ANTOINE DOUGBE ET L'ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU - ANTOINE DOUGBE ET L'ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU ANTOINE DOUGBE ET L'ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU

Even the most dedicated crate-digger might go their whole life without stumbling across any of the three LPs Antoine Dougbe released in the late 1970s and early '80s.

Yet he is remembered with a mixture of admiration and fear; for Antoine Dougbe was not merely one of the most inventive songwriters to emerge from the fertile music scene of Cotonou, but also a powerful Vodun initiate whose close connection to the spirit world allowed him to refer to himself as "the Devil's prime minister." Whether driven by the thrill of the music or by fear of crossing the Devil's prime minister, Dougbe's records all feature Orchestre Poly-Rythmo playing at the absolute height of their considerable powers. But Dougbe was unique in the sense he neither sang nor performed any of the main instrumental parts. It has been suggested that his involvement with Vodun prohibited him from using his voice for anything as frivolous as a popular song. Instead he provided his songs to Melome Clement, who arranged them for the band; most of the vocals were handled by Lohento Eskill and
Amoussou William.

Despite a moderate early success, Dougbe never quite found the audience he deserved, and by the early eighties he had vanished from the music scene. Analog Africa now brings his small but extraordinary body of work to a wider audience with a double LP compilation featuring 12 songs, a mixture of Cuban son, rumba and traditional rhythms of Benin.