Stalemate/Fear Not For The Man - Fela

Advantages: Great triple CD
Disadvantages: None

...Essential Afroboeat is essential if you are in any way interested in Afrobeat music. The CD sleeve notes bake a somewhat bold claim. "This is Afrobeat: The past, the present and the future. Contributions to this compilation come from all the corners of the Earth, with influences from every culture of the world. Fela said that Africa was "The centre of the world." This compilation has proved him right: Afrobeat is afrian and Africa is at the centre. The contribution of each artist to this compilation is testimony to the fact that Afrobeat is universal." But are these sleeve notes right? Yeah. I guess they are, pretty much. There's a glittering array of some of the best of the most talented musicians from Africa. There's Fela Kuti himself, with his super-eclectic style, which combines elements of R&B, Reggae, Ska and some hard pushing... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Rare tracks from the BSSM era chilli's
Disadvantages: Bad quality, few tracks, very non essential

...This is a triple album, but only contains 13 songs. This album contains 3 versions of Give it Away, and 3 versions of 'If you have to ask'. This album is only for devout chili's fans! Released in 1994, this boxset commemorates the tracks which didn't make it onto Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Disk 1 contains four live versions of songs, all of quite poor quality, and not really worthwhile. Disk 2 Has 4 Non-Album tracks. Soul to squeeze is a beautiful song, and appears on the soundtrack for the film 'The Coneheads'. This song is wonderful, with great guitar and bass work intertwinging fabulously. Fela's cock is an all out funk instumental, very groovy and fun. Sikamikanico is a fast paced punky track. Search and Destroy is a cover of the Iggy and tyhe Stooges song, but rocked up a little with John Frusciante's excellent guitar work. Disk3... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: The best album
Disadvantages: Silence for over 20 minutes

...What can I say, he has done it again with so much flair and style that the album is brewing with Williams cheak and charm. The duet with one of the queens of pop Miss Kylie Minogue just shows the celebs who to dance with the little fela. Not his best album but sure is a winner once again, showing plenty of progression in his music and willing to try out new ideas in music not tried before, the videos to go with the singles of the album show this, marvellous extract of the Williams kind. No doubt williams will turn into a Tom Jones in the future and I wish him all success in future as he deserves it, one annoying thing about the album is that there is 20 minutes silence before announcing he won't be doinga secret track on this album, how pointless is that, I mean come on you don't think people will like you for that Robbie. One glitch... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful