Fela Kuti - Complete Works Boxset Limited Edition (UK 2010)

Roddus Music purchase of the decade.

This post isn't so much a review, but more of a Rave from an excited school boy wanting to share about his latest very cool acquisition. I only discovered the fantastic music of the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti within the last 18 months. I had already heard of him but was totally ignorant of his music. I have been exploring African music for nearly a couple of years now, especially the wonderful 70s Afro funk of Nigeria and her neighbors. It was inevitable that I would come across the music of  Fela and I finally did find a copy of his "Zombie" album from 76' on some blog after reading about it in the "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". I also found several of his other albums online and  started to really get into this very groovy music.

 I knew that eventually I would have to add some of this Afrobeat to My CD collection, but this ment getting Online and importing this stuff myself as I was unable to find any in our local shops. Fela had been pretty prolific in his lifetime and had released over 50 albums of consistently brilliant music, therefore it was going to cost me quite a bit of money to acquire an essential collection of Fela's music. I almost orgasmed when stumbled upon this recently released Boxset(Nov 10) on Amazon. 26 Cds and one DVD, 46 Albums covering the bulk of Fela's music released from 1965-1992. Not quite his complete works(that would be nearly impossible) but certainly the bulk of his most important work and considering I picked it up for under $200 NZ , a bargain in any ones book.

I don't have the time to go too much onto the actual music in detail, except to say that Fela's blend of  Jazz, James Brown funk, African Highlife and  his pigeon english lyrics dealing with social and political issues of Nigeria and indeed Africa in a larger sense, is one of the most powerful styles of music ever recorded. I find the saxophone melody's he entwines into his funky african grooves just mindblowing and his music consistently brilliant. Although I haven't listened to all this monster set yet, I am already familiar with most of it and I can safely say that along with the excellent audio quality of these discs the total set must be rated 5+/5

Buy this essential music HERE