Ikoyi Blindness / Kalakuta Show

本作は1975年発売の『イコイ・ブラインドネス』と1976年の傑作『カラクタ・ショウ』の2作をコンパイルした作品。1976年頭には、フェラ・アンド・アフリカ70はナイジェリアにおいて最も商業的に成功しているアーティストの1組となった。そしてそれは警察や支配階級の者たちにとっては、疎ましい存在であった。『イコイ・ブラインドネス』では、駆け抜けるようなアフロビートにのせ、ラゴスのイニイ地区に住む上流階級や西欧の価値観に異議をとなえている。『カラクタ・ショウ』は、カラクタ共和国(=自宅の周囲を有刺鉄線で囲み、同じ志を持って集まった仲間たちとつくったコミューン)が警察から受けた襲撃事件の出来事を生々しく歌っている話題作。

A two-for-one set, Ikoyi Blindness was a middle-of-the-pack release in a sea of mid-'70s Fela Kuti records that featured two songs and about a half-hour's worth of music. The rhythms were a little tighter and more highlife-influenced than they had been on albums from earlier in the decade. "Ikoyi Blindness" itself was pretty typical of Kuti's efforts from the period, both in its structure, which built up to a call-and-response vocal, and in its taut two-chord melodic base. "Gba Mi Leti Ki N'Dolowo (Slap Me Make I Get Money)" is a little more interesting due to its choppier rhythms, more vibrant percussion, stuttering low guitar riff, and extended haunting electric keyboard lines. By the time of 1976's Kalakuta Show, Kuti's releases were starting to seem not so much like records as ongoing installments in one long jam documenting the state of mind of Nigeria's leading contemporary musician and ideological/political dissenter. The track "Kalakuta Show" was unexceptional by his own standards, though it was a respectable lock-groove song that followed the usual graph of Kuti's song progressions. The lyrics, at any rate, go far outside the usual funk/pop spectrum, detailing his harassment at the hands of the Nigerian police. "Don't Make Garan Garan" was musically more effective, particularly in its use of Kuti's characteristically eerie, out-of-sync-sounding electric keyboards. ~ Richie Unterberger|