🇳🇬 🎸 🎷 🔥 📀 Oliver de Coque is one of the singers of Igbo highlife, popularised by the Oriental Brothers and Ikenga. He happily mixed Congolese guitar with Nigerian rhythms, and in 1976 contributed to the huge success of Sweet Mother, Prince Nico Mbarga’s first album. The following year, he in turn released his first album, Ogene Super Sound, which opened with the irresistible Messiah Messiah, followed by Mbanese Ayi Ekene, alternating fiery guitar choruses and saxophone explosions. On the cover, with the guitar at arm’s length and a pair of bell-bottoms, and on the back, with the guitar on the floor, we are not far from the iconography of a true African Hendrix. Unfortunately, the total absence of musician credits prevents us from doing justice to the value of an orchestra that sets the record alight from start to finish. Ogene Super Sound will be the first in a very long series, since de Coque is credited with no fewer than 93 albums in all throughout his career, right up to his death in 2008.
