's age playing with Koola Lobitos he hadn't exactly perfected his music either, and it was similarly full of youthful exuberance. To claim that Seun is far inferior to Fela is incorrect IMO.

And "introduction, crescendo, climax and then decrescendo" is a description of mid-period Godspeed, not classical music.

-David Dacks