CONGOTRONICS 2 CD & DVD SET Konono No 1 Kasai Allstars Kinshasa Sobanza Mimanisa

Description: Here's something amazing, unlike anything I've heard before. The music has elements of the rhythms of African music, the hypnotic atmosphere, the way it makes you want to dance out of your skin & into the spirit world, but it's also something new. Electrified thumb pianos, megaphones, buzzing drums, swirling guitars....aspects of experimental rock, electronic dance music, it's kinda mind blowing. You listen to this and imagine what it must look like. Good news, then: the second disc is a DVD. More about it below, condition above. more about it This set offers a fresh selection of even more remarkable sounds, courtesy of 7 electro-traditional bands from Kinshasa, Congo. These bands draw on traditional trance music with heavily distored sounds generated by do-it-yourself amplification. review On the DVD that accompanies the second volume of Crammed Discs' Congotronics series, there's footage of a band called Tulu playing in a small market square, fronted by dancers and wearing sort of semi-traditional outfits and body paint. The band sits in a row of chairs, and the two men in the middle play instruments that could hardly be more makeshift: one is a rattle made from sardine cans and bedsprings, and the other is a piece of PVC piping taped to a resonating gourd and blown into like a didgeridoo. These contraptions exemplify the improvisatory resourcefulness of what turns out to be a small constellation of bands operating in the sprawling, tumble-down suburbs of Kinshasa, the teeming capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congotronics 2 expands on the first volume of the series, which focused on the music of Konono No. 1, a band that helped to innovate Kinshasa's unique electro-traditional music. Counting Tulu, who only appear on the DVD, this compilation features seven Congolese bands recorded on the spot in Kinshasa by Crammed's Vincent Kenis, as well as a European performance by Konono, who in the last year have been embraced by a surprisingly wide Western audience ranging from worldbeat and rare groove aficionados to the avant-garde community. The musicians present have two things in common: They all have roots in rural Congo, and they are all playing traditional music, amplified to be heard over the urban din through, at best, unconventional means. While the sounds of these bands will certainly be familiar to fans of Konono, there is a remarkable amount of variety on the disc. Sobanza Mimanisa get the most from the least; their line-up consists of vocals, whistle, one guitar, an electric likembe and percussion consisting of a cowbell and an aerosol can being beaten against a plastic beer carton. The vocals crackle through the makeshift amplification, and the guitar and likembe can't help doing the same. Bolia We Ndenge's centerpiece is an antique accordion-- their segment on the DVD features a re-enactment of a force publique officer, complete with authentic vintage uniform, bestowing the accordion on a local village chief. Supposedly, the gift of the accordion was the Belgians' way of paying back the indigenous citizenry of Belgian Congo for years of horrendous oppression and exploitation. Kasai Allstars' "Kabuangoyi" has a floating quality, its intertwining likembe and marimba parts sounding in strange kinship with the flowing rhumba and soukous that's been the bread and butter of Central African popular music for the better part of a century now. A single vocalist calls out a muezzin-like exhortation, and little trickles of fuzz-encrusted guitar complement his singing at sporadic intervals. Kisanzi Congo share their basic sound with Konono, but their take on it is lighter and looser, less buzzed and fuzzed and full of fluttering likembe phrases. Kisanzi Congo's looseness is actually fairly typical of Kinshasa's electro-traditional music-- it's social music, made for dancing and collective celebration, and the musicians are normal people who've had little to no intense training, and as such it's not a sound that would benefit from having every last little note in its right place. This is also what makes Kenis' decision to record each performance live in a typical venue so apt-- it captures the spontaneity and inventiveness of the music in a way that a studio environment probably couldn't. It also captures the sound of the Kinshasa street and reveals the depth of a music scene as vibrant and unique as any in the world.

Price: 6.99 USD

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

End Time: 2025-01-13T19:58:24.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.25 USD