"Sometimes it’s better to not know each other as people first and just play," says Yannis Philippakis, one of the last musicians to get on the tools with the late Afrobeat pioneer, Tony Allen.

Dave Sitek, who produced Foals’ 2008 debut album, Antidotes, mandated the group only listen to Afrobeat records leading up to the recording, Fela Kuti and Tony Allen specifically.