In this autotuned, slick-it-up world we now live in, a bit of musical anarchy can be as refreshing as dip in the ocean. Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra’s is an album that nearly wasn’t.
The project started as inspiring, once-in-a-lifetime live gig in 2014 with the legendary Afrobeat/Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen and some of Haiti’s most notable singers and percussionists. The gig recording didn’t make it (technical Gremlins), so this brilliant album has been pulled together from the rehearsal jams.
The backbone is Allen’s afrobeat vibe, on top of which ten Haitian percussionists have piled on the voodoo grooves and chants. Pretty krautrockarama.
6/10
Words: Joe Heaney
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