Fela Kuti - Everything Scatter

Fela Kuti turns a crowded Lagos bus into a battlefield of opinion on Everything Scatter, a fiery 1975 Afrobeat statement recorded with his band Africa 70.

By the mid-1970s Fela was a household name in Nigeria and a constant thorn in the side of its military government. His Kalakuta Republic compound had become a symbol of defiance, and his songs worked as running commentaries on corruption, colonial thinking and the everyday hypocrisy of the powerful.

The title track tells its story like a street-corner storyteller. One passenger sneers at Fela and his followers, another leaps to their defence, and the argument spreads seat by seat until the whole bus erupts into chaos. Over interlocking guitars, chattering percussion and a horn section that hits like a brass wall, Fela sings and chants as the groove builds with relentless patience.

On the flip, Who No Know Go Know stretches out with the same hypnotic pull, its pidgin title a warning that those who do not know will soon find out. The long, simmering vamp gives the band room to lock in and the message room to land.

This pressing comes with a digital download card, and both sides make a strong case for Fela as one of the sharpest political songwriters of his era.