Fela Kuti - Alagbon Close
- Format
- Vinyl LP
- Catalog No.
- 841207184
- Tracks
- 2
- Colour
- Orange
- Pressing
- Colored Vinyl
- Edition
- Limited Edition
Alagbon Close was named after the headquarters of the Nigerian Criminal Investigation Department in Lagos. It was where Fela was detained after the 2nd raid on his home failed to find anything incriminating. The title track calls out the Nigerian police's violence, arrogance and apparent immunity from prosecution. Alagbon Close was also the first of Fela's albums to have a sleeve designed by Ghariokwu Lemi, whose artwork became an integral part of Afrobeat's message. To mark it's 50th anniversary, the album is presented on Jollof orange color vinyl in a single pocket, wide-spine jacket with gold foil OBI strip.
- Format
- Vinyl LP
- Tracks
- 2
- Pressing
- Download Card
Vinyl LP pressing includes digital download. Alagbon Close, originally released on the independent Jofabro label in 1974, marks the first full flowering of Afrobeat, as a music and as a principled political philosophy. Instrumentally, the album brings together the several signature elements of Fela's Afrobeat, which had not previously been molded into such a unified, finely-balanced form on record. Lyrically, it is a full-on confrontation with an enforcing power of the Nigerian state: Alagbon Close in Lagos was the headquarters of the Nigerian Criminal Investigation Department. Many of the musical elements which make Alagbon Closeso compelling can be heard on earlier recordings, but on this album, Fela pulled them all together to devastating effect, in the process creating the classic Afrobeat paradigm.
