Off Beat

One more visit to an off beat corner of Tony Allen's music before we move on from the legendary Nigerian drummer. In one of the previous posts I mentioned the diverse recordings he made later in life, before passing just a few weeks ago on April 30 at age 79. Long after his days with Fela Kuti, Allen was still bringing us new Afrobeat and stretching himself into electronic music, dub experiments, a return to jazz, and some surprising collaborations. Here are a couple of those collaborations that should make a good introduction if you haven't heard these groups before. (And they include a few rare tracks you may not have heard even if you're already a fan.)

I didn't mean to take such a long break between posts, but life has been busy and I bit off more than I realized with these two records! I enjoyed getting reacquainted with them though, the second one in particular. It took some serious work to clean up the recording, but what a great song! It's perfect for, say, celebrating a few thousand nursing home workers kicking their bosses' ass for a new union contract, safety, and resources for residents despite a public health crisis maybe? (Congrats, HCII fam!)

The Good, The Bad & The Queen ‎– Herculean

Parlophone, Honest Jon's Records ‎– R 6722

Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Europe, 2006

Info

A Herculean

B Mr Whippy

The Good, The Bad & The Queen managed to be more interesting than your average "super group" that pulls together already famous musicians from other, more famous bands. Vocals and keyboard came from Blur's Damon Albarn and the guitarist was in the Verve... neither of which meant anything to me. Somehow I completely missed that whole "Brit Pop" thing. I honestly couldn't name a single song by Blur* and I had never run into Albarn until checking out his pop/hip-hop/electro/weirdo cartoon band, Gorillaz. What got me excited about this new group was the rhythm section: Tony Allen on drums and bass from Paul Simonon of the Clash. The two of them were more than enough to sell me on The Good, The Bad & The Queen's self-titled album, produced by Danger Mouse in 2006.

The album was full of moody songs about London, strange bits of song pulled from many different styles. "Herculean" was the highlight for me. The melodic track stood out in a claustrophobic set of songs that bled together for me listening to the LP. This is pulled from the 7" vinyl single of that track. The flipside, "Mr Whippy," is something else altogether: a catchy and playful track that adds MC Eslam Jawaad rapping in Arabic to the already overflowing mix of influences. I can understand why the song was left off of their gloomy LP, but I'm glad it popped up here. It's the type of little B side gem that always keeps me checking for singles. (Well, that and my complete lack of an attention span.)

Cover and label art (along with a large foldout poster) are by Paul Simonon, who spent many of his post-Clash years as a painter.

Rocket Juice & The Moon with Erykah Badu ‎– Manuela

Honest Jon's Records ‎– HJP68

Vinyl, 10", 45 RPM, UK & Europe, 2012

Info

A Manuela

B Manuela Dub

Tony Allen and Damon Albarn would collaborate again, joined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist in their next group, Rocket Juice & The Moon. That trio was helped by an impressive list of guests on their sole album. Released in 2012, the self-titled LP was a much brighter, funkier and dance floor ready affair than The Good, The Bad & The Queen had been. 

An instrumental track from the album, "There," was reworked for this single, picking up a new mix, a few extra minutes and vocals from the always great Erykah Badu along the way. Renamed "Manuela," the song wisely kept Malian keyboardist Cheick Tidiane Seck's fantastic keyboard work front and center. And even with Erykah Badu scatting her way through the track, Tony Allen really does shine as the song's driving force.

The single was only released on 10" vinyl, wrapped in a beautiful silk screened sleeve. I'm pretty sure this is only place to hear Manuela or the excellent dub version on the flip. The recording comes from my pristine looking record... Pristine looking, but crap sounding. Bad vinyl or some kind of pressing flaw left portions of the record filled with little tics and pops. I wound up removing LOTS of these, one at a time, especially from the quiet opening section on each side. I'm pretty happy with how much better sounding I was able to make it, but there were some big pops pressed into the wax (especially on side 2) that I decided to just leave. I probably could have made them a little less harsh, but at that size I would have wound up distorting the surrounding music for a minimal improvement. Sorry about that, but I doubt they'll interfere with your enjoyment of this great track!

My 9 year old has become quite a drummer. As I played this in the kitchen tonight, he listened, trying to follow Allen's overlapping rhythms for a couple minutes before blurting out: "Tony Allen... How does he do that?!" That about sums it up!

Enjoy!

*Thinking back, as much as I like these records, it's strange that I never did feel compelled to explore anything at all from Blur and co. It's probably unfair, but I think I just couldn't break the association I have in my head between "Brit Pop" and some really insufferable fans I remember from my time in Columbus back in the 90s... Ugh. Yep, that's it.