After delivering Soul Makossa in 1972, Manu Dibango recorded another musical monster that same year: Africadelic.
In response to a commission for Afro-urban sounds intended for French television and radio stations in search of illustrative music for their programmes, Manu Dibango entered the studio at Mondiaphone, the music library label run by Louis Delacour.
Willingly embracing the exercise of composing for the image, the musician recorded—under rather rocambolesque conditions—the tracks that would later become Africadelic, without suspecting the future or the success that both albums would go on to achieve.
The 12 instrumental tracks blend jazz, blues, samba, soul, calypso and biguine—a meeting of voluble percussion, boiling brass sections, electric guitars and swirling organ layers.
For these sessions, Manu was joined in particular by trombonist Jacques Bolognesi; Slim Pezin, one of the most in-demand guitarists in French pop music; trumpeter Ivan Julien—known for his work behind Johnny Hallyday—and saxophonist François Jeanneau, already able to measure how far he had come since the days of the group Triangle.
Africadelic operates as a bubbling stew of Afro-Cuban, African and American influences, perfectly in tune with its time—illustrated by guitars openly inspired by Isaac Hayes’ Shaft on the aptly titled “Wah Wah.”
The robotic drumming and undulating bass lines, unexpected breaks, echo effects, brass explosions and rolling percussion in some ways foreshadow the coming modernity of disco.
Record is EX / Sleeve is EX
