That’s saying something, as the previously released ‘Oba Awon Oba’, ‘Aso-Keke’ and ‘Oye’ have been all excellent. The new track, ‘Kabioye’ (“to give honour”) features the vocals of AF3CA Antonine (Note to Ed. for once, this isn’t a Hectic typo!) and it’s a tribute to the undisputed king of Afrobeat, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

In addition to the list of previous star remixes by Orin Walters, Daz-I-Kue, Kaidi Tatham, I.G. Culture, Le Pico, we can now add treatments by the prize pairing of Mark De Clive-Lowe and Phil Asher to ‘Kabioye’. In fact, Phil and Mark’s remix standing has already been identified as a bit of a double act as they both worked on DJ Mitsu the Beats ‘New Awakening’ remixes.

Mark is New Zealand’s best known West Londoner in the broken beat scene and is no doubt celebrating coming fourth in the Worldwide Award album of the year for Tide’s Arising. He’s also one of the busiest remixers around and if you don’t know why, this 12” is proof enough of what he can do. Not as blatantly broken as you might think as the track powers along in a pure Afrobeat groove, which at times veersoff into 70s Rhodes and synth-land.

I usually go for the instrumental and this one is arguably stronger than the vocal version because the synth, keyboards, guitar and horns all get a turn. If I’m any judge, I reckon this is going to big down at CO-OP.

Phil Asher’s Restless Soul has been remixing for years in the soulful house field as well as occasionally dabbling with jazz, broken and Latin genres. Together with Glyn BiggaBush, he was involved in the Suba Tributo remix Project.

Phil’s remix is more of an Afro-disco-house number with a thick booming bass and stabby synth. I can’t see that Pete Tong’s played it yet but he surely will.

The last track on the 12” is the album version of ‘Kabioye’ and it sounds like a live version. Wonderful to hear the percussion, horns, sax and that great guitar solo as it’s a more ‘authentic’ Fela sound.

So the album is shaping up nicelt with ‘Oye’ (“Goddess of the Whirlwind”), ‘Aso-Keke’, ‘Oososi’, ‘Oba Awon Oba’ and ‘Kabioye’ — it’ll be interesting to hear all these tracks in their raw and untouched state.

Yet another early new year essential and you’ll be seeing all versions popping up in charts soon as it’s a fine tribute to the enduring power of Fela’s music.

Reviewed: Lekan Babalola - ‘Kabioye’ (51 Lex Records) Cat. No. OYE 4
A1. Kabioye (Mark De Clive-Lowe Remix)
A2. Kabioye (Instrumental) (Mark De Clive-Lowe Remix)
B1. Kabioye (Phil Asher’s Restless Soul Remix)
B2. Kabioye (Album Version)

Links:
Gilles Peterson : Tracklisting 01.01.06 : Worldwide Albums of the Year (4) Mark De Clive-Lowe - ‘Heaven’ (ABB) www.markdeclivelowe.net
Bugz In The Attic www.bugzintheattic.net CO-OP LIVE : every 2nd + last Sunday of the month 9pm-2am
51 Lex Records: www.wyldpytch.com