Femi Kuti and Made Kuti: Legacy+ review – Afrobeat's first family look forward

Much like the Marleys and reggae, the Ali Khans and Sufism or the Shankars and raga, Fela Kuti’s family name has long been synonymous with Afrobeat. The Kuti dynasty is one that perpetuates an artful blend of Ghanaian highlife melody with undulating funk rhythm, celebratory soul vamps and a fierce socio-political message, ever since Fela’s breakout in the 1970s.

It is a legacy that has wound its way into everything from hip-hop samples on Mos Def and Missy Elliot records to the current London jazz resurgence exemplified by Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd. Fela’s own children have been some of his most rigorous acolytes: on this double album, aptly titled Legacy+, Fela’s eldest son Femi partners with his own son Made to create both an anthology of the music’s essence and a gesture to its future.

Related: Different beat: how Fela Kuti’s son and grandson are modernising the dynasty

Femi’s opening half, titled Stop the Hate, convincingly channels Fela’s role as a masterful bandleader. It pairs the jittering, high register guitar line of the classic Zombie with a driving rhythm on Na Bigmanism Spoil Government, and Pà Pá Pà, Stop the Hate and Set Your Minds and Souls Free centre Femi’s yearning falsetto on luscious, fanfare horn arrangements that recall the celebration of a Duke Ellington section.

Taken on its own, Stop the Hate is a pleasing if somewhat unremarkable continuation of the Afrobeat canon, yet it serves to lay the foundations for Made’s second half, For(e)ward. Where Femi’s voice is endearingly wavering, the younger Kuti is far more forceful, using his baritone to speak-sing over the pared down rhythms of tracks Blood, Different Streets and Free Your Mind.

It’s Made who distils the political import of Afrobeat – rallying against racism, corruption and division – over off-kilter arrangements that take in the rhythmic power of hip-hop and subdue the maximalism of his grandfather Fela’s music in service of its message. Here we witness a modern manifestation of the Kutis’ music, one that recognises its heritage and tackles old problems with a renewed vigour.

Also out this month

Ramallah-based producer Muqata’a releases his fifth album, Kamil Manqus, an often abrasive blend of raw samples, found audio and propulsive breakbeats – it’s a welcome dose of early-hours club experimentalism. Venezuelan singer-songwriter La Chica’s latest, La Loba, pairs sparse instrumentation with her crystalline vocals to create a spacious work of surprising depth. Guitarist David Walters pulls together an all-star band, including Malian kora virtuoso Ballaké Sissoko, for his celebratory album Nocturne, channeling Martinican creole, finger-picking folk and French hip-hop.