Dele Sosimi – You No Fit Touch Am

Afrobeat legend delivers a rejuvenated new album...

Dele Sosimi is a man with a peerless Afrobeat pedigree. From teenage keyboard player for Fela Kuti's Egypt 80 to bandleader for his son Femi Kuti's Positive Force outfit, Sosimi has helped define the sound alongside some of its most iconic figures.

Parting ways with Femi in 1995, Dele relocated to London and immersed himself in the capital's multi-cultural vibrance, his own music rooted in the heavy Yoruba rhythms of Afrobeat.

Does such a hefty CV weigh heavily on the man? How could it with music as joyful and nimble as this. As with the best Afrobeat, and its American cousin Funk, there's a certain lightness of touch to the heavyweight rhythmic workouts. Guitar and horns darts over bass and drum while call and response and chants supply the message.

This third 'solo' album, his first for 10 years, was recorded in London with a crew of long time players and producer Nostalgia 77 (Tru Thoughts) offering a 21st century clarity to the mix. There's no silly compromises to the music here though, just a thoroughly modern sense of oomph in the mix with a suitably heavy bass presence.

Although the sound is classically Afrobeat, this is music concerned with the world around it in 2015 with mentions for ISIS and Nigeria's own Boko Haram amid Sosimi's socially conscious lyrics.

While the format has changed little since its early 70s inception, Afrobeat sounds as life affirming today as it ever has and in Sosimi, and this record, there's someone to carry it onward.

7/10

Words: Nick Annan

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