Fela Kuti - He Miss Road

Ethereal, psychedelic Afrobeat performance

He Miss Road combines the sound of James Brown-style '70s funk with a stripped down Afrobeat performance. Ginger Baker produced this ethereal, nearly psychedelic album with Tony Allen on drums, backed by Fela's Africa 70 band. The title track refers to the ways in which people have lost their way and the ensuing chaos it causes.

"He Miss Road was produced by none other than Ginger Baker, who was a semi-regular jamming partner of Fela Kuti's as well as a close friend. And the tunes Fela wrote for this platter are wild, cosmic, sexy as hell, and deeply saturated in funk à la James Brown. The B-3 solo at the beginning of the title track is simply a device for inviting the band in. The B-3 is way up in the mix, supercharged. The echo effects Baker used on the organ and the horns add a nice touch and create a different textural quality, one that is spacious, to be sure, but still rooted in the shamanic repetition as the riff goes on forever no matter what instruments enter or leave the mix.

"The vocals show up midway through, as everything gets tense and explodes. 'Monday Morning in Lagos' is deep, dark, swirling Afro-funk. It's moody, spooky, and its organ line just stitches the whole groove together. The final cut, 'It's No Promise,' is pure Nigerian trance music. The longest track here, it's also the most abstract. It's held together by Tony Allen's drumming and the popping bassline by Franco Aboddy. This is one of Fela's cookers, an album from his most creative period, and it reigns among the best in his extensive catalog." — AllMusic.com

1. He Miss Road

2. Monday Morning In Lagos

3. It’s No Possible

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