Fela Kuti - Roforofo Fight, Vinyl LP

Fela Kuti - Roforofo Fight, Vinyl LP

Factory Sealed (New)

Roforofo Fight is about human intolerance towards each other. Issues that could be resolved amicably usually end up in fist fights. Sometimes such fights end up bloody or muddy. Dramatizing the scenario that ensues before a fight, particularly in a muddy place.

This is essentially a CD reissue of Fela Kuti's 1972 album Roforofo Fight, with the addition of two previously unreleased tracks from the same era. Each of the four songs on Roforofo Fight clocks in at 12 to 17 minutes, and there's a slight slide toward more '70s-sounding rhythms in the happy-feet beats of the title track, and the varied, yet rock-solid drums in 'Go Slow'.

There's just a hint of reggae in 'Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am', in the pace, vocal delivery, ethereal keyboards, and lilting yet dramatic minor melodic lines. The James Brown influence is strongly heard in the lean, nervous guitar strums of 'Question Jam Answer', and the horns cook in a way that they might have had Brown been more inclined to let his bands go into improvisational jams.