Signal to Noise,
Album Review
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The first words you hear on this debut record are: "Fela was right." The twelve musicians in this band from Washington, D.C. are not the only ones expressing that sentiment lately. Twelve years after his death, Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti seems to be more famous than ever. Two of his sons, Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti, are making records he would be proud of. The father of the Afrobeat genre was even the subject of an Off-Broadway musical last fall called (what else?) Fela! And several bands, including Antibalas and Nomo, are jamming to the kind of funky grooves that used to drive Fela's music, even as they expand the Afrobeat formula in new directions. Like Antibalas and Nomo, Chopteeth is an American band with musicians of various ethnic backgrounds. You don't have to be African to make African music, but the presence of Kenyan singer Anna Mwalagho and Ghanaian percussionist Atta Addo does give Chopteeth a feeling of authenticity. Primary songwriter Michael Shereikis has been playing gutiar in various African styles since he was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Central African Republic. He also studied ethnomusicology and spent time playing with bands in the Ivory Coast, and his broad musical knowledge shows in Chopteeth's arrangements. Most of the tracks on this debut sound like something Fela might have recorded, but there are also dashes of music from other parts of the continent: a little bit of Soweto, a little bit of Senegal. It all blends together seamlessly, with the horns punching out strong melodies above constantly revolving guitar riffs and syncopated percussion patterns. The dance party barely takes a pause over the course of this album, and along the way, Chopteeth's members get a chance to show off their chops with lively solos. Chopteeth does its share of the chanting vocals often heard in Arobeat, but Mwalagho can also sing with more melodic flair. And when rapper Head-Roc joins in on the final track, "No Condition is Permanent," the mix of Fela-isms and hip-hop sounds as urgent as Chopteeth's call for political change. 06/05/09 06/05/09
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