INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES
New Musical Express DECEMBER 5, 1981 - by Richard Cook
EDIKANFO: THE PACE SETTERS / SOUND D'AFRIQUE
Premium helium from the Southern bubble
A chance to check those rhythms at source in this Year Of The Drum, The Pace Setters and Sound D'Afrique both bubble with a rough enthusiasm tempered by trebly production concerns. Africa stand alone? There's enough influences here to have pigeonholers scratching their heads, and those looking for the straight high life might also be surprised.
Edikanfo are a Ghanaian eight-piece recorded and produced by Brian Eno in Accra. Presumably this is another stage in Eno's 'discovery' of the dark continent, though African music probably needs him as much as the south needed Cecil Rhodes. It's not very clear why he wants to showcase this group; adept at hustling rather weary horn riffs over a jiggling rhythmic foundation, Edikanfo's musical track doesn't score deep enough to transcend the sum of their references, and syndrum effects jostle oddly alongside dry-throated chant-vocals. Gbenta flaunts a tremendous swing, with a thundering horn salvo as the piston, but the rest is pleasantly ordinary. Still, they probably sound like worldbeaters in a steaming high life dancehall.
Sound D'Afrique, six tracks from as far north as Upper Volta and as far south as Congo, is far more interesting. Both more sophisticated - most of the tunes are centred around guitar lines of sometimes bedazzling virtuosity - and more honestly pleasurable in the way the vocals take a joy in slinking around a pretty melody or the most simple of harmonies, the groups involved all delight in taking their time (about six and a half minutes, on average) to show what they've picked up: the infiltration of shavings of disco or Cuban rhythms or soul bro' vocals sometimes peeps out, a vaguely incongruous case of cultural deja vu. This is where it all came from in the first place.
The only track to deviate from the helium lilt and crisply-strung, twinkling guitars is my favourite, Etoile De Dakar's Jalo from Senegal. A tougher, almost bluesy vocal is set within a captivating waltz-time theme; and a saxophone appears half-way through as if someone just found it and decided to have a blow.
The differences between these regional groups glimmer through after a number of plays - just as the varying flavours of, say, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama country blues show up with familiarity - yet the hypnosis in the rhythm eventually seems to melt the music all into a piece. Imbibe it at your leisure or on your feet, and find out how those skins should be played.
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