Bleep

Strut team up with New York's Knitting Factory for this rare, live recording; the first new Fela Kuti material to be issued since his final studio album, 'Underground System', in 1992. Recorded live at the Fox Theater in Detroit in November 1986, the concert marked a triumphant return to the USA for Nigeria's Afrobeat master, Fela Anikulapo Kuti. The Detroit concert was part of Fela's debut US tour with his Egypt 80 band and the recording finds them on strident form, showcasing all-new material in free-flowing extended workouts. The tracks featured in the concert would later appear (in edited format) on studio albums: ‘Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense’ during the same year, produced with Compass Point studios mainstay Wally Badarou, then ‘Beasts Of No Nation’ and ‘O.D.O.O. (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake)’ in 1989. Often overlooked in favour of the punchier sound of Fela’s recordings with Africa 70, these later recordings are deeply soulful affairs, at times melancholy, marked by lengthy, complex and freeform arrangements.