Nomo:Nomo

Title: Nomo

Label: Ypsilanti

Genre: post-afrobeat dance party

Rating: 8 of 7

Ok, this is completely ridiculous. Never in a thousand years would I ever have suspected that Eliot Bergman, the main brain behind retro-popsters Saturday Looks Good to Me, would be the bastard child of Afro-beat pioneer Fela Kuti. Well, alright, they are not actually related by blood, but I’ll be damned if they do not share the same musical soul. Nomo, the brainchild of Bergman, is an incredible seventeen member mini-orchestra made up of, but not limited to, four drummers, wah-wah guitars, fender Rhodes, organs and a six-piece horn section. Heavily influenced by the rhythm and melody from Kuti’s very own Afro-beat Orchestra, Nomo takes bits and pieces from jazz, soul, blues, reggae, dub and funk to create that amazing music that is pouring from your speakers. Over the course of this mind-blowing 45 minute album, you are able not only to hear the spirit of Kuti, but also Coltrane (John and Alice), Miles, Sun Ra, James Brown, King Tubby, the Talking Heads… and on and on and on. Damn this is good.

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