Stan The Man

A month or so back I picked up "Tchink Attack", the 1995 CD by one Stan Tohon from Benin. According to the sleeve notes, Stan is "the creator and auto-proclaimed king" of tchink, a style which is "based upon the meeting of traditional rhythms - tchinkoume - played on water percussions (gotta, sihoun etc) and western electric instruments".

It would appear from the photo on the back cover that Stan also has a vibrant stage show, which involves him man-handling midgets.

I rather presumptuously thought that I might be the first to bring Stan's work to the interweb, but reckoned without the redoubtable Oro and his/her blog. Oro is based in Porto Novo in Benin and specialises in music from that country, with regular trips to elsewhere in West Africa. Earlier this week Oro featured Stan's 1984 album, "Le Roi Du Tchink System", which is well worth a listen. As is everything else that Oro posts.

So, coming in a distant second, here are a couple of tracks from "Tchink Attack".

"Devaluation" - Stan Tohon

"Djessoudo" - Stan Tohon

And here is a clip of Stan miming to his hit single "Asheo". It is quite sedate until an enormous arse suddenly appears out of nowhere after 38 seconds.