Release
Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information
It’s time we committed some words to paper about the reasons for this sudden burst of enthusiasm for the ‘James Brown of Ethiopia’s’ work. I guess it’s not so sudden. Cast your mind back to the film Broken Flowers, where, en route to finding his bastard son, Bill Murray’s mate (played by the always good Geoffrey Wright) gives him a mix tape for his journey. The soundtrack helped carry Jim Jarmusch’s film and was the first time a lot of people, myself included, had heard Ethiopique Jazz-Funk. If you can find yourself a dummy’s guide like www.ethiopiques.info I’d say go for it. It’s some life changing stuff if you’re burnt out on the funk, and lord knows, if I hear one more ‘funky guitar riff’ I’ll be screaming ‘Ali Farke Toure’ from the roof tops in no time. I heard a band covering MC5’s Kick Out The Jams, the other day, which upset me no end, but I digress…
So finally the Inspiration Information series is doing what it promised after lacklustre offerings from Amp Fiddler with Sly and Robbie and Ashley Beedle with Horace Andy. The third in the series presents brand new Mulatu Astatke material produced by The Heliocentrics. Yes, you read right. And it’s no corny-ass recreation job, either. It’s the real deal. Fourteen tracks that you never want to end, it’s one of the year’s best albums and it’s out at the beginning of April through Strut/K7.
