Great Unknowns from a Troubled Island

Following on from my Ibo Combo post, here's another great group, Les Difficiles de Petion-Ville, that's inexplicably obscure outside Haiti and its diaspora. This guitar band demonstrates a truly rare mastery of musical excitement - their records feature wave after wave of driving rhythms and tasty, stinging guitar riffs, further buoyed by catchy call-and-response vocal choruses (a typical Africanism). Great for dancing, this is music to animate the dead!


"Coq Qualite", their 5th album, is a superb example of their style of Konpa (a.k.a. Kompa, Compas). It's typically hard to come by - Sakapfet is probably the best online source, although you may need to telephone them to arrange international (i.e. non-US) shipping. I've been unable to find sound samples for this particular album, but here are samples from another (somewhat more laid-back on the whole, but track 07 gives a decent preview of what to expect on "Coq Qualite").

And here's a good reference for learning more about this style of music.

Haiti's Manic Groove

I've really been enjoying this late 70's album by Haiti's Ibo Combo. It's an ongoing mystery to me as to why this and similar (so-called Konpa, or Compas) music from Haiti hasn't caught on, at least with the beat-heads and "deep-crate diggers" of the world. I reckon it's just a matter of time, and have long mulled over producing a compilation to speed the process.




Many uptempo Konpa tunes have a breathless, manic quality, just one of the elements that sets this style of music apart from other styles originating in the African diaspora. Ibo Combo's "Engendré" has the usual exciting mix of hot rhythms, horns, choppy guitar, and exciting vocals, solo and in chorus, but the album is particularly well done and quite distinctive. It features an unusual number obviously inspired by the Spaghetti Western soundtracks of Ennio Morricone, and also a cover of a tune by Ti Paris, a brilliant Haitian folk musician .

The CD is available from antilles-mizik. Ibo Combo's "Café" is another excellent recording, available from the same shop.