Elikeh
Adje! Adje!
(Azalea City Recordings)
Togo’s music scene is not one of west Africa’s best-known, and Massama Dogo had to move to Washington to get off the ground his fusion of Togolese styles and Western rock.
Adje! Adje! is a great calling card. Dogo’s angry songs about corruption and exile are set against ringing guitars and slow-burning underwater Afrobeat, or Togo’s agbadja rhythm, which echoes roots reggae.
“Aiko” is dreamy anthemic southern “tumewe”. On the closing “Madjo”, Dogo’s delicate acoustic guitar accompanies a rap from his Malian neighbour Yeli Fezzo.
