Tomorrow Comes The Harvest is a theory initiated and put into action by late Afro Beat creator and Nigerian Drummer Tony Allen and Detroit Techno’s Jeff Mills. Each belonging to a long tradition of using music to reach higher levels of consciousness, along with veteran keyboardist Jean-Phi Dary, the three toured internationally until the untimely death of Tony Allen in 2020. Recorded live during Nuits Sonores, Brussels, 2022.
Guitar legend Oghene Kologbo was born in Warri, Nigeria in 1957. His father was the well known highlife musician Joe King Kologbo. When Kologbo was a teenager, he began performing with the revolutionary Afrobeat master Fela Kuti. He played the hypnotic tenor guitar lines, but often recorded bass and rhythm guitar too. Kologbo was Fela’s personal assistant and “tape recorder”. That is, it was his job to remember the melodies Fela would sing to him late at night, then teach them to the band at rehearsal the next day. In 1978, after a show at the Berlin Jazz Festival, Kologbo left the band (along with Tony Allen and a few others) and stayed in Berlin. “Africa Is The Future” is a true collective effort, with many guests gathering forces on the project: Tony Allen, playing drums on 5 tracks out of 8 (Nigeria/France), singer Pat Thomas (Ghana), deejay Joseph Cotton (Jamaica), singer Ayo (Nigeria/Germany), horn players from the Afrobeat Academy (Germany) or from Les Frères Smith (France), members of Antibalas (USA), Newen Afrobeat (Chile), etc. This is afrobeat from the 21st century at its purest, blending the originators and the descendants together.
Comet announce the third volume of the Afrobeat Makers Series: Nu Guinea – The Tony Allen Experiments. By re-working the original magic drum patterns from the Afrobeat master Tony Allen, Nu Guinea created a compilation of tracks which is charged by a voluminous electronic jazz-Psyche funk imprint. For this release, Comet Records teamed up with Early Sounds Recordings, the berlin label, also home to duo Berliners Nu Guinea. The Naples formed, Berlin-based duo, is a project that arose out of jam sessions, melting synthesizers with instruments, containing a handmade sound that is not aiming for perfection but genuineness. It can be understood as a steadily shaping form, always open for collaborations with other musicians.
Wildheart Recordings is Theo Parrish’s new London-based label. “Sound Signature releases for the body, Wildheart is for everything else” is Theo’s pithy summary of his two labels’ aims and compatibility. Day Like This and Feel Loved are the first fruits of Parrish’s work with the legendary Lagosian, Tony Allen. Day Like This is masterful modern soul music. At the point where Parrish’s synth stabs into Tony’s groove beneath a swirl of falsetto vocals. Feel Loved goes deeper and for some will hit harder. An epic sweep of synth this time, around which Tony plays with growing freedom and excitement – showing again that he is the best drummer on the planet – before a majestic coda brings things to a close.
The Hipodrome Of Music 