#alostmen

Yet though the kologo may be the root, this music is pretty far from traditional shepherd music, drawing electronics, rap, highlife and reggae into its volatile mix. The staccato, pinging tones of kologo intersect with intricate rhythms on multiple types of hand drums; credits list Aminu Amadu on talking drum and Sowah on gome box, djembe and congo. A swooning, swooping goje fiddle played by Jo Ajusiwine caroms through “Fauziah,” while African rapper Yaa Pono stutter-chants a hard rhyme. Calls are haunting, responses lush and communal.  Producers Wanlov (Fok’n Bois) and Percy Yip Tong bring an amplified, modern fire to Alostmen’s complicated chants and beats. Kologo is a very good time.

And yet, while they groove in the hardest, most hedonistic way possible, Alostmen preach a message, too. “Teach Me,” is a rousing anthem to self-sufficiency setting the old “Teach a man to fish” maxim to a polyrhythmic, polytonal patter of drums. The drumming here gallops and prances and nearly sings, the percussionists derive many different notes from different parts of their instruments, stringing them together in a propulsive melody. The band cuts loose in the final third of the song, in a wailing, caterwauling, exhilarating interplay of voices and drums and kologo that cranks up stone-age vocal elements into an electrified celebration of movement.

The very best track, “Minus Man, brings in Ghanaian highlife star Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and a big brass line to light a match under Alostmen’s already incendiary music. “More bass, more bass,” yells Atambire, as the deep-voiced Ambolley growls and mutters at the low end. Guitars twitch and recoil on the upbeats, hand-drums batter recklessly forward and a brace of trumpets blare, in a bracing amalgam of funk, highlife and rap. The mix is loud and lush enough that you can just barely hear the kologo in it. It reminds you that the instrument may have come before everything else but is very far from the final word on what Alostmen can do with their space age take on traditional music.