Here we have a party bomb on disc, guaranteed to vaporize tedium on contact, served up hot and funky by Senegalese ensemble ETOILE DE DAKAR: Volume 1 - Absa Gueye, released in 1993 by Stern's Africa, now long out of print. The first and finest of three volumes, this CD compiles the earliest recordings of Senegal's hottest Seventies band, architects of a new, brash music known as mbalax, a genre they created and ruled with a string of dancefloor hits. Fronted by teenage vocalist Youssou N'Dour, who would soldier on to become an international pop star, these guys could generate both grooves of profound beauty and wild-ass hip shakers -- sometimes both at once. Etoile de Dakar didn't last long -- N'Dour's rising fame chafed at the other players, and the group split into two factions, each producing great music of their own. Still, there's an intoxicating sense of joy to these early sessions that even N'Dour couldn't duplicate. Any fan of African music should consider this CD an absolute must-own. Sadly, it's been missing in action for over two decades. This disc shows the slightest of wear, but looks great and plays flawlessly.

El Hombre Misterioso Soy 

***

Supposedly, Youssou N'Dour has gone onto better things than these first recordings, cut in 1979 with the seminal band he formed two years earlier at age 18. And without doubt his music has grown more ambitious and more accomplished. But there's nothing youthfully naive or folkishly charming about mbalax at this stage of evolution. Counterbalancing clavé-inflected sway with hectic tama-drum interjections, making ample room for guitar and horns, it never shrinks from its own complexities or sinks under their weight. With five band members writing, many of the 10 tracks grab you at every turn. And unlike N'Dour's always admirable and usually enjoyable internationalist fusions, they never overreach. Grade: A

~ Robert Christgau