2009’s hottest series is hands down Strut Records‘ Inspiration Information, which managed to provide not one but two top notch collaborations by mixing and matching legends with talents, first with the Mulatu Astatke and Heliocentrics bid, and now with Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen. Here’s a recap about Tony Allen if you don’t know who he is:

Aged 69, he’s still the only person who can play the Afrobeat he invented during his time driving Fela Kuti’s band, Africa 70. It’s a total rhythm that allows no escape; you will dance. Imagine the peak point last time you were abandoned to music on the dancefloor, multiply it by four and hold it for two hours; that’s what Allen does for a living. This rhythm instantly takes over every part of your body, from head to viscera to toes, and never lets go. It’s a viral rhythm, infecting everyone in the room before they’re even aware. It’s an octopus rhythm that does what four drummers could but never would; you can almost feel its tentacles prodding all your pressure points at once. The Quietus

Now Jimi Tenor is not a new talent either, he’s actually been around since mid 90’s; yet this cooky scientist from Finland is massively underrated and underrecognized by the mainstream music industry because his music is not marketable to average music listeners (about 90% of all music listeners?). Leaving aside Michigan’s Nomo, what tens of afrobeat revival bands missed in authenticity has always been covered up by afrobeat’s energy, so that you could overlook that its mostly a rehashing of Fela & Allen. Thanks to this amazing team-up Tenor effortlessly fills the lack of compositional skills and with the originator back at the helm, we finally get what we deserve, an impressive nine song afrobeat/pop/jazz/fusion LP with nary a filler.

Anyway, no need to intellectualize, you instinctively know an album is truly inspirational when you can’t decide which song to share, postpone writing a review till you sort that out, then select the closer of the album as the track to share. I mean, “the closer”. Just try to remember how many closing tracks you actually listened to and liked in 2009. 4.5/5