The Atomic Bomb! Band are a touring supergroup who play the music of Nigerian
funk musician
William Onyeabor
William Ezechukwu Onyeabor (, ; 26 March 1946 – 16 January 2017) was a Nigerian funk musician and businessman. His music was widely heard in Nigeria in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Despite his success, he remained an enigmatic, private and ...
.
The core group is music director Ahmed Gallab and his band
Sinkane
Sinkane (born Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab in London, England) is a Sudanese-American musician who blends krautrock, prog rock, electronica, free jazz and funk rock with Sudanese pop. He is signed to City Slang Records.
Born to college professors in ...
(composed of Jason Trammell on drums, Ish Montgomery on bass and Jonny Lam on guitar),
Alexis Taylor
Alexis Taylor (born 20 April 1980) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist, keyboardist, and guitarist of the band Hot Chip. He is also the keyboardist of the band About Group and has released solo ...
(of
Hot Chip),
Pat Mahoney
Patrick Morgan (Pat) Mahoney, (January 20, 1929 – June 8, 2012) was a Canadian judge, politician, lawyer and businessman.
Mahoney was first elected to parliament in the 1968 election as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Calgary Sou ...
(of
LCD Soundsystem),
Money Mark
Mark Ramos Nishita (born February 10, 1960), known professionally as Money Mark, is an American producer and musician, best known for his collaborations with the Beastie Boys from 1992 until 2011.
Early life
Born in Detroit to a Japanese-Hawai ...
(of the
Beastie Boys)
Lekan Babalola and Jas Walton (of
Antibalas
Antibalas (Spanish for "bulletproof") is an American, Brooklyn-based afrobeat band that is modeled after Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band and Eddie Palmieri's Harlem River Drive Orchestra. Although their music generally follows the musical architect ...
).
Style
William Onyeabor took the classical
HighLife
Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions of African metre and wester ...
style of West Africa into a more electronic and individualised approach, merging it with the approach to music to be found in groups like
Yes,
Focus
Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film
*''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore
* ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...
,
Kraftwerk and
Simple Minds, while retaining the aspects of style which informed early hip-hop and rap. To a great extent Atomic Bomb! returns the style to a more instrumental band-based approach, as the use of a huge backing choir and the combination of several bands using a wider range of instruments shows, although the more folk-ethnic approach of Hi-Life in the 1950s and 60s has largely disappeared.
The project has some similarities to other quasi-symphonic theme-based projects generally classified as Concept Album work in the 1970s, of the type more commonly associate with groups like Yes and Genesis, which were dismissed as excessive by the music industry in the mid 1970s. The work therefore bridges that gap and presents a new, or rather resuscitated, path forwards in an industry which is looking for direction.
Featured guests
The group has also featured special guests including
David Byrne (of
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.[Talki ...](_blank)
),
Damon Albarn (of
Blur and
Gorillaz), the
Lijadu Sisters
The Lijadu Sisters (born 22 October 1948), Taiwo and Kehinde Lijadu (died 9 November 2019), were identical twin sisters from Nigeria who were a Nigerian music duo from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. They achieved success in Nigeria and had modest ...
,
Pharoah Sanders, Jamie Lidell,
Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman (born February 1, 1969) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He is the son of jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman (1931–2006).
Life and career
Joshua Redman was born in Berkeley, California, to jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman ...
,
Kele Okereke
Rowland Kelechukwu Okereke (born 13 October 1981), also known mononymously as Kele, is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the indie rock band Bloc Party.
Early life
Okere ...
(of
Bloc Party
Bloc Party are an English rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Louise Bartle ( ...
), Luke Jenner (of
The Rapture),
Ghostpoet,
Dev Hynes
Devonté Hynes (born David Joseph Michael Hynes, 23 December 1985), also known as Blood Orange and formerly Lightspeed Champion, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and director based in New York City. From 2004 to 2006, Hynes was ...
(aka Blood Orange / Lightspeed Champion), Wally DeBacker (
Gotye
Wouter André "Wally" De Backer (born 21 May 1980), better known by his stage name Gotye ( ), is a Belgian-Australian multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. The name "Gotye" is a pronunciation respelling of "Gauthier", the French cognat ...
),
Young Fathers
Young Fathers are a Scottish band based in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2014, they won the Mercury Prize for their album ''Dead''.
History
Formed in Edinburgh in 2008 by Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham 'G' Hastings, the group starte ...
,
Mahotella Queens
The Mahotella Queens is a South African female band formed in 1964 by music producer Rupert Bopape, consisting of Hilda Tloubatla, Nobesuthu Mbadu, and Amanda Nkosi. The group is noted for their distinct vocal harmony sound, guitar-led mbaqan ...
,
Andrew Ashong,
Zap Mama
Zap Mama is the music act of Belgian artist Marie Daulne. Zap Mama sings polyphonic and afro-pop music, a harmonic music with a mixture of infused African vocal techniques, urban, hip hop with emphasis on voice. The worldwide success of Zap Ma ...
,
Charles Lloyd,
Cheikh Lô
Cheikh N'Digel Lô (born 12 September 1955) is a Senegalese musician.
Early life
He was born to Senegalese parents in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, and began playing drums and singing at an early age.
Career
In 1976, he joined Orchestre Volta J ...
,
Peaking Lights
Peaking Lights are a husband-and-wife music duo who met in San Francisco in 2006 and moved to Spring Green, Wisconsin in December 2007 where they lived until 2009. The couple then moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where they stayed until their return ...
, David Murray, Para One, Mike Floss, Moses Sumney, Sarah Jones,
Green Gartside and
Amadou and Mariam.
[
]
First release
The band released their first recorded material with a limited six-track LP on Record Store Day
Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...
, 22 April 2017.
References
{{reflist
Funk musical groups
Musical groups established in 2014
Supergroups (music)
Luaka Bop artists
Afrobeat musicians