London-based afrobeats outfit Awalé is a Gipsy Funk Jazz collective with members from France, Slovakia, UK, Tunisia and Cuba.
The band are chameleon-like in their flexibility, sidestepping from free jazz sax solos to tight groovy funk guitar lines and back with ease.
We have been listening to Seddik:
The song begins with a mango juice barrel of flavours… and then a slippery, smiling yeeah-yee of sound-work that butters into view.
After this, a more biting main vocal thumbs its way in. And flips along to the beat.
The horns are ambitious and terribly clever – giving this number a chewy afro-jazz groove – and the guitar dissects the whole piece. It rises venomously – like a sting-tail jellyfish – hurt and angry.
But the beats are broad and fertile and the song moves at a jaunty pace … this refreshes, revitalizes.
And soothes an aching head.
@neilmach © 2014
Link:
RAW RAMP 