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CD Review
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Huffington Post, CD Review >>
There's a photo of Elikeh singer/guitarist Massama Dogo on the inset of his band's recent album, Adje! Adje!, that immediately captures your attention. The man is standing during performance, guitar strapped around his shoulder, whistle in mouth, eyes wide through glasses staring out into the crowd beyond. It is a determined and fixed stare, one necessary to navigate through the political world of Washington DC. Yes, music obviously has its politics, but Dogo also refers back to his homeland for influence, the tiny West African Togolese Republic, a 22,000-square-mile enclave wedged between Benin and Ghana with a population of 6.7 million. Yes, shades of Ghana's music, not to mention a little Nigerian Afrobeat are included in this worthwhile ten-song outing, but make no mistake: it is a guitar-driven effort. No surprise, given that Dogo once lead a guitar ensemble in his home country. Don't think it's all rock; the soft strums on "Djalele" allow Dogo's rough, informal vocal style to shine. This is first and foremost a poetic effort, one that the man has injected plenty of feeling into. But yes, when he allows his guitar to rip atop the danceable, saxophone-led rhythm of the title track, you know where this band stands. More than Afrobeat, Elikeh reminds me more of the great guitar-driven Senegalese dance bands that Orchestra Baobab exemplifies. Infusing an upbeat local style, agbadja, underneath the hard pulse of "Novi Nne" and "Get Ready," as well as singing in four languages (Ewe, Mina, French, English), Dogo has assembled a worthy cast of musicians for this fine release, one I can only imagine as intense and determined as the photograph that represents the future he stares out into 06/07/10 >> go there
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