Agberos International is the 5thstudio album by BANTU. The album was composed and written by all 13 members of the band. It was recorded live in Lagos, Nigeria over a period spanning 6 years. The title of the album ″Agberos International" was inspired by Lagos public bus conductors known as ″Agberos" who attract customers to board their vehicles through their wild gesticulations and loud voices. The album was released on 7.7.2017 by Soledad Productions and distributed internationally on all digital platforms by Okay Africa. The subject matter on ″Agberos International″ is centered around the Niger Delta crisis, oppressive western policies and the blind African ruling class.
Recording and production
According to band leaderAde Bantu the album took six years to complete. It was produced and mixed solely by Aman Junaid This marked a significant shift from all previous BANTU album productions which where always handled by various producers and founding band members Abiodun & Adé Bantu. The writing & composing approach to ″Agberos International″ was unconventional and unique. Draft versions of songs where rehearsed and tried out live at the band's quarterly concert seriesAfropolitan Vibes before fine tuning and recording them. Agberos International was recorded in its entirety with live instruments. The sound of the album ranges from Afrobeat to Highlife, Jazz and Hiphop. For their politically charged song ″Niger Delta Blues° BANTU recruited the services of Afrobeat co-creator Tony Allen on drums.
Critical reception
Agberos International received positive reviews from contemporary critics. In his 4-star review for The Australian Tony Hillier said ″BANTU’s fifth album sashays between the satirical and political without missing a beat — from highlife to hip-hop, from R & B to rap, from afrobeat to American soul. The band’s music resounds with riveting rhythms of classic Brown and Kuti as brass players, guitarists, keyboardists and singers weave hypnotic patterns above pulsating beds and metronomic beats″ Agberos International was voted ″CD of the week″ by German Radio Station COSMO_. Referencing the bands concert series and music festivalDami Ajayi of Sabi News wrote ″BANTU has put out a compendium of their best nights at Afropolitan Vibes on CD″. Joey Akah of Pulse.ng summed up the essence of the album in his 4 1/2-star review as the complete African story saying ″this project is best experienced as a tribute to our motherland, with love, activism, poetry and various shades of dance°
