Somewhere in Afrika (UK Review)
Over the past two or so years, everyone has jumped on the African
bandwagon, and at this late date it would be easy (and cheap) to accuse Manfred Mann of belatedly doing the same. But far from ripping off the Burundi drummers, High Life or Kwela, Mann is trying something far more ambitious, along the lines
of Peter Gabriel's recent espousal of not only African sounds but also the African 'cause'. "Somewhere in Afrika" is a loosely-grouped 'concept album' (No wait! Come back!) dealing with the subject of the Bantustans. These are
sex-segregated work camps and townships in which blacks are forced to live, where often a wide and family are placed in a camp hundreds of miles from the husband's. Slimmed down almost to a one-man band, with vocal help from R&B singer
Steve Waller and longtime Earthband frontman Chris Thompson, plus bass and guitar from Matt Irving and percussion from John Lingwood, Mann is here attempting to mix his traditional rock style with electronic versions of African music and. as
is his wont, cover versions given a different context by their inclusion on the album. Of these, Al Stewart's "Eyes of Nostradamus" works well in its new setting, but Sting's song for Grace Jones, "Demolition Man", and Bob
Marley's "Redemption Song" sit uneasily in the new framework. Mann's own songs, however, employing expatriate black musicians and singers, often work well, sometimes even deserving comparison with Gabriel's cross-cultural
'fusions'. Forget his 'BOF' standing, it's an admirable effort. JG
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