Konono No.1 - Congotronics (Crammed Discs, 2005)

Konono No.1
Congotronics
Crammed Discs
2005

Rating: 8 electrified thumbs out of 10

Now I’m not a person who usually promotes or even listens to “world” music, but this is a disc that must be heard. Hailing from Kinshasa, the capital of The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire), Konono No.1 has been in existence for more than 25 years. They play a mutated form of the traditional “Bazombo trance music”, which reflects the changes of the people that they are a part of. After leaving the countryside and moving to the city, they wanted to hold on to their traditional music but had to adapt it to fit their urban environment. They began fashioning speakers, microphones and amplifiers from junk found on the street, and in the typical “when there’s a will there’s a way”, they ended up with these Frankenstein instruments that were able to produce truly remarkable sounds.

The key instrument to the sound of Konono No.1 is the likembe – which is very similar to a thumb piano like you might have played in music class as a kid. They play 3 different versions, giving off treble, middle and bass tones, and accompany them with lots of percussion, multiple vocalists, and dancers when performing live. It’s a pretty mesmerizing sound, and not like anything you would expect to come out of Africa representing tribal sounds…if you like Tortoise-style post-rock and that school of music then this is a must-get. This seems to be their first studio recording outside of a live disc released a few years back; but even as a studio recording, it sounds very much as if you were seeing them perform live. I can’t recommend this CD enough.