Yannis & The Yaw Unites Foals’ Yannis Philippakis With Afrobeat Legend Tony Allen | News

Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis has unveiled plans for a new collaborative EP with the late Tony Allen.

The frontman confirmed the news overnight, with the new project going by the name Yannis & The Yaw. Incoming EP ‘Lagos Paris London’ lands on August 30th via Transgressive Records, melting together indie, electronics, and afrobeat.

The EP owes a debt to sessions some time back, with Yannis Philippakis and afrobeat legend Tony Allen heading into the studio. Nigerian drummer Tony Allen is renowned for his role on Fela Kuti’s seminal work, and Brian Eno once cited him as one of the finest percussionists of all time.

The duo worked together across a two-day spell, yielding an EP’s worth of material; using this raw audio, Yannis then added to it over subsequent sessions.

At first, Tony Allen was “pleasantly dismissive” of the indie singer’s overtures, before the sessions evolved into an “undeniable connection through generations, through cultures, through experiences…”

Sadly, Tony Allen died in 2020, with the EP landing in full on August 30th. Yannis comments…

“There was an imperative to finish it in a way that I had never felt with another record. There was a deep duty to do it, to finish it as well as possible, and to pay respect to him by getting it out there. Going through some of the drum takes was a moving experience because those recordings were some of the last pieces of music he ever worked on. There’s an eternal quality to these drum tracks, and you feel a continuity of his life and energy through them. He wanted people to hear this, and it’s good to be able to do it for him – but of course it’s slightly bittersweet.”

New song ‘Walk Through Fire’ is fantastic – Tony Allen’s playfully adventurous (and deeply funky) groove sitting underneath Yannis’ surging vocals.

Tune in now.

Tracklisting:
1. Walk Through Fire
2. Rain Can’t Reach Us
3. Night Green, Heavy Love
4. Under The Strikes
5. Clementine

Related: Future Rhythm Machine – Tony Allen Interviewed

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