Lulendo – Angola (Buda Musique)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 1/26/06
Very sweet Afrobeat, with extensive use of the likembe (thumb piano), lovely tenor-to-falsetto vocals. Lots of gorgeous harmonies, and very slick production. At times there’s a Brazilian or Caribbean feel to the music. All in Angolan(?) so no chance of FCCs. I like 4 and 12 the most, followed by 5, 10 and 11. That said, all tracks are excellent (I’m just not a big on sweet and mellow as I am on hot beats…)
1. sweet and mellow, with rainstick noises. Cool percussion after the first few seconds, but a bit melancholy sounding.
2. Tenor sax/clarinet and a solid rock steady beat – a lot happier sounding than the first track.
3. Prominent likembe, very pronounced syncopation. More “African sounding”, but still with electric guitar and jazzy horn breaks. Nice Grapelli-esque violin solo.
4. **hard beat and really fun sound effects, along with killer bass – this is a stand-out. Heavy metal guitar and thumb piano – works better than you’d think…
5. *very upbeat, lots of electric guitar and percussion. Energetic and cool.
6. Solo vocal intro, sweet piano and easy-going percussion – sounds like a love song to a child. Pretty and jazzy.
7. Uptempo but a bit downbeat (if you follow me); pretty female backing vocals. Sounds happy and sad at the same time, somehow.
8. Sweet and downbeat, pretty vocals and thumb piano.
9. Downtempo, with slide guitar, slow shuffling beat, kinda bluesy.
10. *Great thumb piano intro leads to cool percussion. Vocals and flute are pretty much the rest of the mix. Nice spirit.
11. *Percussion goes from channel to channel while jazzy sax stays in the middle. Fun sound.
12. **Funky beat, “ay-ya-ya-ye” chorus you can sing along to. Nice booty-shaker.