Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen - Inspiration Information

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4...according to our Brett on Thu 15 Oct, 2009.

Tony Allen is a legend, famous for pioneering the Afrobeat sound as the engine room of Fela Kuti's band for over a decade and hailed by Brian Eno as the greatest drummer who's ever lived. Jimi Tenor is a guy who released 'Total Devastation', a 12" Warp sent me for free with an order years ago which I couldn't even sell for 1p on eBay. A strange match to be sure. Business Lady immediately picked up on a weird New Power Generation vibe which I can now totally hear, Allen bringing the funk while Tenor slurps away at his vocals like some sort of oddball Finnish Sly Stone who's come to lick your ears out. Musically he contributes a load of jazzy elevator kitsch on a variety of instruments, as is his wont, but it does all work pretty well I've got to say 'Inspiration Information' is probably the most vibrant and purely 'fun' record we've had on so far this week which has got to be a bit of a recommendation has it not?

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TRACKLISTING:
CD
1. AGAINST THE WALL
2. SINUHE
3. SELFISH GENE
4. PATH TO WISDOM
5. DARKER SIDE OF LIGHT
6. MAMA ENGLAND
7. GOT MY EGUSI
8. CELLA’S WALK
9. THREE CONTINENTS

LP
A1 AGAINST THE WALL
A2 SINUHE
A3 SELFISH GENE

B1 DARKER SIDE OF NIGHT
B2 GOT MY EGUSI

C1 PATH TO WISDOM
C2 CELLA’S WALK

C3 MAMA ENGLAND

D1 THREE CONTINENTS

OVERVIEW:

Strut’s Inspiration Information series moves on from the critically acclaimed Mulatu Astatke / The Heliocentrics collaboration with the fourth album in the series, a mouth-watering head to head between Finnish maverick Jimi Tenor and Afrobeat drumming legend, Tony Allen.

Jimi Tenor remains a fascinating enigma in modern day music. Consistently one of the best and most unpredictable live artists around, his work since his breakthrough album ‘Intervision’ (Warp, 1997) to a series of Afro-based albums with his band Kabu Kabu Tony Allen continues to attract new fans as one of the greatest drummers alive today. Celebrated as the creator of the Afrobeat rhythm and a lynchpin of Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 band, his recent work has included The Good, The Bad & The Queen collaboration with Damon Albarn and his first album for World Circuit Records released earlier this year,
‘Secret Agent’.

Recorded at Lovelite Studios in Berlin with further sessions this year in Finland and Paris, the Tenor / Allen collaboration whips up a raw, heavy analogue sound mixing the full range of Allen’s Afrobeat repertoire with Tenor’s off-kilter brew of dark humour, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and tight, firing musicianship. The sessions involved key members of Tenor’s Kabu Kabu band.

Tenor’s trademark range of home-made instruments rub shoulders with vintage keyboards and traditional African percussion.

The resulting set is one of the best recordings that both artists have produced in recent years, topical, biting, funny and always funky, experimental but never straying from ‘the one’, this is another high quality addition to the Inspiration Information series, a ‘no rules’ set that brings the best out of both artists.