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Afro Strut, AMP FIDDLER's second solo album, finds him stepping onwards and upwards as he continues to define his own, very singular style. It's also a record made with reference to a wider world ­ a world that has warmly embraced Amp and his music. Two tracks ­ Right Where You Are and Ridin' ­ were recorded in Manchester with electronica producer Justin "Only Child" Crawford. The title track, which features the veteran Afro-funk pioneer Tony Allen (who recorded his parts in Paris), appears as a series of linking fragments, giving the record a strong foundation in the motherland. Between and around these pieces, Amp weaves songs that speak of the personal and political, the sacred and profane. It is almost as if, while his music has grown and headed out across geographical and emotional boundaries, his songs have homed in on those things he knows best, those feelings he can most clearly express.

Amp considers his two records to be from different viewpoints ­ essentially, Ghetto Fly was the world seen through the eyes of a child, in simplistic, clearly defined terms; Afro Strut, instead, reverberates to an inner rhythm, and concerns itself more with the nuances and subtleties an of an adult point of view. With "Waltz" Amp gave us an innocent, open-hearted perspective of neighbourhood life - his testament to everything he saw round about him, from the ghettofly characters he'd watch from his porch to scenes from his elder brothers' lives, all mixed in with his unique take on love and relationships. The journey he continues with Afro Strut is necessarily different, reflective of the more solid standpoint his experiences as a touring musician around the globe have given him. Last time out, you know how he felt, and got a good idea about how he lives his life and views the world: this time, you're there beside him as he wanders around, taking in the sights and sounds, meeting friends, hanging out and chewing the fat. 

Though by no means religious, Amp is deeply spiritual, and this side of him comes out in tracks like Faith, another collaboration with the former Tony, Toni, Tone and Lucy Pearl mastermind Raphael Saadiq, and Heaven, a duet with Stephanie McKay.

As before, most of the record was made at Camp Amp, the basement studio Fiddler operates in his Detroit home. It's a basic set-up, just a live room, vocal booth and mixing desk, but even there, Amp's tendency is to further circumvent the technology working by himself much of the time.

Afro Strut is a record that reflects not just the life experiences but the musical make-up of its creator. After learning piano as a child, Fiddler studied music at Oakland and Wayne State Universities, and with the jazz great Harold McKinney. He joined a do-wop outfit, The Enchantments, as a teen, then in 1983 received his big break when a friend passed a tape of his playing to George Clinton. Bernie Worrell, the Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist, was leaving the mothership, and Amp ended up replacing him, touring with Clinton and the P-Funk Mob for more than a decade. He signed with Elektra and released an album with his brother, Mr Fiddler, in 1990, but the record proved too eclectic for the label to work out how to sell.

Amp will always keep moving forward ­ and as he embarks on the next stage of his journey, bringing Afro Strut to the world, he seems ready for whatever the experience will throw at him. But most of all, he's itching to bring another little bit of Seven Mile to the rest of the world.