Afrobeat drumming legend Tony Allen makes his World Circuit / Nonesuch debut with Secret Agent, out today. The album is "pure Afrobeat," says the Boston Globe, "the liquid grooves, the conscious themes, the horn arrangements, and Allen’s complicated drumming." Slant gives four-and-a-half stars to this "vital, insistently probing work," calling it "joyful, colorful, uplifting music [that] finds the best in all its influences, leaving us with a daring assemblage of styles that's impossible to adequately define."
Afrobeat drumming legend Tony Allen makes his World Circuit / Nonesuch debut with Secret Agent, which releases today. For fans of hip-hop, funk, and jazz, Allen, holder of the Afrobeat flame following the death of pioneer Fela Kuti, is revered as the genre's leading living figure. You can watch the video to the title track at nonesuch.com/media and listen to that track and "Ijo" on Nonesuch Radio, then pick up a copy of the CD in the Nonesuch Store to download the album as MP3s at no additional cost.
"With Fela revivalism riding high from art galleries to Broadway," says Boston Globe music critic Siddhartha Mitter, "it’s refreshing to hear new music from Allen, who is almost 70 and in fine form." Miller describes the music of Secret Agent as "pure Afrobeat—the liquid grooves, the conscious themes, the horn arrangements, and Allen’s complicated drumming always in the near background." The review concludes, happily, that "Secret Agent proves that Afrobeat won’t require any eulogies for a while." Read the complete review at boston.com.
USA Today selects the album track "Alutere" for its Playlist, explaining: "The Afrobeat goes on, pulsing buoyantly on this piano-laced track." On Secret Agent, says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Allen "proves his continued mastery."
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Slant magazine gives the album a near-perfect four-and-a-half stars. "Secret Agent is a vital, insistently probing work which continues the explorations of Allen's early career," exclaims reviewer Jesse Cataldo. "This is joyful, colorful, uplifting music, bursting with complex horns and restive use of time signatures. Constantly positive without feeling naïve, Secret Agent finds the best in all its influences, leaving us with a daring assemblage of styles that's impossible to adequately define." Read the complete review at slantmagazine.com.
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While he is best known for his work with Fela, Prefix's Jim Allen reminds readers that this "Afrobeat prince of percussion" has more recently worked with Damon Albarn in The Good, The Bad & The Queen as well. "This is the first solo album Allen has released since that project," says the Prefix reviewer, "and it finds him right back among his musical roots, delivering straight-up Afrobeat sounds with his regular touring band." Read more at prefixmag.com.
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