The HighLife

It's that time again.  What time, you ask? Time for a fresh installment of something from the 'dark' continent. Though i wonder about that, we probably get more sunshine over there than anywhere else in the world, but whatever that's irrelevant.  Now to the music.

Fela Kuti - Confusion (Parts 1 &2)

There are some songs that i listen to pretty much every day.  It's not a long list, and this song is part of that short-list.  That could probably be explained by the fact that this song is 25 minutes long.  The first four minutes of this are very sparse, really not musical at all. You could say it feels like a there a storm building of random instruments, but in no clear direction.  Then all of a sudden the keyboard starts building up, the military style snare cadence joins, the bass joins, then comes the downpour. Two guitars, claves, congas, horns, bass, drums, keyboard, all join together in one the best grooves you've ever heard.  Seriously, leave this on in the background of anything you're doing, work, play, chilling, partying, whatever; guaranteed someone will be moving, maybe you even.

This aptly titled song is about when things are in a state of confusion.  But more specifically it's a social statement about when a country is in a state of confusion, and how that permeates all aspects of life.  "When we talk say confusion, everything out of control. When everything out of control, we go say it be kpafuca o. Kpafuca na quench." Kpafuca stands for when something is gone/erased/etc.  Whether it be a colonial mentality that keeps like people divided; or Lagos traffic which is worse than New York but with no traffic police or signals; or even police stations with no police officers.  This all happens, it's a real world we live in.  So while you're grooving out to this think about what you can do to help bring order to not just your own little plot of land, but the world in general. Make a difference, do something.  Oh, and before i forget.  My favorite part of the song is the last 3 minutes of the song, when the keyboard is doing some of the funkiest riffing to break down a song you'll ever hear. If you have been listening to the whole song, by the time this part hits you'll know what i'm talking about.