African, funky, sarcastic, bewitching, green, ecstatic: these words
collide to describe Vaudou Game and all of them are true. Noussin is the
fourth album of the french Afro Funk band. Forced into lockdown, like
much of the planet, Peter Solo and his Vaudou Game had no choice but to
retreat into the studio. A reunion to once again invoke the spiritual
forces of the Voodoo Deities. A reunion that was Initially imagined for
an EP…yet these spiritual forces behind that imagination yearned for
something more, and as we all know, these forces are impossible to push
away once they have decided to stay. Under the strain enforced by the
current socioeconomic climate, as much as by the environmental peril
that faces us all today - they diverted the course of the groove towards
daring new vibrations. Without extinguishing or diminishing its highly
communicative power, they released Vaudou Game from its origins of pure
Afro-Funk to gradually engage into compositions which crystallized
themselves into tones resembling more rock than funk. On this fourth
album, with an entirely revisited line-up, Peter Solo separates for the
first time in his career from his brassy guard, leaving saxophone,
trumpet and trombone outside to invite an arsenal of keyboards to
define, with him, this new voodoo sound. A sound, as usual, built on
vintage and precise analogical material - grime even on the white side
of the tape, a blunt instrument used to blanket anything that strived to
shine too much in the mix. Graced with tapered guitars stringing out
rhythmic bumps or withdrawing a few beats to indulge in infectious
solos, this album is boisterously alive with vintage 70's Funk, infused
with a few digressions into other ethers of the funk timeline, nicking
different sounds and frequencies to render the black and white keys of
an inspired keyboard to reach new euphoric levels of melodic acidity.
Tearing off the enigmatic mask to reveal his true face: on a few titles,
Peter Solo ventures outside of his sacred voodoo range to reconnect
with his London years, these titles feature small nods to the time he
spent in “The Smoke” where the incantations of British music culture
were written within him. Noussin which means “Stay strong” in Mina, a
dialect spoken in the south-west of Togo. Noussin, a message of hope as
much as a call to come together to weather the turmoil and to come out
better on the other side. Don’t let them grind you down…Noussin!
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