Strut’s Inspiration Information series moves on from the critically acclaimed Mulatu Astatke / The Heliocentrics collaboration with the fourth album in the series, a mouth-watering head to head between Finnish maverick Jimi Tenor and Afrobeat drumming legend, Tony Allen.

Recorded at Lovelite Studios in Berlin during November 2008 with further sessions this year in Finland and Paris, the Tenor / Allen collaboration whips up a raw, heavy analogue sound mixing the full range of Allen’s Afrobeat repertoire with Tenor’s off-kilter brew of dark humour, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and tight, firing musicianship. The sessions involved key members of Tenor’s Kabu Kabu band and Berlin-based guest MC Allonymous with tracks evolving from jamming ideas together over five intense days of recording, fuelled by plenty of African food and whisky. Tenor’s trademark range of home-made instruments rub shoulders with vintage keyboards and traditional African percussion.

The resulting set is one of the best recordings that both artists have produced in recent years. Tracks range from Jimi’s S&M tableau, "Darker Side of Night" to apocalyptic commentary on our times, "Path To Wisdom" and the hilarious lampooning of the UK immigration system, "Mama England", composed on the Tenor tour bus. The album also features fusions based around traditional Afrobeat structures ("Sinuhe", "Got My Egusi") and ends with the extended freestyle builder, "Three Continents", a life affirming, mesmeric groove built around another belting Allenko rhythm base.

Topical, biting, funny and always funky, experimental but never straying from ‘the one’, this is another high quality addition to the Inspiration Information series, a ‘no rules’ set that brings the best out of both artists.