While the American side of this equation had a pronounced interest in African music (Eagleson has a P.H.D. in musicology) and while we imagine Jagwasi also knew a great deal about our music, one wouldn’t have expected this hastily recorded collaboration to result in such a gem of an album. The final product, Ok-Oyot System, was released on Thrill Jockey in 2005 and effectively bridged two similar but rarely mixed genres. While the album was much more African than American, Minoff and Eagleson’s contributions were such that the music felt approachable and certainly palatable to those of us who aren’t world music aficionados.

The tragedy in the face of this success was the death of Jagwasi due to complications related to HIV. Fortunately, what they had started was too excited to let fall to the wayside, and Onyago Wuod Omari and Opiyo Bilongo took over on drums and vocals and guitars, respectively. The new quartet produced the 2007 effort Hera Ma Nono, and this year the band followed their sophomore album up with Thank You Very Quickly.

To be uncharacteristically blunt and to the point, Thank You Very Quickly is an astounding album. It succeeds in that it challenges listeners with new sounds and approaches, be they used to traditional Benga or rock and roll. However, the grooves and song structures have a sort of classical excellence to them, charming the ears with incredible musicianship and great hooks. On that end, the guitars sound excellent, but it may be drummer Omari who is most impressive here. The man’s trap set playing absolutely smokes. Add some auxiliary percussion on top of it (as on “Fantasies of the Orient”) and, in this case, you have one of the best songs of the year. Thick with rolls and a hard-hitting backbeat, Omari’s playing is alternately expressive and impressive without venturing into an overload of fills.

Unlike their debut, on this album Extra Golden find more room to breathe but without losing the hunger that propelled that first record. The songs are thicker than before, with cleaner production and the added touches of organ. The vocals trade off from Minoffs’ to Omari, as on the aforementioned masterpiece “Fantasies of the Orient.” The clanking cow bells and hand claps push the song into a jammy, weirdly math rock direction that melds particularly well with the established signature vocal lines.

Thank You Very Quickly does not rush. Each of the six tracks are over five minutes long, giving the musicians time to bend the song structures. If anything, their approach almost mirrors the iconoclastic days of ‘70s rock, without the bombast and pretension of even some of that scene’s best representatives. The title track gracefully morphs around four minutes into a shuffling, thoughtful interplay between guitar soloing and the solid pull of organ and drums. This is the rare album that really might appeal to any music lover whose tastes are broad enough to allow for playful fusion, as well as an established appreciation for what makes any album worth replaying again and again.

Recommended Tracks: "Thank You Very Quickly," "Gimakiny Akia," "Fantasies of the Orient."

-Adam Schragin