Afro Funk

When the former French colony of Dahomey gained its independence in 1960, it launched a surge of artistic creativity in which every city in the newly-created state of Benin had its own dance band. Formed in 1968 by the singer-composer and multi-instrumentalist Clément Mélomé, TP Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo became the prime attraction in Benin’s largest city of Cotonou. A Beninese institution, the band recorded some 500 tracks between the late 60s and the early 80s, a vast catalogue that has in recent years been well-served by a swathe of reissues of their classic recordings, which led to them playing their first concerts in Europe in 2010 and recording with indie-rock heroes Franz Ferdinand.

For those who haven’t caught up with them, this 12-track compilation represents a solid introduction with tracks drawn from the late 60s to the 80s. As the title suggests, it concentrates on the band’s funkier material rather than its highlife and more Latin-influenced repertoire, such as the James Brown-influenced style fusion of ‘It’s a Vanity’, the 13-minute ‘Gan Tche Kpo’ on which psychedelic guitars collide with vodoun rituals and the simmering, horn-driven Afrobeat of ‘Aihe Ni Kpe We’.