With the release of 'Fu Chronicles', for Antibalas front man Duke Amayo, a long-cherished dream project becomes reality. Amayo is as passionate about kung fu as he is about afrobeat and has spent years looking for the right musical fusion between the two. The album immediately catches the eye thanks to its beautiful cover illustration (also Amayo's work), which shows an idealized rendition of Duke's dojo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, which for the longest time also served as the home base for both Antibalas and Daptone Records. The cover of 'Fu Chronicles' also features an image of Amayo's mother Amenawon, dressed in traditional Chinese attire and in a pose reminiscent of a black Statue of Liberty, carrying a baby and her clenched left fist raised in the air (a symbol of solidarity and support and also used as a sign of unity, strength, rebellion and resistance, among others, by the Black Power movement in the United States). Amayo also honors his mother in the opener of the album, a song that also bears her name. But the name Amenawon can also be translated as "may the water you will drink not pass you by", and with the song Amayo pays homage to Yomoya, the goddess of rivers in Yoruba culture. And finally, in kung fu, water is a symbol for being able to adapt to a changing situation over and over again. Musically, the link between kung fu and afrobeat is perhaps most obvious in 'Fight Am Finish', which opens as if it were the soundtrack of a forgotten kung fu movie, before bursting into pure afrobeat. In the song, Amayo calls on Seshat, the ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge and the art of writing, and Ogun, the Yoruba orisha symbolizing industry, technology but also war, to prepare us for our daily struggle for literal and figurative survival. And then, of course, there's the title of the album and 'Fist Of Flowers', clearly a nod to the 1972 Bruce Lee classic 'Fist Of Fury'. 'M.T.T. Pt. 1 & 2' has been a fixture in the band's live shows for years, but is now appearing on record for the first time. In full, the title of the song reads 'Mother Talker Tic Toc Pt. 1 & 2' and is based on the African saying: "The truth and the morning become daylight with time!", referring to cause and effect and the karmic character of time. The fact Amayo labored on this project for years is also illustrated by the fact the songs on 'Fu Chronicles' sound more accessible than those on its more experimental predecessor, 2017s 'Where The Gods Are In Peace'. Kung fu-afrobeat master class!