Bantu releases ‘Agberos International’ album

According to band leader Ade Bantu, the album took about six years to come together. "We said we are not going to write new material until we release this one," Ade Bantu said at an album listening session. Present at the session was the album’s producer Aman Junaid and co-producer of the Afropolitan Vibes concert Abby Ogunsanya.

Each track on the album, which is described as an audio-visual narrative, comes with a single-photo commentary. The band will also make limited edition vinyl copies available. The launch of a physical CD with a 16-page booklet will take place in a fortnight in Lagos, Nigeria. "We are going to give you something that is worth your money," said Ade Bantu. “We want people to go back to the album.”

Some of the songs on the album will be familiar to frequent attendees of the Afropolitan Vibes concert, for which Bantu is house band. "We locked ourselves up in rehearsal rooms for months without end collectively composing, crafting out ideas and trying out 'works in progress' on the Afropolitan Vibes stage before committing them to 'tape'," reads a statement from the band.

The album sees the 13-piece band work with several artists from several fields. Individual items making up the photo-commentary were taken by Aderemi Adegbite, Uche James Iroha, George Osodi, Abiola Balogun and other photographers. The spoken-word poet Wana Wana contributes vocals. And Afrobeat great Tony Allen plays drums on the album. “It is a strange thing where one person writes, produces, and does album covers," said Ade Bantu. "Prince played all instruments on his albums. But Nigerians take it to the next level.”

During the album listening session, a question was asked about the meaning of a song imploring a Lagos Barbie to wave her weave in the air. “It is a tongue in cheek track,” said the band leader. “A serious Lagos Barbie won't wave her weave in the air. We just want people to have fun. Just have a good time.”

Buy Agbero International on the Bantu website