Star Feminine Band

Coming at you like an epic puppy stampede is the Star Feminine Band, a seven-strong group of Beninese girls whose combined talents and enthusiasm fizz across the 11 tracks of this fetching debut. Back in 2016 none of these kids – who range in age from 10 to 17 – from north-west Benin had ever sung or picked up an instrument. But the offer of free music lessons for girls resulted, eventually, in this girl gang from the Waama and Nabo groups, who underwent intensive musical training.

That each Star member became proficient on drums, guitar, bass and keyboard goes some way towards explaining the group’s preternatural empathy. Fun, too, is at a premium: there’s a punkish, anything-goes vibe to their three drum-kit line-up and shrill but sweet harmonies, to their cries of ‘Hello!’ and ‘Faster! Faster!’ in multilingual songs that both address the struggles faced by girls in Benin and champion their free-flying potential. Such themes are hurled across a sound that blends highlife, Congolese rumba and local voodoo rhythms including sato with psychedelia and bluesy desert rock. Electric guitar licks and careering keyboard complement beats on talking drums, brushes on upturned gourds and kit drums firing on all cylinders. With girl musicians, let alone girl bands, virtually unheard of in Benin, Star Feminine Band are so much more than a captivating curio. They’re a game changer.