Ikoyi Blindness

AMG Review of Ikoyi Blindness

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

Ikoyi Blindness was a middle-of-the-pack release in a sea of mid-1970s Kuti records that featured two songs and about a half-hour's worth of music. The rhythms were a little tighter and more highlife-influenced than they had been on albums from earlier in the decade. "Ikoyi Blindness" itself was pretty typical of efforts from the period, both in a structure that built up to call-and-response vocal, and in a taut two-chord melodic base. "Gba Mi Leti Ki N'Dolowo (Slap Me Make I Get Money)" is a little more interesting due to its choppier rhythms, more vibrant percussion, stuttering low guitar riff, and extended haunting electric keyboard lines. Both songs are on the 2001 MCA CD reissue Ikoyi Blindness/Kalakuta Show, which also includes both songs from the 1976 release Kalakuta Show.