“A dub version could be a stone killer”, predicted David Hutchison in his 4 star Mojo review of ‘You No Fit Touch Am’. And here it is: Afrobeat icon Dele Sosimi’s recent album gloriously re-imagined in dub by two production masters, Prince Fatty and Nostalgia 77.
“It was such a rush to have Prince Fatty and Nostalgia 77 work their magic on Dele’s album. With Fatty bringing the spirit of 80s On-U Sound, Mikey Dread and Mad Professor, and Ben Nostalgia having mixed Dele’s original LP, this was always going to be something very special.” Dom Servini (Wah Wah 45s)
Untouchable Force
‘You No Fit Touch Am’, Dele Sosimi’s first full-length album in almost a decade, was released by Wah Wah 45s in May 2015. It represented where Dele is today – something of an untouchable force in the music scene that he has always been such a vital part of. The album provided a musical representation of Dele’s strong socio-political opinions, as well as delivering classic song-writing that could have come straight out of 1970s Lagos.
Born in Hackney, East London, but soon to return to his parents’ native Nigeria at the age of four, Dele Sosimi was schooled and raised in Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s shadow at the height of early 70s Afrobeat. Having been chosen by Fela to join his band at somewhat of a tender age, he was still a young man when sharing
Fela’s Glastonbury stage in 1984, and became both Musical Director for both Fela’s Egypt 80 and FemiKuti’s Positive Force. After Fela’s passing in 1997, Dele went on to concentrate on his own solo career and, with diligent patience, carved out his own Afrobeat crown. In London, where he now resides, his Afrobeat Vibration all-nighters are charged with his passion, labours and his unrelenting spirit.
Reactions
“More cross-genre dub albums like this, please.” Ian Harrison, Q Magazine
“A dub-drenched overhaul, the curious echoes of each percussive inflection build into something stark yet intense.” Clash
“Nice dubs!” DJ Angola, Deckstatic, Zoo, Space NYC, Up & Down (United States)
“Nice spacy and dubby reworks. This mix of dub and afrobeat makes you trip into the deepnes of groove, space and time.” Stefan Guther, [030] Magazin (Germany)
“Absolutely amazing..
If you ever wondered what Fela would do if he had to make a difficult reggae album like Eric Clapton, then fear not! If its anything like this then we can all sleep easily knowing no additional sheriffs were shot. This release evokes the perfect polygamous marriage of Afro-funk, Ethio Jazz + Dub reggae.” Pimpernel Jones, Herma Puma (United Kingdom)
“Outstanding!” Georgios Paroglou, label manager/DJ (Greece)
“I might of said this before but if you’re looking for a Dream Team [bearing in mind the events in Rio that’s going on], putting together Dele Sosimi, Prince Fatty and Ben Nostalgia 77 is pretty good; putting them together to produce a dub version of Dele’s afrobeat brilliance is even better. The 2 genres match perfectly with the King Fatty 77 echochamber in the Brighton Beach trenchtown village [or should that be gven a whole new East End beardy postcode? PF77… or genre afrobepf4577?
I love this, it’s going to be top plays for Jazz Chronicles and Futuristica Music for me.
You No Fit Touch Am is cool as the hit lead track but love the extended 12″” style of E Go Betta which goes perfect with the chilled beer sea view of Hectic Towers; tomorrow can be no betta than this as every home should have this sanctuary.
Talking of which, Sanctuary is a bit word for a dub in my highly opinionated view; more should have been made of the “”james brown”” quote – who can ever tire of anyone repeating the name of james brown with echo efx? But that’s a small gripe as the drums at the end make up for this.
Not only that, there’s ‘Na My Turn’, ‘I Don’t Care’ and the previously leaked [and super dope] ‘Dance Together’.
I can’t say I mind a house edit of ‘Too Much Information’ but the PF77 dub extraveganza is the way to go – dubwise forever!
Love you all and many thanks again.
Can you believe the club house are playing the best of Dire Straits whilst I type this – one day, all bars will only be licenced to play wahwah45s approved tunes..happy summers..” Gerry Hectic, Futuristica Music, Jazz Chronicles and Secret Garden Party Radio’s Mixcloud Competition Winner 2015 (United Kingdom)
“The single was amazing enough! To have the whole thing on wax is excellent :)” Leo Mallon, jaheire (Ireland)
“Love Sanctuary!” Amrisha, Radar Radio (United Kingdom)
“Afro meets dub is a good thing especially when Prince Fatty is involved with the concept..it works for me.” Steve Johns, Solar Radio (United Kingdom)
“Great idea – waiting to happen! The Dub mixes have kept the same retro future feel as the album – nice and heavy. Tracks standing out for me are You No Fit Touch Am, Na My Turn , I Don’t Care. I will definitely play it out next time I do and also on my Radio shows on Resonance FM and Wycombe Sound and in my new feature of music received coming up on www.outerglobe.co.uk” Debbie Golt, The Outerglobe on Resonance 104.4fm/resonanceffm.com + Wycombe Sound (United Kingdom)
“Love it and cant wait to play it out and on the radio/web show. Its at #1 in our charts now!
http://www.juno.co.uk/charts/dj/403181-AfroBase_Radio_Chart/2098026-Chart/” John Warr, AfroBase on Radio Reverb and on TotallyRadio (DAB/FM/Web) (United Kingdom)
“Yes on the Nostalgia Dub!” DJ Harv, www.pointblank.fm (United Kingdom)
“Many thanks, lovely stuff.” Dan Wesker, Detektor FM (Germany)
“Loving all the new dubs. proper!” Dayo, Metro 97.7fm (Nigeria)
“Reminds me of our project Allenko Brotherhood Ensemble – 15 years ago , only this has a dub influence – I like it!” Don Rogall, DJ / The Hoochie Koo / We Are.. Radio / Bassy Club resident / Electric Sideshow (Germany)
“Perfect combo of afrobeat and dub reggae from the masters of the genre, love it.” Nick Rayman, Barricade Radio (United Kingdom)
“I can’t name a favourite as the dub influence of Prince Fatty over the Afrobeat rthymns of Dele is a match made in heaven. These will be on heavy rotation in my sets and upcoming mixtapes. Just dope.” DJ Mr Lob, mixcloud.com/mrlob (Australia)
“All tracks top quality.” Robert Lochmann, radio producer at Radio X, freelance DJ (Germany)
“I love this vibe. Myself and the Afrobrasiliana crew down here in Sydney have been giving Dele high rotation at our parties. This is a killer addition to the album.” Jon McCulloch, Eastside Radio 89.7FM (Australia)
“Right up my alley. need more of these dubbed out afrobeat vibes. only challenge here is deciding which one to play on the show tonight!” Jason Pulaski, innamissions radio / kuci 88.9fm (United States)
“Really nice reinvention of Dele’s “neo-traditional” style. Our audience will love it! Are there physical copies by any chance?” Jeffrey Pascoe (DJ Jay Paul), WRUV-FM, Burlington VT (United States)
“The idea to dub afrobeat by itself is great, and done dis way it is big.” Dj Bunuel, Radio Helsinki, Radio YLE1 (Finland)
“Really great melding of afrobeat and dub, works brilliantly. Congrats all round!” Peter McLennan, Radio BaseFM, Dubdotdash music blog (New Zealand)
“Solid soundz!” Black Mighty Wax aka Cesare Cera, Radio Fujiko 103, Radio Bologna Uno, Nu Lounge, Irma Fashion Radio (Italy)
“Nice thumbs up all-round. Nice fat dramatic beats and dub wise production. Thank you.” Fitzroy The Original Soul Survivor, Soul Survivors Magazine (United Kingdom)
“AWESOME!!!” Hector Pizarro, Chile con mix (France)
“Golden Dub! A great “reimagination” of Dele Sosimi!” Christos Exarchopoulos, Black Radio Berlin (Germany)
“AWESOME COLLECTION” Allan Skov, Friendly PR (Denmark)
“Beautiful. Plenty of Afro Dub goodness to enjoy.” DJ Osric, RTR FM (Australia)
“I was not expecting this!!!!!” Anthony Allsop, Ketch A Vibe (United Kingdom)
“A dub version of the album makes perfect sense. Can’t imagine how good some Fela dubs would be … were any ever done?” Chris Greenwood, MI SOUL, SOAS RADIO, BEDROOM BAR, SMS (United Kingdom)
“Great.” Satta Mann, Real Roots (United Kingdom)
“Can’t wait to hear this whole thing, great so far.” Phil Stockton, kpsu Radio Portland (United States)
“Original already rotating.” Chrigi G. us Z., radio gds.fm (Switzerland)
“Wonderful, very much looking fwd to listening properly. Deep stuff.” Jim Lister, 1 Brighton FM (United Kingdom)
“Awesome dub.” Sam Allen, Stellar Inflight (Australia)
“Gorgeous!” Dobo Marzov, The “45 RPM” Radio Show (Radio Varna, part of the Bulgarian National Radio) (Bulgaria)
“Wow, Dele Sosimi in a brand-new dub outfit! Love this dubbed out afro sound, very nice!” Sven Thomschke / ‘Dr.Best’, Radio Z 95.8 Nuernberg (Germany)
“Dope, will support.” kid fonque, DJ (South Africa)
“Playing You No Fit Touch Am tonight on the radio show. Digging the afrobeat sound with a deeper and spacier touch. Nice work.” Kengo Oshima, Soho radio, Cuban Brothers (United Kingdom)
“Love it.” Martin Read (United Kingdom)
“Great collab – love it.” DJ Gilla, First Word Records (United Kingdom)
“Love me some good afro-dub.” David Bassin, FreeFall/SFCR/Space Invader Radio (United States)
“I already know that i’m going to love this. I’ve hammered the last couple of remixes. Thanks again. Love you Waaaaahs x” Mickey Duke, 1 Brighton FM (United Kingdom)
“Love it.” Rupert & Mennert, Weird Pigs, Compost (Netherlands)
“Killer dubs, looking forward to smashing these on the show!!” Alan O’Malley, Shoreditch Radio (United Kingdom)
“A high five for David Hutchison and his dub suggestion. This is it!!” Maarten Leenknecht, Chunks of Funk, Bruzz, Reform Radio (Belgium)
“Dele Sosimi – Afro beat of it’s highest!” Selector Stiliyan, Love & Happiness Music (Bulgaria)
“Real dope !!!! Thanks.” Mathieu Schreyer, KCRW (United States)
“Sufficiently good to switch on my ’that’s brilliant’ light.” Andrew Sharp, Stomp Radio (United Kingdom)
”Wow.. this is amazing. Pure class. What a marriage . Gonna give this a good rinsing over the coming months…“ David Kerslake / DJ Expression,Pureflava Radio (United Kingdom)
”Top shelf release from Wah Wah.“ DJ Toon, Eastside Funkdafied (Australia)
”Such a great vibe, once again, just go buy!!” Shep Kennedy, Likwid head of music (United Kingdom)
“Great stuff.” Chris Read, BBE / So Much Soul (United Kingdom)
“CLASSSSSSICSSSSS!“ Michael Stukes, Mystic Vybes WHCR 90.3 FM NY (United States)
”Afro meets America – interesting musical combo but did not catch me all the way as some of the originals strength and power got lost.“ Oliver Korthals, Mojo Club / >Out of spectrum< weekly @ byte.fm (Germany)
Nemone, BBC Radio 6 Music
Tom Ravenscroft, BBC Radio 6 Music
The Expedition Show, Dash Radio (United States)
Andy Sharp, Stomp Radio (United Kingdom)
innamissions., KUCI 88.9fm (United States)
Sven Thomschke, Radio Z (Germany)
DJ Bunuel, Radio Helsinki (Finland)
John Warr, AfroBase, Totally Radio and Radio Reverb (United Kingdom)
Andy Williams, The Goods Radio Show (United Kingdom)
DJ Mr. Lob (Australia)
Andrew Haig, The Shizzle, Bay FM (Australia)
