Tony Allen’s final studio album is to be released exactly one year after his death.
Titled There Is No End, the 14-track record sees the legendary drummer collaborate with a number of artists, including Skepta, Damon Albarn, Danny Brown, Sampa The Great and Nigerian poet Ben Okri. Skepta and Okri feature on the Albarn-aided lead track ‘Cosmosis’, which you can check out above.
Allen had been working on There Is No End before his death, which came before many of the guest artists had a chance to add their vocals to his work. He and producer Vincent Taeger had already recorded the grooves for the record though.
"Tony’s idea was to give rappers the space to breathe and freely create," Taeger says. "He wanted really not to just do Afrobeat, but rather something new and open, with very different sounds for the drums for each song and feels and tempos that were really grounded to the core in hip hop."
This desire to draw on hip hop saw Allen jamming on his drums while listening to key tracks from the genre in his headphones. While conceptualising the album, Allen had said: "I want to make something very much in the present but also bring the young rappers back home."
Decca will release There Is No End on April 30, 2021.
