Bobo Yéyé: Belle Epoque in Upper Volta

Archive releases don’t come better than this: 37 tracks chronicling the little-known Burkina Faso scene in the 1970s. Long overshadowed in European perceptions by the famous output of neighbouring West African countries, even the usually comprehensive Rough Guide to World Music fails to mention any of the fantastic artists featured here: it's as if the entire musical heritage of Upper Volta – as Burkina Faso was known until 1984 – has been written out of history.

It turns out that the heart of 1970s Voltaic music beat not in the capital, Ouagadougou, but in its second city Bobo Dioulasso, where the French writer Florent Mazzoleni has unearthed treasures sitting in dusty vaults: a rich motherlode of local music played by musicians who seldom left the city.

Volta Jazz, the seminal band of the era, played a fantastic synthesis of highlife and rumba and they sound as primitively thrilling as an early Rolling Stones single. By the mid-70s the group's lead singer Coulibaly Tidiani had formed Dafra Star, with a more sophisticated but still earthy style driven by inventive balafon (xylophone) and psych guitars. Les Imbattables Léopards were the Voltaic army band based in the city's military compound; their ‘Milaoba’, which borrows the tune of Etta James’ blues classic ‘I Would Rather Go Blind’, is one of the highlights, while Echo del Africa play in hybrid style somewhere between the Rail Band and Fela's Africa 70. The three discs come in an impressive box set with a hardcover book featuring more than 100 striking archive pictures taken by photographer Sory Sanlé, documenting what was clearly a thrilling and vibrant local scene.