I mentioned on Monday that while I was in Paris last month I picked up the Mwezi WaQ album in the Montparnasse branch of FNAC. From the same shop I also bought "Ago", the newly released debut album by Nana Benz Do Togo.
I had originally intended to hold that one back until we reached Togo in our African Odyssey, which at the current rate isn't going to be for the best part of a year. But I have decided it would be doing you (and them) a great disservice to wait until then. I have fallen madly in love with the record and I want you to do so as well.
The blurb on their Bandcamp site explains the band's history better than I can, but their sound draws on the band members' Voodoo heritage (the PR person who wrote the blurb describes it as 'electro-voodoo-soul'). It comprises three female singers, a Korg keyboard, a home-made drumkit and a man whacking bits of PVC tubing. And it is brilliant.
Here are a couple of tracks to warm you up - "NBT" kicks the record off and may be the most joyous opening to an album I have heard in years, while "Tite" is just one of the many highlights that follow. Now go and buy the record. At only €7 for a digital copy you would be mad not to.
"NBT" - Nana Benz Du Togo
"Tite" - Nana Benz Du Togo
I will also take this opportunity to give a quick plug to two other new albums by female artists, both of which I picked up on Bandcamp Friday last week. I have not listened to either of them all the way through yet but I like what I've heard so far.
The first is "They Live In My Head" by New York no-wave stalwarts Bush Tetras. They are doing a very brief mini-tour this side of the pond in November and I have already grabbed my ticket for their London gig.
The second is "Beautiful Dreams" by Acantha Lang, from Louisiana via London with a sound that could have come from Memphis or Muscle Shoals. I think this will be a grower.
Acantha - you had me at Muscle Shoals
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