Toli & The Femm Nameless See Line

The year was 2001. Across the water in Brooklyn, a fiyah was starting. This time of political unrest gave birth to a vibrant New York City Afrobeat scene that was bubbling throughout the boro! In comes Trombonist, Toli Nameless with a newly formed vision: an 8-piece Afrobeat group, comprised ENTIRELY of women, called The Femm Nameless. These ladies took to the streets armed with their weapons of choice - their instruments.

Led by Toli ( who recorded with Antibalas on their classic version of Willie Colon’s Che Che Colé ), The Femm Nameless picked up where the Godfather of Afrobeat, Fela Anikulapo Kuti left off, just after meeting Sandra Izsadore. They had a powerful and unmistakeable energy that could only come from a woman, or in this case, 8 women.

But unless you were in Brooklyn at the time, you may have never heard of the Femm Nameless, let alone these three recordings that we are proud to bring to you today. Long defunct, the group disbanded after some active years of performing live and recording an incredible demo that never saw the light of day - until now.

Kooyman Records dug into the vaults, mastered and unearthed these jams from Toli & The Femm Nameless the proper way, on a heavy weight piece of 10” vinyl! The record includes a dance floor monster- a cover of Nina Simone’s See Line Woman, flipped upside down, in fine Afrobeat style! The few DJs who had a demo version of the tune still blow up dance floors with it to this day!

The ideas on the record were put together by Toli, along with Tom Brenneck (of The Dapkings, The Budos Band and The Menahan Street Band) and Ernesto Abreau (of Antibalas) . The record was recorded and engineered in East Flatbush, Brooklyn by Sydney Mills (of Steel Pulse).