Orchestre Poly-Ryhtmo De Cotonou – Malin Kpon O
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – Ma Dou Sou Nou Mio
Orchestre Poly-Ryhtmo de Cotonou – Noude Ma Gnin Tche De Me
This was originally going to be just a little highlight of this record, but I just had too much to say and wanted to share just a bit more. 2009 has been a very good year for reissued/uncovered funk from all over the world. One of the best collections is this volume from Analog Africa, featuring this mostly obscured but mighty band from Benin and covering recordings made from 1969-1979 for the Albarika Store label. The first volume of music from this group, released just last year, was really very solid, but I can’t express to you just how fantastic this collection is.
This group just gets in the pocket like nobody’s business, and while it seems almost blasphemous to say, they might have been even better than Fela’s Africa 70. Part of the reason I feel that way is the diversity of sounds, tempos and rhythms this group employs. All of these are front and center on “Malin Kpon O.” With it’s opening wash of organ and creeping funk throughout, this one is nothing short of a monster. It’s exactly the kind of song that would start an obsessive crate digging quest, which is precisely what happened to Analog Africa’s founder once he got a hold of this track 5 or 6 years ago.
However, my personal favorite remains “Ma Dou Sou Nou Mio,” an upbeat burner of a song, with wild, just wild I tell you, organ and guitar lines/solos before turning things over to some massively funky drums. Midway through that break, the drummer shifts the rhythm subtly and in that moment the song switches from sounding distinctly African to sounding more like upbeat funk from Texas or someplace else in the US in the early 1970s. Just an insanely funky track.
Then there’s “Noude Ma Gnin Tche De Me” which shows this group could rock out with the best of ‘em too. Really I could go on and on cause there are nothing but winners on this comp. from the Cymande in Africa opener “Se Ba Ho,” to upbeat strutters like “Me Ve Wa Se” and “Ahouli Vou Yelli,“ to slow cookers like the super duper heavy “Gan Tche Kpo.”
Apparently Analog Africa has over 500 songs from this group they are working on compiling in forthcoming years, including unreleased material, which is just astounding. If the quality keeps up like this, they will have significantly rewritten the history of African music and also re-energized a ton of crate-diggers.
I had an earlier comp of theirs on Soundway which was good, but never really blew me away. These three tracks however sound superb. Love the fuzz in Malin Kpon O.
Like I said, I thought the volume that came last year was good, but this one blows that away. One of the best reissues of 2009. Glad you dug it.