Consumer Guide Album

Angola Soundtrack 2 [Analog Africa, 2014]
The vocals weren't the point on the first volume of this crate dig, and that must have been it for quasi-pop, because here the vocals are pretty much irrelevant. When Tony Von--who I hope is still alive and bet isn't, this was 40 war-torn years ago--starts chanting "N'hoca se" 45 seconds into "N'hoca," which comes up third, the call to party is pretty much pro forma albeit inviting enough, and that's a pick hit songwise. The guitars, however, are entrancing, various, pretty much transcendent. Play it loud and you probably will party if you're good enough to dance to this tricky stuff. Play it soft and you'll waft off on the hopes of a pre-civil war culture bravely and sometimes breezily forestalling the horrors to come. A-