The Lafayette Afro Rock Band / Afon
Funky Afro-Rock. The Parisian Lafayette Afro Rock Band released a couple largely ignored albums in the 70's. They were saved from obscurity by hip hop. The song 'Hihache' has been sampled repeatedly, and 'Darkest Light' forms the basis of Public Enemy's 'Show 'Em What You Got' and Wrecks N Effect's 'Rump Shaker'. This album is a collection of 10 unreleased tracks, which have not been sampled by DJs, although you can definitely hear why Lafayette Afro Rock Band is popular with hip hop producers. The mix of rock, funk, lounge, Latin, and African influences creates songs laden with drum breaks and dripping with funky guitar hooks and horn blasts. Over all, this is a really good album, a little cheesy at times. All tracks recommended, start with tracks 3, 2, 5, 6, 8, and 10
1) Rock featuring horns, with a drum-break guitar solo
2) Bright Latin flavored Horns, buzzing guitar, and Hammond
3) *Cowbell drum break (loop it up B-Boys), keys and horns, up-tempo danceable funk
4) Dreamy wordless vocals, lounge-y but it grows on you
5) Hammond and guitar with horns blazing
6) Low, layered soul.
7) Grooving funk, horns stay together
8) Ultra-funky but repetitive
9) Longer, acid jazzy.
10) Almost disco with horns and keyboards
11) Shorter version of track 4
Tom Purcell, November 2000