Mother Ethiopia

There are records that come along and surprise you sometimes, songs that show a change of direction, new influences, time spent with other musicians a willingness to experiment with new ideas and new sounds. And then there are the new 12″ single from Paul Weller.

There are three new songs, all out now digitally with a 12″ to follow in September, all titled Mother Ethiopia, recorded with soul band The Stone Foundation. This one is part 3, subtitled No Tribe No Colour and done with London based Ethiopian three-piece Krar Collective, with the vocals sung in Amharic by singer Genet Assefa. This is super loose and super funky Afrobeat and it’s likely to cause a certain amount of shuffling of feet and shaking of arses. The more conservative elements of Weller’s audience may be slightly perplexed by this and rush off home to put on Going Underground again- but make no mistake, this is really, really good.