Search - Fela Kuti :: Underground System

At 28 minutes in length, the title track boogies from fat funk break to fat funk break as though James Brown possessed the structural ambition of Duke Ellington. Recorded when Fela's 34-piece band was at its apex, this indispensable Fela disc has it all: wavelike call-and-response blowing and singing, thundering-herd percussion, dynamic electric grooves, and potent lyrical invective. The title track excoriates a government no less corrupt today than when it was written, while "Pansa Pansa" sums up the enigmatic star's career-to-date: "I sing zombie, I sing no bread / I sing monkey they walk, baboon they chop." --Richard Gehr