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2B - Thursday, November 29, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
REDUCTIVE REASONING
Picking one and one apart.
The Daily Arts guide to the best
upcoming evests
Tomorrow 11.30.07
"Exit The King"
Also Saturday
7:30 p.m.
At the Walgreen Drama Center
Free
The G-Men Fall Concert
8 p.m.
At the Rackham Auditorium
$9/$6 with student ID
"The Taming of the Shrew"
8 pm.
At the Mendelssohn Theater
$5/$3owith student 10
Saturday 12.1.07
Native American Heritage
Month Culture Shock Camp
Concert
7 p.m.
At the Trotter House
Free
Michigan Pops Orchestra
presents "Pop Goes Wild!"
7 p.m.
At The Michigan Theater
$8/$5 with student ID
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:'THE VICE PHOTO BOOK'
Three-hundred thirty five pages with ample
blood, artists, vomit, breasts, guitars and
cheeseburgers. Over the course of 13 years put-
ting out a magazine focusing on the realms of our
guilty pleasures, Vice has compiled provocative
pieces of photojournalism into one $45 coffee
book.
Visit www.viceland.com and you'll discover
there's more of an academic approach to por-
nographic filmmaking than you had previously
believed. You'll also find that some of your peers
enjoy lip salve derived from a poached and
slaughtered orangutan - they actually relish in
knowing their balm's origin.
Vice has dedicated its Web forum and printed
magazine to exploring the dirty things that
make usfeel a certain sense of discomfort, if
not from the content itself then from our seem-
ingly unnatural (or immoral) attraction it. The
"Photo Book" acts as a gallery for some ofnthe
better images Vice's cameras have captured,
From photojournalistic pieces to snapshots of Lil'
Wayne to fashion pics straight from the catwalk,
the coffee-table book leaves no vices unexposed.
It also includes several interviews with Vice's
foremost photographers.
"The Vice Photo Book" will hit select stores
(including American Apparel and amazon.com) in
early December, just in time for you to buy that
special gift for that perturbed, curious person
in your life.
ELIE ZWIEBEL
U H VAT T.P.ORCHESTRE POLY-RTHMO:'THE
KINGS OF BENIN URBAN GROOVE' (1972-80)
More than simply
an album
By GABRIEL BAKER
Daily Arts Writer
This isn't so much an album
review as it is an unknown his-
tory of one of the most prolific big Y
bands on the African continent. 2
On the coast of western Afri-
ca, obscured by two Anglophone
countries with rich musical heri-
tages and considerable financial
support, lies the tiny republic
of Benin. Amid a series of coup
d'Etats and regime changes in the
1960s and '70s, only one thing ing high-hat. The overall sound
seemed to remain intact and ret- is so rich and nuanced it makes
ognizable during the decade - the Graceland sound like nothing but
Tout Puissant absurdly prolific Paul Simon and a two-string gui-
Orchestre Poly-Rhthmo band. tar. The song is essential road trip
This album, distributed by music for driving along the Afri-
the international soul-funk gods can coast - or, you know, any-
of Soundway records, compiles where.
a baker's dozen of beautifully With due respect to Paul Simon
restored Poly-Rhthmo tracks, and the magnificent Okyerema
showcasing the band's outrageous Asante, Poly-Rhthmo's own kit-
dexterity. The better word here master, Yehouessi Leopold, is
is expertise. When Poly-Rhthmo unparalleled as the band's rhyth-
switches from Beninese folk to mic backbone. His beats are a
hard Afrobeat or from highlife to cohesive force, instantly crossing
salsa rhythms, it does it with com- over from jazz to straight funk at
manding precision - a precision his command.
it has cultivated after more than In its heydayinthe late'70s,the
40 years of playing together with band was composed of 16 musi-
a staggering 50-LP history that cians, including three guitarists
has contributed to their demi-
god status in Benin. In addition 'Kokoriko' is an
to their proper records, the band
was known to play backup on the
majority of releases coming out of essential road
the country in the '70s and '80s.
But despite this illustrious career
- one that, amazingly, continues
to this day (we're talking 40-plus about anywhere.
years here) - the band's material
is practically non-existent in the
United States. Thankfully, this and a rotating cast of vocalists.
album changes all of that. Poly-Rhthmo's music capitalizes
The first track, "Aihe Ni Kpe on these individual parts, produc-
we," is an epic slice of pulsating ing a resonant, full-bodied sound
Afrobeat that indulges in jazzy with no excess.
interplay and a Cuban-style trum- There are dozens of Poly-
pet. Latin influences reappear Rhthmo LPs in Cotonou record
several times on the album, most shops that will never make it
notably on "Gendamou Na Wili to the United States, whether
We Gnannin," where salsa mixes because of poor sound quality or
with Congolese soukous. The simple inaccessibility.
word "soukous" is said to derive It takes individual collectors
from the French verb to shake - a and independent labels to scourge
perfect descriptor for the group's for these lost tapes. It takes a
fusion of traditional African pop genuine will to want to share this
with Caribbean rumba. music with the world.
The highlight of the album To the people of Benin, these
is a deceptive little pop number records were, and still are, daily
that conceals technical complex- pleasures. But the music and the
ity and mastery under buoyant band transcend the quotidian.
guitar and keyboard progres- Poly-Rhthmo is a testament to the
sions. "Kokoriko" begins trium- suffocation and ultimate resil-
phantly with surging trumpet ience of the Beninese people. It's a
and step-stone xylophone before testament to their versatility and
giving way to a flurry of congas, adaptability. It's also an incred-
a jangling guitar and precipitat- ible album.
4
4
I
WEEK IN REVIEW
" OPRAH backs Obama. STREI-
SAND backs Clinton. But Edwards
is a ho-ttie.@" FEDERLINE named
unlikely candidate for Dad of the Year
by Details magazine. But Britney
gets the kids for Christmaslll
" SEAN TAYLOR shot and
killed in his Miami home,
despite reportedly defend-
ing himself with a machete.
" Marie Claire cover reveals
a half-naked CHRISTINA
AGUILERA with pregnant belly
exposed. It's very ... bronze. ,
LOHAN getting drunk post-
rehab is not news. But what is
news? We don't know
anymore. Brange-
lina? That's hot.
40
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Student Storag
0 n 's' m otvvnr appr'ed by
U I 1 1Adminita
All orders include pick up and delivery!
Free delivery campus-wide
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