Fu Chronicles

Americas leading proponents of Afrobeat, Antibalas are the sort of band who lovingly embrace the notion of New York City as a cultural melting pot, but on 2020s Fu Chronicles, the group come clean on another influence along with Afrobeat, Latin jazz, R&B and dub: martial arts. Lead singer, keyboard man, and songwriter Duke Amayo is a senior master of the Jow Ga Kung Fu style, and in their early days the group practiced at his dojo. While there are the odd keyboard swells and melodic passages here that could have come from the score for a classic Kung Fu movie of the 70s, Fu Chronicles reflects Amayos passion for martial arts in its themes and feeling rather than as a homage to the canon of Run Run Shaw. Tunes like Fight Am Finished and Fist of Flowers reflect both the aggressive energy of battle and the discipline that comes from the rejection of needless violence, but even when this music has no audible connection to Kung Fu, its clear that the focus and stamina that make a fighter great are not lost on these musicians. Fu Chronicles was cut primarily live at Daptones recording studio in Brooklyn, New York, and the interaction of these 16 musicians (and the seven backing vocalists) is something special, tight but full of lean and sensuous groove, and the arrangements allow the players to shine individually and as a collective. Fu Chronicles also reflects Amayos memories of a time before their Brooklyn neighborhood became hip and gentrified, and this bubbling cauldron of rhythms sounds like the product of an era when ideas from different creative disciplines could pour from windows and cohere into something more than the sum of the parts. Simply being able to re-create the sound and flow of Fela Kutis glory days would be an accomplishment to be proud of by itself, but on Fu Chronicles, Antibalas once again show theyre not just borrowing but building on their influences, and this album speaks to the head as much as the hips. ~ Mark Deming

故フェラ・クティの魂を継承する、NYブルックリンを拠点に活動するバンド。2000年のデビュー・ミニ・アルバムから本作で7作目。デヴィッド・バーンやセイント・ヴィンセントとのコラボや黒田卓也との共演といった経歴も持つ彼ら。ヘヴィー&ファンキーなアフロビートを基調としたブレない音楽性は、NYのバンドらしい都会的なアレンジや、エキゾチックなメロディから感じる郷愁など、聴き手を飽きさせない多方向への魅力を含有し、まさに現代最高峰のアフロビート・バンドの面目躍如といった内容。メンバーがカンフー道場に通っていたことに由来する東洋的なジャケットの独特なセンスも○。
intoxicate (C)栗原隆行

ザップ・ママを迎えた『Where The Gods Are In Peace』 から3年ぶり、NYを代表するアフロビート・バンドの新作は、ダップトーンを仕切るガブリエル・ロス(ボスコ・マン) が久々にプロデュースに復帰。謎のジャケや表題はメンバーがカンフー道場に通っていたことに由来するそうで、雄大なグルーヴに東洋風味が交じってエチオ・ジャズ的な快感をもたらす局面も。スリリングに展開しながら10分を駆け抜ける"Koto"が圧巻。
bounce (C)轟ひろみ