The first two releases in Analog Africa’s new ‘limited dance edition’ series move on from the label’s splendid compilation releases, showcasing the 1970s sounds of West Africa, to concentrate on original albums by single artists who have already had an impact on the label. Benin’s Orchestre Poly-Rythmo – who recently recorded their first new album in 20 years – have featured extensively in the label’s previous releases, which include a collection of lo-fi recordings produced for various Benin labels and a set recorded at the EMI studios in Lagos. Now we get their debut vinyl LP from 1973, digitally remastered and sounding as fresh and funky as the day it was minted. Led by the singer Vincent Aheheinnou, the band’s four elongated tracks here bear the firm influence of Fela Kuti (just over the border in Nigeria), as they cook up a simmering brew of vintage Afro-beat rhythms, the slippery guitars, rolling organ and riffing horns spiced with vocals not based in Fela’s pidgin style but in the sing-song quality of local voodoo chants.

Rob ‘Roy’ Raindorf (whom we were introduced to last year on the compilation Afro-Beat Airways – West African Shock Waves) gigged for a while in Benin with Orchestre Poly-Rythmo before returning in 1977 to his homeland of Ghana, where he recruited the army band Mag-2 (made up mostly of former members of the highlife group the Parrots) to back him on his debut album. Led by guitarist Amponsah Rockson, the band’s sound on Funky Rob Way is far more sophisticated than the Poly-Rythmo recordings of four years earlier. Raindorf himself sings in a style heavily influenced by black American soul singers such as Otis Redding and James Brown, while the Afro-beat rhythms show the influence of the first wave of 70s disco acts on tracks such as ‘Boogie On’.