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May 14, 2021Never content to hinge on traditional modalities, this surprisingly resilient and provocative collection reveals how Allen and friends triumphed against social barbarism and cosmopolitan functionality. As the title succinctly attests, there was seemingly no end to the late musician’s skill, and thankfully no end to the legacy he created for others to benefit from.
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MojoApr 30, 2021These tracks feel more like intimate conversations, with Allen's boundless curiosity shining through. [Jun 2021, p.82]
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Apr 30, 2021There Is No End plays as a cohesive record because of Allen’s capacity to slot into place behind seemingly any collaborator without diluting his innate sense of rhythmic style. The album is a tantalising glimpse of the varied records Allen might have gone on to make; as it stands, it will no doubt inspire others to continue to shape the multitude of work he left behind into giddy new forms.
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Apr 30, 2021It’s an exploratory, ebullient album from start to finish, and one that embodies the insatiable curiosity that led him to work with so many artists from so many different genres, a celebration of collective endeavour and of life itself.
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May 10, 2021There Is No End is Allen as his most copacetic, polished self. It doesn’t feel like the finish line, but rather a passing of the baton—to artists who compelled him to evolve, and to fans always willing to be surprised.
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Apr 30, 2021It’s hard not to want a little more of what made Allen famous on a posthumous record, but that’s probably wrongheaded. True, Allen’s role in giving the world Afrobeat is an unassailable contribution to world culture at large, but his true place in music was that of a restless innovator. In that regard, There Is No End is a fitting tribute to a brilliant musician who was never content to linger too long on the same old beat.
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May 10, 2021There Is No End delivers more evidence of that. Taeger and Taurelle fully comprehended Allen's musicality and embraced its kaleidoscopic dimensions. As such, it is rendered free of the misdirected, sometimes jagged and piecemeal conceits that litter other artists' posthumous offerings.
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UncutApr 30, 2021The DNA strands tying bop, Afrobeat, jungle and funk mean Allen’s steady, minimal jitter philosophically and rhythmically fi ts with a dozen resistant voices, 40 years asfter Fela, flickering beneath Sampa The Great’s taunting slur and, on rubbery highlight “Cosmosis”, Ben Okri, Damon Albarn and Skepta, Allen engaged and inherent in the present ’til the last beat. [Jun 2021, p.21]
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The WireJun 29, 2021While some tracks here showcase his incredible touch, others are straightforward hiphop loops that might have been built using a Tony Allen sample kit, and the album as a whole lacks conceptual or thematic unity. [Jul 2021, p.60]