Mike Cuozzo
Mighty Mike Cuozzo

APP. Accumulation of Profit & Power. The very essence of capitalism that sells, destroys and enslaves everything in its path, leaving behind only ruins exploited to the last grain of sand that can be converted into a bank note.Denounced and fought for decades by Fela and his warrior afrobeat, the evil has never ceased to spread. The last trumpeter of the warrior of Lagos, Muyiwa Kunnuji perpetuates the struggle, surrounded by a faction of rebels. Meditative and motivating solo, polyrhythmic attacks, synthesizers, call & response with the choirs, the influence of highlife coming from neighboring Ghana thwarts the attention of the guards to penetrate the fortress of the dominant.And, once the enclosure is crossed, the afrobeat roars and the fight begins.Continuing his journey, the last trumpet player of Fela Kuti releases his second album: APP (Accumulation of Profit & Power).Muyiwa Kunnuji and his band Osemako, which has been extensively recasted since Mo Juba O - had already laid the foundations of his afroclassicbeat - have had quite an evolution, and are eager to share a recipe that has been patiently elaborated and stewed, both on stage and in the studio.A complex mix of deep musical and cultural heritages as well as a claimed and combative Pan-African culture, APP sets the bar still one step higher in the message, but also and especially in terms of composition and polyrhythms. Inspired by Western African highlife as well as the purest afrobeat of the Afrika 70 era, and even incorporating elements of South African marabi or Central African soukous, the whole does not sound less perfectly personal, tailored, with a natural and disconcerting ease.But this easiness is only an apparent as Muyiwa devoted himself body and soul to the composition and harmony during the gestation of these tunes so widely inspired and yet intensely personal.APP will thus delight fans of African music in the broad sense as well as connoisseurs, and just as much fans of funk grooves or jazzy solos; it is a deeply plural album. Multi-influenced, multicultural, multilingual, a slice of life as much as an initiatory journey, on which hovers the spectre of Covid, which has also largely inspired this second ‘effort’. Standing against absurd sanitary rules or the accumulation of profits by the powerful of this world and other pseudo-philanthropists, APP, again, reminds us of the great Fela, as much by the use of an acronym to entitle the album as by the themes addressed or the mixing of genres. A warrior album, filled and full of revendications, but also of calls for open-mindedness. An intensely human, sincere, combative album, and however radically enthusiastic and optimistic.

“Don’t Make Tracks” sounds like a band both on the rise and on the move. The group’s busy schedule has proved to be an aggressive catalyst for new material – the misty veneer of their ‘project’ days fanned away by an assured renavigation of some favourite themes. While undoubtedly Funk-driven, references to Electro, Jazz and World influences have plenty of breadth as the trio mess with vibes far beyond their vintage – yielding much wilder results in the process.Standouts include album A-siders “Like Before” and “Searching”, which dip into the realms of Brit-Soul and Jazz-Funk (the later including a serious Incognito-style mid-track twist). Vocoders, drenching FX chains and the furious 128 bpm “It’s Not Me” [search for the accompanying video] carve out the reverse side – leaving just enough room for Françoise’s epic Whitney-esque performance on “Look The Other Way”, a fan favourite for some time now.Proudly presented by Wax Museum Records with design by Melbourne’s award-winning HM. Group, “Don’t Make Tracks” is an experience made to savour.