from the LP The Vodoun Effect, Analog Africa Records, 1972Music is universal, dig? You don’t have to understand the words to be able to receive the vibrations; more cowbell anyone?!? Sounding very much like the Grateful Dead goes to Africa, this stellar jam from Benin-based crew, the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, is a refreshing example of how the Western sounds & trends of the late ‘60s influenced more than just a grip of white kids in the suburbs; indeed, the music scenes in Nigeria, Benin, the Ivory Coast and many other countries around the African continenet were strongly impacted by the psychedelic revolution, adopting many of the fuzzier flourishes as accoutrements to their native Hi-Life and Afrobeat jams. Songs like this make me feel that, indeed, cultural diffusion can be a beautiful thing.
