Album review

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou

The Vodoun Effect

Paris 

01/09/2009 - 

The Orchestre Poly-Rythmo have proved to be one of the most prolific bands in African history, recording over 500 songs from the moment they got together in Cotonou in 1968. Four decades on, The Vodoun Effect - a compilation delving into the cult Beninese band's archives - looks set to earn the voodoo-funk veterans the recognition they deserve abroad.

Poly-Rythmo made so many different records in so many different places on so many different labels that sifting through their output was always going to be a mammoth undertaking for one man. Samy Ben Redjeb made the intelligent choice of narrowing his focus and concentrating on one particularly intense period in the band's career: 1973-1975.

Benin's most sought-after band whipped up an extraordinarily audacious mix, fusing soul and funk influences with traditional voodoo vibes such as "sato" (an energetic rhythm pounded out on a huge vertical drum.) Poly-Rythmo's bewitching sound was compounded by highlife flooding in from Ghana and Afro-beat skipping across the border from neighbouring Nigeria.

In compiling the first volume of The Vodoun Effect, Samy Ben Redjeb focuses on raw, under-produced recordings that Poly-Rythmo made on small, obscure labels in the early seventies. (The work Poly-Rythmo effected in the hi-tech studios of Lagos is to be released on a second volume due out in October.) The recordings on this volume may be makeshift - think a couple of microphones plugged into a reel-to-reel tape recorder as the orchestra plays in a backyard -  but they have the merit of capturing Poly-Rythmo in all their glorious spontaneity.

The fourteen frenetic tracks on The Vodoun Effect, all destined to be released as 45rpms, confirm Poly-Rythmo as the kings of Benin's urban groove. What's more, this compelling CD comes complete with an impressively in-depth booklet packed with scores of photos and colourful anecdotes. A rare treat indeed!

Read the interview  Poly Rythmo

Bertrand  Lavaine

Translation : Julie  Street