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Various Artists - Legends of Benin
| Pitchfork |
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Analog Africa's Samy Ben Redjeb has spent a lot of time in Benin getting the story of the country's music down, both on paper and on disc. Legends of Benin is his label's third compilation of wicked Beninois groove, and it's easily on par with the first two, one of which was devoted entirely to TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, Benin's greatest band. Poly-Rythmo actually make a few appearances as a backing band on this compilation, which is one of uncountable reasons to check it out. The tracklist focuses on four of Benin's greatest, most distinctive bandleaders-- Honoré Avolonto, Antoine Dougbé, Gnonnas Pedro, and El Rego-- and each brings something special to the table. Each singer could support a compilation on his own, so getting to hear all four duke it out in the same space is a total blast-- they had decidedly different approaches to floor-burning Afrofunk, but there's not a track here that won't make you want to move. Two of the men featured here preferred to lead their own bands, with musicians they selected. Gnonnas Pedro put together a succession of tight outfits over his career, assembling groups that could throw down a hard funk groove one minute and then turn around and reel off a lilting Afro-Cuban track. El Rego's Commandos often came off a little more rocked-up than their counterparts but could hold their own with just about any kind of beat. Antoine Dougbé and Honoré Avolonto tended to bring in the ringers; each spent time with both Poly-Rythmo and sensational trumpeter Ignace de Souza's Black Santiago orchestra....full text |
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| Bbc |
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Legends Of Benin comprised of fast-paced Afro Latin funk rhythms has been carefully selected by Ben Redjeb. Spanning four genres and three decades, the album highlights the work of four of Benin's great musicians: Gnonnas Pedro, Antoine Dougbe, El Rego and Honoré Avolonto. Each adds a unique vibrancy to the album, contrasting with and complimenting each other. Traditional rhythms form the base of many of the tracks, Gnonnas Pedro's Abadja Rhythms underscore Okpo Videa Bassouo, while Antoine Dougbe's music combines Vodoun and Congolese rhythms in the 'Afro Cavacha' style he pioneered. His track Ya Mi Ton Gbo is one of the funkiest tracks here. Legendary percussionist and composer Honoré Avolonto offers some of the grittiest music on the album. His style, similar in parts to Fela Kuti, is enormously energetic....full text |
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| Popmatters |
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At the heart of Legends of Benin lies the spiral, the curve, the unfinished circle that leads to its replica. The silence at the start of the album is broken by the sound of a drumbeat, but this forward movement is eventually joined by a guitar, which introduces the spiral, and that’s that for the rest of the album—the spiral is there. Percussion shuffles; men shout, ”yow!”; keyboards sprout rills of ice; horns proudly serenade singers; but through it all, this insidious curving tickle of noise goes on, always proposing an end and never reaching it. This sets it apart from the guitar chords of rock music, all beginnings and endings, stamping on the stage with one foot and declaring, “I’m here!” The West African guitar fills the middle ground of the song, and there’s nothing the other instruments can do to get away from it. The whole sound, spiral and everything else, comes together in a fat stew, stirring round and round and rising up and up. Sometimes it seems that in listening to music made in different parts of Africa from about 1950 to 1990 that this spiral is, or has been, the musical shape that pulls the continent together. It’s in West African music, like the Beninese songs here, and it’s present across the continent in Kenyan benga—and there are songs on this album that owe something to Kenya, too—and down toward the middle, in the Congo and in Zimbabwe, as well as Analog Africa demonstrated in 2007 when it re-released tracks from the Green Arrows and the Hallelujah Chicken Run band. With last year’s African Scream Contest Samy ben Redjeb’s attention shifted from the south of the continent to the west, but the spiral has come with it. And it’s a joy, as it was when those two Zimbabwean albums came almost out of nowhere, to hear crate digging done so well, with such verve and good judgment. Legends of Benin is a solid piece of work....full text |
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