Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

The album kicks off with a track called ‘The Moon’ that’s like a choral update of Roy Ayers (without the vibes) that’s truly stunning. What a start! And if you’re new to Bibi’s work you should know that this is his third album release, the second with turntablist/producer le Professeur Inlassable and he’s worked with the mighty Byard Lancaster (he of Funny Funky Rib Crib).

Bibi provides the vocals and the funky bass and the rest of the band is Arthur Simonini (keyboards and violin), Rico Kerridge (guiatars) and Arnaud Biscay (drums). You could call their style “Franco-Afro World” and/or hip-hop inspired funk, but these guys have recaptured the groove that makes you move; get your Clinton-P.Funk-Family Stone funky swing to ‘Swing Swing’.

Not so keen on ‘Red Wine’ and find it an odd (OK predictable choice for a single) but the rest of the album is so much better than that track. And to prove the point (at least for fans of FLY), where’s the Afro I hear you say? You’ll find that’s in the title track ‘Dunya’, ‘Bê Africa’ and ‘Pasi’ that are full of the Fela spirit even if Bibi was born in Bangui (that’s in The Central African Republic) and raised on a diet of Curtis Mayfield, James Brown and Kinshasa Afro-jazz (so we’re told).

Just getting back to ‘Pasi’ the Simonini’s strings are sublime and incredibly don’t sound out of place at all. ‘Let Them Run’ has a blues-pop influence that I could imagine Jools Holland being keen on but as I’ve gone off him (did you see his end of 2009 show?), I’d like to think he’d get excited about the space-pysch-funk of ‘Gospel Singers’; it’s a bloody huge tune this [like a funk remix from last years’ Album Of The Year, Space].

At its best, this album is the world-funk equivalent of Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band (they of Bird Head Son) or Build An Ark (particularly ‘Gospel Singers’) but it’s littered with top tunes. And after my last two gigs at Jazz Chronicles, expect to hear repeated plays from Dunya and if I get the nod for February; thinking ‘Bê Africa’ and the super Amp[ed] Fiddler funkers ‘Shine’ or ‘Goodbye’; I’ll save the bonus Parisien-jazz beats of ‘Bonjour Mon Ami Jean’ for my Freesoul debut; a track that originally appeared on the compilation album Sampling The World Through Musical (what a clearer title).

So definely one for fans of the “l’afrobeat psychédélique” of Fela Kuti, the style of Ross Allen’s Abstract Funk Theory and the world of Heavenly Sweetness - what could be better?

P.S. ‘Selenite’ - synonym for gypsum (when crystallised).

Hectic Mix nominations: ‘Gospel Singers’, ‘The Moon’, ‘Dunya’, Pasi’, ‘Be Africa’, ‘Shine’.

Reviewed: Bibi Tanga & The Selenites - Dunya (Nat Geo Music) Cat. No. NGM004 Release date: 25th January 2010
Tracklisting:
1 The Moon (5:25)
2 Red Wine (3:59)
3 Swing Swing (4:43)
4 Dunya (5:29)
5 Pasi (4:18)
6 Let Them Run (2:48)
7 Gospel Singers (5:54)
8 Bê Africa (4:12)
9 Shine (3:59)
10 Bonjour Mon Ami Jean (3:07)
11 Goodbye (4:49)
12. It’s The Earth That Moves (Bonus Track) (3:27)

Links:
www.myspace.com/bibitanga
www.myspace.com/heavenlysweetness