Antoinette Konan

Antoinette Konan is rightly called “The Queen of the Ahoko” in her native Ivory Coast for good reason, in that she single-handedly brought the thin wooden idiophone (long a part of that West African nation) back into popular culture. Konan had only began learning this native instrument in 1981, but utilized it to great effect on this 1986 self-titled effort. A highly personal recording, with songs Konan wrote addressing the social ills and poverty she saw all around her, Konan also self-produced, twining the percussive rattle of the ahoko to nascent drum machines and synths, creating a singular Ivorian boogie statement that still works on modern dancefloors.

Antoinette Konan’s unassuming ahoko — the traditional instrument of the Baoulé people of the Ivory Coast, which is played by scraping a small piece of wood against a  thin, flexible stick, while a hollow nutshell at the end amplifies and controls the sounds — is surprisingly powerful alongside drum machines and synths, with its acoustic, earthy sound and Konan’s Baoulé vocals offering a pleasant counterbalance to the artificious 1980s staples. At times the 1986 album is a little saccharine (“Enfants Du Monde”, “Evignen”),  but well worth it for its charming dancefloor oddities.