From the off, the liquid pulse of classic Fela drives the action: the greatest drummer in the world has never sounded so good as he does here, jostling and locked with Flea’s roiling, hard-grooving bass. Albarn’s keyboards splice into the mess of wires running between the freaked Afro-disco of William Onyeabor, the space-jazz-moog of Sun Ra, and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
With Erykah Badu; Malians Fatoumata Diawara and Cheick Tidiane Seck; the young, Ghanaian rapper M.anifest, switching seamlessly between Twi and English; and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Assembled, mixed and poison-tipped by Mark Ernestus from Rhythm & Sound.