The current hotspot for African music might be Mali but for many years Congo was the continent's driving force, with the melodic, guitar-led sound of soukous conquering first Francophone Africa then Europe. Band leader Franco became a national hero with his intricate, dancing guitar style – utterly different to that of any western axeman – and epic stage shows. This handsomely packaged 2CD set tracks his final decade (he died in 1989) as a career that began in the colonial era with three-minute singles expanded to 15-minute songs and vast bands boasting James Brown horn sections and bursting with pan-African pride. Momentous stuff.