Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou
We are just blissing out to this album, which I bought on a whim today.. The Vodoun Effect by Benin's Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou, a legendary, psychedelic-funk-vodun band which recorded extensively in the seventies. This is from volume one; the second volume, called Echoes Hypnotiques, is out in a week or so.
More info and sound clips on the label blog, Analog Africa.
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14 comments:
I loved that, Nilpferd. I'm going to look for the album. Thanks.
Fantastic jangly stuff!
This or something very like it featured at a mid-week African Night upstairs at The Fridge, Brixton, in the mid-'80's. Some of those 5-guitar east african orchestres nearly put me in a St. Vitus trance 'til I learned to cool it a bit, take it at quarter-speed. Now I've got me some reggae-legs, and can dance all evening.
There was a rage for all things african around then: we'd pack our passports and venture north from Balham to catch Salif Keita at The Mean Fiddler in Harlesden.
Glad you liked it!
Wednesdays I take Mara to ballet, so I have an hour to burn in our local cd store, they have listening posts and are happy to open cds for you.. a guy came in and asked for this album, he got directed to the back of the store. The cd also happened to be right under my nose in the World Music recommendations rack, and the band name was intriguing, so I put it on.. it's still nice to get stuff on a whim now and then, spoiled as we are by so many great suggestions on here each week.. I'm really looking forward to the new volume, which is the band's recordings for one of the top Nigerian labels; Vol. 1 is a selection of the lo-fi recordings they made in Benin.
Serendipity - you should never refuse it.
I do think that a lot of what we do here - fun an' games as it is - has a fairly high-octane competitive level.
Pure happenstance - the look of a cover? the overheard word? can open doors.
I like that, too. Are there any hi-fi recordings? I like some deliberate lo-fi but I presume this was down to cost. Shame.
Think the lo-fi-iness adds to the authenticity somehow. Liked the trancey repetition - thanks for sharing.
Chris, Vol. 1 is the lo-fi stuff they recorded with a variety of garage labels in Benin, the forthcoming Vol. 2 (I'll post some when I have it) has much better sound quality recordings they made for Nigeria's Albarika Store label.
The tranceness comes from Vodou, these songs were often adapted from "calling up the spirits" type chants.
BP...the look of a cover: that reminds me of how I discovered the Incredible String Band. In the summer of '66 I was 17 and came up to London for the day to buy myself some boots. I had £10 which I'd saved from my Sunday job at the newsagent's. I went to every shoe shop in Bond Street, which is a lot of shoe shops - and incidentally £10 would've been plenty for a pair of Bond Street boots in those days - but couldn't find the style I wanted, and I ended up in the Antique Supermarket where I bought an art nouveau ring with a large zircon set in silver. I had some money left so I went into the HMV shop in Oxford Street and browsed around for a bit till I found the ISB's first album (which had only just come out). I was intrigued by the picture on the cover which had them holding some peculiar-looking musical instruments so I asked to listen to it, liked it, bought it, went home and was told off by my mother for wasting my money on fripperies instead of buying sensible footwear. I thought this was very unfair, since it was my own money after all.
Later I got some second-hand theatrical boots from Anello and Davide, the stage costumiers. They were a bit flimsy, but they looked right. I still like the ISB, and the moral of this story is that the 'Spill is a great place for memories.
TFD.. nice story.. just gave me an idea for a post.. brb..
Listening to this one reminds me that this week is the 20th anniversary of Franco's death, in '89 I was backstage at a Papa Wemba event between sets and one of the musicians asked me "You heard that Franco died.... aids." Orch de Cotonou are a new group to me, love 'em, I like most music from west Africa.
Cheers, GF. There's an interesting essay in the liner notes which traces the movement of Vodou rhythms from Haiti north into Louisiana and New Orleans in the 19th century, with a mention of informal drum meetings which took place near N.O. and possibly became one of the key ingredients in jazz, as well as a connection from Vodou to the blues through Robert Johnson. Vodou then made it to Benin with freed slaves who moved from Brazil across to west Africa; Cuban influences also began to play a role musically, then James Brown's influence mixed in funk and soul- called Jerk in West Africa- to build up a potent brew by the early seventies.
@treefrog
Oh yes - trailing around Ken High with some wispy girlfriend, dipping in to Biba and that warren of an antique supermarket . . .
And shoes. It would take a small Phillipeen island to store all the shoes I'd like to own. It might have started with Anello & David and some wispy male friend who had the nerve to buy boots there.
It's like me and hats - I love them all, but with jug-ears - I'm never going to cut it with anything more stylish than a balaclava.
Oh and I never even got round to the String Band.
My Mary can't stand them - like I can't take her Van Morrison. You'd think that would be enough grounds for divorce - but apparently not. It's thirty years and counting . . .
Anyway - it was fantastic to read about you buying such an . . . unfashionable-looking album. They were handsomely hairy, but still very much folk-circuit at that point (even tho' some of the songs were heading out elsewhere).
Could there be a String Band florescence here, on this site? In our life-time?
I have all the early albums (up to Wee Tam and The Big H), and I can sing all the songs. My usual explanation is that I was abducted from teaching in a North London Comprehensive in 1974, and kept prisoner in a West Cork commune for two years. Staying in County Cork for the next twenty years only proves how effective the brainwashing was.
But Mary's aversion to them shows that they are neither viral nor compelling.
A private vice then.
BloodyParadise, the ISB came to the folk club I went to in about 1966/7 (just Robin and Mike by then) and I also saw them at the Edinburgh festival in '68. I had forced my husband to go along because he didn't believe they could really play all those instruments. Boy, was HE surprised.
The I saw RW on his own a little while ago (well, 10 years maybe) in Milton Keynes, but he only played for 10 minutes or so before stomping off because he said the sound was rubbish. It was an open-air concert so I don't know what he expected.
I have the same albums as you!
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