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Rating: Good |
Osibisa’s self-titled album opened their unique blend of African and Western music to a wider audience, charting in both the US and Europe. Produced by Tony Visconti, Osibisa’s extraordinary fusion of African drum beats, colorful rhythms, and rock-inspired keyboard and horn parts creates an expansive sound that incorporates countless musical influences. Even the melodies take bits of rhythm & blues and modern rock and add them to the accompanying percussive beats to create a contemporary feel with an avant-garde vibe.
Tracks like “Dawn,” “Phallus C,” and “Oranges” incorporate fragments of traditional jazz and jazz fusion primarily through the flute and saxophone at their core, but then shape the result to resemble the band’s true heritage. Each song evokes a certain African mystique with its tense rhythms and semi-primordial tempos. The most impressive track, “Music for Gong Gong,” became a minor hit in the UK thanks to its well-balanced vocal charge and the beauty felt in the multi-faceted layers of guitar, organ, and drumming. In both “Ayiko Bia” and “Akwaaba,” Osibisa’s Ghanaian and Nigerian roots come to life through the use of flute, flugelhorn, and trumpet — not exactly traditional instruments of West Africa, but they are transformed and shaped to take on the band’s fundamental sound.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Osibisa is that the album's expansive mix of instruments and playful lyrics inject just enough of a modern element that it conveniently avoids being labelled as either world music or new age.
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= Track List =
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