When Dahomey gained its independence from its French colonial masters in 1960 and became Benin, a surge of artistic creativity followed and it seemed that every town had at least one crack dance band. Benin’s largest city of Cotonou had two outstanding acts in Black Santiago, the house band at the Sheraton Hotel, and the magnificent TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou and few bands can have been better served by the crate-digging phenomenon of recent years than the latter. Between the 1960s and 80s the group reportedly recorded some 500 tracks mixing Afrobeat, highlife, voodoo ritual, horn-drenched Afro-Cuban inflections and James Brown-styled funk. The renewed interest sparked by the reissue of many of their classic recordings led to them playing their first ever concerts in Europe in 2010 and recording with indie-rock heroes Franz Ferdinand. Now come two more reissues.

Unité Africaine, recorded in 1977, features two epic side-long tracks on which the band stretch out, the best of which is the title-track, the infectious Afro-Latin vibes of which bring to mind Orchestra Baobab while ‘Mede Ma Gnin Messe’ owes more to Fela Kuti. Benin Vol 4 contains three tracks recorded in 1978, including the outstanding 16-minute ‘Davi Djinto Super No2’ with its spiralling, Congolese soukous guitars and thrilling stabs of brass.