Manfred's Masterpiece

RECORD REVIEWS – The Argus (South Africa) 2/83

STAR RATINGS:

***** Excellent **** Very good *** Fair to good  **Weak  * Dud

*****  SOMEWHERE IN AFRIKA (Manfred Mann's Earth Band).

Like a shot out of the dark comes this Manfred Mann album, just about the most brilliant I have heard so far in the 80s.

With both African and electronic music growing in popularity, Manfred Mann, always something of an eclectic, has sensitively and intelligently grafted the two together to create an exciting, driving, throbbing masterpiece.

Probably South Africa's most famous rock 'n roll son, Manfred left this country in the early 60s for London, became one of the artists in the forefront of the so-called British invasion of America and, among other achievements, was praised by Bob Dylan for doing the best cover versions of the songwriter's songs.

All that might already be known. This album is a greater achievement than any of the Earth Band's previous efforts and if Manfred Mann does nothing else he can feel proud.

As he has shown before, Manfred has a clever knack of working other people's songs into a different context. Here he uses A1 Stewart's Eyes Of Nostradamus and Sting's Demolition Man brilliantly ... and certainly Bob Marley's Redemption Song, as it has never been played before, is a tour de force.

Mann's own four-part Africa Suite is the highlight of the album. It starts with a piercing synthesiser sequence introducing a verse of Tshotsholosa and thereafter moves through various moods, sometimes lilting rhythmically, sometimes driving hard, always right.

Shannon Sherry