This Winter marks the 50th Anniversary of Fela Kuti’s classic album ‘Afrodisiac’, with the record due to be re-released in a new special vinyl edition on 2nd December.
Accompanying the announcement, is a brand new edit of the first song on the LP: “Alu Jon Jonki Jon” (Edit), which you can watch below.
Fela Kuti (1938-1997) was a Nigerian musician, producer, arranger, political radical, outlaw and the originator of Afrobeat. A titanic musical and sociopolitical voice, Fela’s legacy spans decades and genres, touching on jazz, pop, funk, hip-hop, rock and beyond.
Afrodisiac is the fifth in the series of celebratory Fela 50th Anniversary reissues. Like its predecessors in the series, this double LP edition is on color vinyl; LP 1 is green marble and LP 2 is on red marble. The album will be wrapped in a gold foil OBI strip with a brief essay on the album and Fela’s global impact on music. The songs on Afrodisiac were tracks that Fela and the Nigeria 70 (Later Africa 70) re-recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1972 after they had become hits in Nigeria. The best known song on the album, ‘Jeun Ko Ku’, is listed by its Pidgin title ‘Chop and Quench’ on this album. It’s a satire about gluttony and Fela’s first major hit across West Africa. ‘Chop and Quench’ means “”eat and die”” in Standard English.
Afrodisiac was first reissued on vinyl in 2014 as part of the Fela Box Set #3 curated by Brian Eno. Eno played Afrodisiac for David Byrne and it was a huge influence on Talking Heads when they recorded Remain In Light — there is a bonus track called ‘Fela’s Riff’ that nods heavily to the influence of hearing Afrodisiac and Fela’s music for the first time.
In 2022, a brand new reissue of the record will be pressed on limited edition green, red and black coloured vinyl, with a gold obi strip and liner notes by Chris May.
