Artist Name: African Travels
Country:
Mali
Artist Bio:
On the latest installment of its Travel series, Six Degrees visits the continent that gave rhythm to the world. Africa has not stood still in the intervening years; on the Mother Continent, music is constantly being re-invented and now, as we shall witness, remixed. It's only logical that the current strains of electronica should map neatly onto the planet's original dance music. Six Degrees could have taken the easy route, merely compiling Afro-house tracks, but instead have sought out well-considered fusions of African music and the latest developments in global dance culture.
The spirit of the musical firebrand Fela Anikulapo-Kuti hovers over the proceedings. In the years since his death, the influence of this musician and activist has only grown; several of the tracks collected here, if not outright homages to his Afrobeat sound, certainly share Fela's commitment to consciousness-raising fortified with funk.
It has been said that African music "grows endlessly from within the pulse of a people's life.'" Add the pulse of cutting-edge musical technology to that equation, and you have African Travels, the latest chapter in the ongoing cross-pollination between Africa's vast musical panorama and dance floors around the world.
