# Fela Kuti & Africa 70 — Zombie Fela Kuti & Africa 70’s Zombie (1976) appears on 5 of our lists — Afrobeat, 1976, Dancing to Bad News, Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records, and The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred, highest at No. 1 in Afrobeat. Every verdict, in full. - **Released:** 1976 - **Label:** Coconut - **On:** Afrobeat, 1976, Dancing to Bad News, Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records, and The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred - **Updated:** 2026-08-29 - **Artist:** [Fela Kuti & Africa 70](https://waxonia.com/artist/fela-kuti-and-africa-70/) - **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie/ ## What 5 lists say ### No. 1 in [Afrobeat](https://waxonia.com/genre/afrobeat/) Twelve minutes calling the Nigerian army a column of unthinking bodies. The state responded by burning his compound down, which is the most direct review any record on this site has received. ### Picked by [1976](https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/) Twelve minutes calling the Nigerian army a column of unthinking bodies, released in Nigeria while that army was in power. They burned his compound down for it and threw his mother out of a window. Nothing else here cost its maker as much. ### Picked by [Dancing to Bad News](https://waxonia.com/theme/dancing-to-bad-news/) Twelve minutes of the most physically irresistible band on the continent, spent calling the Nigerian army a column of unthinking bodies. The soldiers who burned his compound down had understood it; the dancefloor never had to. ### Picked by [Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records](https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/) This one is Radio Nova. I had come out of a very Anglo-Saxon club world in England, and the people there kept putting African and Brazilian records in front of me until my ears were open to all of it. ### Picked by [The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/) Twelve minutes calling the army a column of unthinking bodies, answered by the state burning his compound down. Few records have been taken this seriously by their subject. ## Analysis 12 sections, the first drop of 11 at 0:29, 4% of the way in. - **Tempo:** 129.2 BPM — holds throughout - **Key:** G minor - **Dynamic range:** 7.8 dB — moderate range, typical of a modern master - **Length:** 12:24 - `0:00` A · **intro**, instrumental — opens the record below its own average energy — playing: bass - `0:31` B · **lift** (bar 17), instrumental — a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build — playing: drums, bass, other - `5:17` C · **steady** (bar 171), sung — holding a level — the groove, neither rising nor falling — playing: drums, vocals, other - `6:34` C · **peak** (bar 212), sung — sits at the top of this record's range — playing: drums, vocals, other - `6:56` D · **breakdown** (bar 224), sung — energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning — playing: vocals, other - `7:14` C · **steady** (bar 234), sung — holding a level — the groove, neither rising nor falling — playing: drums, vocals, other - `7:50` C · **peak** (bar 253), sung — sits at the top of this record's range — playing: drums, vocals, other - `8:16` B · **breakdown** (bar 267), instrumental — energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning — playing: drums, vocals - `8:34` C · **peak** (bar 277), sung — sits at the top of this record's range — playing: drums, vocals, other - `8:59` A · **breakdown** (bar 291), instrumental — energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning — playing: other - `9:54` B · **peak** (bar 320), instrumental — sits at the top of this record's range — playing: drums, other - `11:18` A · **outro** (bar 365), instrumental — the closing fall — playing: other **Drops** at 0:29 (bar 16), 1:20 (bar 43), 1:45 (bar 57), 2:43 (bar 88), 6:33 (bar 212), 7:13 (bar 234), 7:50 (bar 253), 8:33 (bar 276), 9:53 (bar 319), 10:47 (bar 349), 11:12 (bar 362). A drop is a moment, not a stretch. **What is playing.** Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names. - **drums:** the drum kit, separated from the mix - **bass:** the bass part, separated from the mix - **vocals:** the voice, separated from the mix - **other:** everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings Measured from the YouTube master on 2026-08-29. Section labels describe how the energy moves, not musical form. Anything we were not confident enough to state is omitted rather than hedged. ## Listen [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Fela%20Kuti%20%26%20Africa%2070%20Zombie) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=RUSg31Ignw4) --- Hand-curated by Waxonia. We host no audio; all links point to streaming platforms.