Letter 15 - Funk So Nice, They Fused It Thrice

Afro-Cumbia, Neapolitan and old-school funk & soul.

Feb 14, 2025

“*All right, here’s the 411 folks. Say some gangsta’ is dissin’ your fly girl.*”

Hi,

This week I’ve written about three new albums that fall into a broad category of funk-fusion. I love music in this kind of realm mostly because how those funky basslines make my brain feel, but also because it’s such a brilliant way to marry together cultures and sounds across time and space.

Each of the new albums work as fantastic jumping-off points for 3 different areas of music (namely afrobeat, Neapolitan funk and the mind-blowingly high quality of one ‘70s funk band’s discography), so do check out those additional records I’ve listed below too.

I have curated playlists you can listen to while you read - Apple Music - Spotify.

As an aside, it seems to help people find these letters if readers who have Substack accounts “like” the post on Substack - so if you enjoyed this letter or any previous letters and do have an account, it would be great if you could hit the like button below.

If you’re new here and enjoyed this letter, please subscribe and share with anyone you know who might enjoy, and let me know what you think of any of the records in the comments below.

If you missed any of my previous letters, or want to find some more music or films, you can find them in The Odhracle Archive.

Much love, Odhrán x

Funk Served 3 Ways

I’ve linked to each record’s Bandcamp or wherever else it can be purchased below, and you can listen to a playlist of the songs I discuss below - Apple Music - Spotify.

Tony Allen & La BOA - LA BOA Meets Tony Allen (2025)

Genre(s): Afrobeat, afrofunk & cumbia.
For fans of: Fela Kuti, Ebo Taylor & Ezra Collective.
Songs to try: Tambor, Cuento & Poder.

A record from Colombian band La BOA (short for La Bogatá Qrquesta Afrobeat) which blends funky afrobeat with the sounds of Colombia, led by producer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Michel.

Before I discuss the record, I’ll briefly explain who Tony Allen was, and how this it came about.

In the late 60s and early 70s, Allen, and his more famous bandmate Fela Kuti, began recording and performing music which combined sounds that were popular in Lagos at the time like Ghanaian highlife, Fújì & Yoruba music, with American jazz, funk & soul, giving birth to afrobeat as a musical genre. Allen, the drummer and musical director of Kuti’s band Africa ‘70, is generally regarded as one of the greatest and most influential drummers of all time, known for his polyrhythmic drumming technique and genre shapeshifting.

When Allen left Africa ‘70 in 1979, he moved into what he described as “afrofunk”, as he brought aspects of dub & R&B into his music. Through late night jam sessions with the greats like Stevie Wonder and Gilberto Gil, forming supergroup The Good, the Bad & the Queen with Damon Albarn (Gorillaz & Blur), and in collaborations with artists like Detroit techno legend Jeff Mills - Allen’s unrelenting desire and ability to experiment and cross genre boundaries has left a legacy matched by few others.

LA BOA Meets Tony Allen was released on Parisian label Comet Records - a label founded in 1998 by Eric Trosset and Manu Boubli when they signed Allen, who released many of his late-career through the label, including Black Voices (1999) made with electronica producer Doctor L. It was through Comet Records that Nu Genea released their 2016 debut LP The Tony Allen Experiments (2016) that I briefly touched on in Letter 7.

Similarly to that Nu Genea record, LA BOA Meets Tony Allen repurposes and re-contextualizes Allen’s drumbeats, except this time with infused with Colombian and Caribbean music. Colombian Cumbia has a distinct afro-sound, due to the cultural influence of African people who brought their culture and music with them when transported to the port city of Cartagena as victims of the Portuguese slave trade. In that sense, it’s logical that the Colombian music of LA BOA melds so well with Allen’s afrobeat rhythms - connecting cultural dots separated by centuries.

The standout track on the album is probably Tambor, which partners Allen’s polyrhythmic drums with an initial chorus of horns, followed first by Caribbean influenced vocals, and then by soft rapping that nestles precisely within Allen’s bars. It’s a euphoric start to the album that really captures both the funk of Allen’s afrobeat and the musical vibe of Colombia, and is true to the album notes - “Allen’s recordings lay down the canvas upon which La BOA paints its own vision of Afrobeat … Where the beat of Lagos meets the brass of Bogotá, so too La BOA meets Tony Allen”.

The Cumbia-ness of the record comes through on Cuento, which features fellow Colombian-afrobeat crossover act Bejuco. It starts with jazzy, almost noir, horns before Allen’s drums kick in, which dance and jump about the song with astounding agility.

The final track I want to highlight is Poder, due to the introduction of rhythmic synths and more pointed reggaetón-style rapping to the record. I love how this sounds like a futuristic Miami Vice, and think this tonal and partial-genre shift is something Allen would have approved of.

If you liked this, listen to:

Fela Kuti and Africa ‘70 - Expensive Shit (1975): Kuti & Africa ‘70’s twelfth album contains only two tracks but is 24 minutes long. The album’s name and first tracks’ lyrics is a reference to Kuti being arrested by Nigerian police for a joint they planted on him, so he ate the joint, and they took him to prison to wait for him to pass it… Expensive Shit is the perfect entry-record for someone unfamiliar to afrobeat - very accessible, fun and Allen’s drums pulse and groove across its 24 minutes.
Fela Kuti and Africa ‘70 - Zombie (1976): Lyrically, the album was a criticism of the Nigerian government, with the titular zombies being the Nigerian soldiers following their government’s orders. The album likely led to an attack by the Nigerian army on Kuti’s compound, during which his mother, political activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was murdered. It’s both a record that blends American funk and jazz with Kuti & Allen’s afrobeat, that despite it’s dark context is a brilliant funky listen.
Ezra Collective - Where I’m Meant To Be (2022): Ezra Collective frontman and drummer Femi Koleoso used to get the Megabus from London to Paris for drum lessons with Allen, and you can hear Allen’s influence all over this album. It’s most clear on No Confusion which is dedicated to Allen and features a touching vocal clip from an interview he did with Femi on Worldwide FM, and on Life Goes On which samples Fela Kuti & Africa ‘70s’ song Shakara. Separately, Ezra Collective released a live remix of Fela Kuti’s Lady, one of my favourite songs by either act.

Pellegrino & Zodyaco - Koinè

Genre(s): Funk, Italo disco & jazz fusion.
For fans of: Nu Genea, L’Imperatrice & Parcels.
Songs to try: Saditè, Mario & La Malìa del Sur.

The second full-length album from Pellegrino S. Snichelotto and his band Zodyaco, released on Early Sounds Recordings, the label he co-founded with Massimo De Lena (one-half of Nu Genea) & Dario Di Pace. I discussed the scene that this record came from in The Odhracle #7 - Neapolitan Funk, so I won’t dive into that here.

I really love every track on this album, and in particular how Pellegrino takes the listener on a sonic journey, on which the various elements forming the tapestry of his musical influences weave and overlap throughout each song.

Opening track-duo Pecché and Mario set a 1970s space-disco mood, with funky basslines and angelic vocals from bandmember Gabriella Di Capua. I like how Pecché builds to a crescendo at its midway point, drops it to complete silence, before picking it right back up again in disco dancefloor fashion. Third track L’aura has more of a 1980s jazz-fusion vibe, with synthy keys, hand drums, guitar, bass and saxophone trading prominence within the arrangement.

Caribbean-influenced Palepoli, with rap-like vocals feels like a detour on first listen, however lead single Saditè then combines the early album cosmic-disco with Palepoli’s island vibes, to create this nostalgic sun-drenched party-starting song. Saditè, with its supremely catchy hook, feels like a nod to the sound Nu Genea captured on Bar Mediterraneo (2022) - that of dancing with the sun reflecting off the calm blue sea.

This seaside tip continues on La Malìa del Sur. It opens with Latin guitar, and I adore how Di Capua’s vocals are arranged and layered to wash in and out of the song like waves on a shore. It ends with a sax solo breaking down into twinkly synths, and penultimate track Faccussi picks up from where it left off with drawn out synths that building to a brilliantly cheesy Italo disco melody.

Faccussi then ends with dreamy synths, leading perfectly into Sirene, which opens with strings being plucked in a way that conjures up images of some kind of tropical heaven. This finale features vocals similar to the opening few tracks, bringing us back to that cosmic 70s disco, but with the jazzy sax, 80s Italo synths and contemporary Neapolitan funk elements picked up along the way.

The album title refers to koine language, which is a common language formed through the mixing of other languages (thank you Wikipedia). I suspect the title is a double metaphor, referring to both how the Neapolitan dialect in which this vocal heavy album is sang is a melting pot of influences including Spanish, Catalan & Greek, and how the album is a mixing of musical influences from different eras and places.

The lyrics on the album are often about unrequited or lost love, and at times quite sorrowful, but sang in the most joyful manner. I find that this is a common approach in continental pop music, and I always think the juxtaposition pretty funny - like on Mario where our protagonist is heartbroken, whilst lamenting how everyone is dancing in the centre of Napoli. Well Mario, if they’re listening to Koinè, I’m sure they are.

You should also check out:

All of the music from The Odhracle #7 - Neapolitan Funk.

Cymande - Renascence (2025)

Genre(s): Funk, soul & R&B.
For fans of: The Isley Brothers, Funkadelic & Curtis Mayfield.
Songs to try: Only One Way & Coltrane.

For anyone paying attention to the music press over the past 2 years, you’d be forgiven for rolling your eyes at Cymande once again being referred to as some variation of “the best band you’ve never heard of”, but largely that is still the case for most people.

Cymande are a Windrush Generation funk band formed in Brixton in the 1970s, who, in the space of 2 years, recorded and released three of the greatest funk albums of all time (Cymande (1972), Second Time Round (1973) & Promised Heights (1974)).

Most acts could only dream of this three album run, which should have catapulted Cymande to fame, riches and a lifelong career in music. However, the albums didn’t chart in the UK, and whilst Cymande did have some success in the US (where their albums did chart) from a financial perspective the band broke up due to the lack of traction on home soil, and remained that way for over 30 years.

A documentary about the band was released a few years ago (Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande (2022)) which (in insufficient detail) delves into why the band failed to find success at the time; largely institutional and cultural racism, and anti-immigrant sentiment in Britain at the time. They wouldn’t release music for 41 years (until a failed comeback with A Simple Act of Faith (2015), currently available only through an unofficial YouTube upload), however Cymande remained hugely influential in certain scenes during that time.

The advent of sampling in hip-hop was critical to keeping their music alive - De La Soul used their track Bra in an instantly recognisable sample on Change in Speak on their classic debut album 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), Gang Starr & the Wu-Tang Clan sampled them on early mixtapes, and The Fugees sampled Dove in the title track of their seminal album The Score (1996). It’s this latter example that led me to discovering Cymande several years ago, and like many others I was equal parts blown away by the quality of their discography, and bewildered by their relative low profile.

So whilst the band members went back to normal lives, with two of the founding members becoming lawyers in the Caribbean, their music spread surreptitiously, and was still hugely important to some people, which can be seen in Spike Lee featuring their music in two separate films (Crooklyn (1994) & 25th Hour (2002)).

The documentary highlights the joy the band have found in people rediscovering their music in recent years, in performing to crowds and, crucially, in getting paid for their music. So it does bring me sincere happiness that this band of old funk musicians after so many decades are releasing new music with Renascence.

They waste little time as a super funky baseline and a Tony Allen-inspired drum beat kick in immediately on opening track Chasing An Empty Dream (they have years to make up for, I suppose). British soul singer Celeste features on Only One Way, which is a nice throwback R&B song, which I think is a good representation of the direction the band’s sound may have gone had they not prematurely split up in 1974.

Coltrane has a lovely bassline that crawls along, complementing lyrics which are a tribute to legendary jazz musician John Coltrane, and subsequent track Sweeden is probably the closest the band come to their sound of the 70s.

Sadly not everything on this album works for me. The opening tracks’ lyrics sound like something a visiting American pastor would preach to us at my aggressively Catholic school - “The young generation trying hard to be understood // Respect your bodies // Try to do what your mama would.” There’s also too many ballads without the vocal power to back them - most notable on Darkest Night - and the voiceover at the end of How We Roll is bizarrely reminiscent of Vincent Price’s voiceover on Michael Jackson’s Thriller (and not in a good way).

Still, there’s enough here to enjoy, it’s a lovely window into what might have been, it brings some deserved money and attention to a band who deserve it, and I hope most importantly will lead to more people discovering their incredible 70s albums.