Gut records follow up their Latinize release with a compilation of African or Afro inspired beats.
Trendsetters could make the mistake of dismissing this out of hand for being delivered two years after the fact. You'd be wrong to do so.
The album begins its path into the African continent via the West Coast of America, Kicking in with the Thievery Corporation's laid back, funky conga work out of 'The Lagos Communiqué'. Femi Kuti's chip off the old block 'Blackman Know Yourself' gets an airing in the form of it's more rhythmically stabilised Roots re-mix, while Thievery Corp return with their version of Baaba Maal's beautiful 'Souka Nayo (I Will Follow)'.
By now we're ready for our first shot of unadulterated African groove, as the much-neglected king of Congolese soukous, Papa Wemba, delivers 'Yolele'.
Up, Bustle and Out display their better half and contribute 'An African Friendship', a mesmerising cut of upright bass driven afro, jazz house.
DJ Krush transforms Hamid Baroudi's 'Trance Dance' into one of his trademark reverberating desert landscapes. DJ Food's inappropriately entitled 'Dub Lion (Remake)' is a frenzied percussion attack topped with horn stabs, flute solos and amusing samples.
Manu Dibango's seminal 'New Bell' gets the reverence it deserves and, apart from sounding in rarely pristine condition, is left to work its original, breath taking magic. If you don't already own a dust speckled, scratched, static charged copy of this, then this makes the album worth it alone.
Whereas Dibango's offering is an early fusionist piece of soulful funk, Mali's Salif Keita's sweet vocal interjections and lilting rhythms on 'Tekere' are less affected by Western influences.
Madala Kunene 'Ubombo' gets a dub fuelled drum 'n' bass work over from Bristol's Smith and Mighty Remix, which paves the way for Leftfield's 'Afro Left' which in turn makes a surprising bridge to the folk fusionism of Wasis Diop featuring Lena Fiagbe's 'No Sant'. Finally the Afro Celt Sound System deliver their noise chaos approach with 'Shadowman'.
It's an eclectic journey that would perhaps have benefited from casting its net further in terms of its non-African contributors - none of whom, for example, come France, the European country that has traditionally led the way in things African.
But, while it may lose its way towards the end, the compilation is 80 per cent on target. And what a joyous 80 per cent it is.
by Ben Osborne