The third album from Barcelona's Alma Afrobeat Ensemble, released April 22, 2016 on Slow Walk Music — their second for the label and the first to feature Nigerian singer Joe "Olawale" Psalmist out front. It's Time is the band's most direct nod yet to Fela Kuti's classic Afrika 70 template: long, patient grooves, socially-charged lyrics, horn arrangements that breathe rather than punch, and the kind of running times that only make sense if you've decided the room is going to dance for an hour.
The record contains four extended originals (each running roughly seven to nine minutes) plus five remixes of those tracks, giving it the feel of a 12-inch dance label spread across an LP. Olawale sings in English, Yoruba, and Broken English — the same trilingual approach Fela himself favored.
Cool stuff:
- Barcelona-based but built around a Nigerian frontman — the band is led by guitarist/composer Aaron Feder with vocals from Joe "Olawale" Psalmist, who delivers lyrics in English, Yoruba, and Broken English the way Fela did on his Afrika 70 records
- The four original tracks all run seven to nine minutes, which is short for the genre but a deliberate move toward radio-friendly Afrobeat without losing the trance
- Five remixes of those originals fill out side B, giving the album a dance-label feel rather than a straight band record
- Released on Slow Walk Music, an indie imprint that's quietly become one of Europe's most reliable homes for new Afrobeat
- The lyrics tackle migration, political corruption, and economic inequality across Africa and Europe — the politics Fela built the genre around, updated for the 2010s
Spin it for: Afrika 70-style horn-and-organ Afrobeat with a Nigerian voice out front and a Catalan rhythm section that's been at it long enough to know the assignment.
Standouts: "It's Time" · "We Need Education" · "Eko Mile" · "Time No Dey"
Sources: Bandcamp · Discogs · Global A Go-Go · Elsewhere · Soul Jazz Records