Ifetayo: Black Truth Rhythm Band

Label: Soundway

Followers of the past several years worth of African-music reissues have likely noticed the way that certain Caribbean sounds had manifested around the continent during the 1970s (Congolese rumba, anyone?). So it's only fitting that the superb reissue-imprint Soundway finds the dynamic flowing in the other direction with this 1976 album. While most of its contemporaries were looking to the States for inspiration, the Trinidadian outfit Ifetayo gazed across the Atlantic, adding distinctly Afro-centric percussion to its supple, caramel-smooth funk. (Band-leader Oluko Imo would go on to play in Fela's Egypt 80 band a decade later.) On Black Truth Rhythm Band, Ifetayo's sole full-length release, the septet (we're basing this assumption only on the cover photo) casts bass, drums and open space in equal balance, conjuring a particularly sweet and darkly colorful brand of funk. Notable among the record's six tracks (both LP and CD include one additional cut) are "Save D Musician," which neatly pits a bit of steel percussion against the vast warmth of the band's limber groove; "Kilimanjaro" and its tropical-tourist-baiting birdcalls and alternating organ and mbira; and "You People," which reflects a faint reggae influence.