Antoinette Konan - Antoinette Konan

The Guardian 80

(Awesome Tapes from Africa)
This reissue of Konan’s 1986 debut sounds thoroughly modern in its combination of Ivory Coast and western instruments

The laser-gun-like, pitch-modulating burst of the electronic tom is a cartoonish staple of 1980s music, cropping up everywhere from Duran Duran’s chart-toppers to Prince’s melodramatic rock and even Herbie Hancock’s jazz fusion. Their punctuating fills serve as a constant reminder of the era’s kitsch futurism and one setting in which they find their ideal expression is in the work of Ivory Coast singer and percussionist Antoinette Konan.