"Paradiso"

The first notes sound more struck than plucked, round and warm but with an ambient buzz.  The ensemble fills in with fat, throbbing bass, bristling snare drum shuffle, whistles, hand drums, call and response voices and deepening layers of those buzzy, round tones, now in three different registers: bass, midrange, and treble.  The instrument is the lamellophone (or “thumb piano”) known as likembe, and it’s probably ancient.  But the tradition of hooking likembes up to amplifiers using homemade pickups, then singing through conical, megaphone speakers, and blasting out rough-edge electro roots pop is new, a product of recent decades when musicians like these came to the big city of Kinshasa to make their way.

Konono No 1 formed in the Bazongo lands of the Congo/Angola border region.  Theirs is the first in a series of Congotronics CDs produced by Vincent Kenis, himself a veteran of Congolese music, including stints in Kofi Olomide’s band and a studio date with the great Franco.  Kenis is exploring mysterious territory here, but he’s come upon an excellent approach to recording the music, resulting in a mix that is both rich and dimensional and true to the distorted, pinched, and explosive tonalities inherent in the music. 

Most of these are long, grooving trance pieces that gather intensity steadily as they unfold.  At its height, a piece like “Masikulu” blossoms into a pulsating, vigorous, bush dervish blowout that will either have you spinning around your living room or running from the house screaming.  High volume is recommended for full effect.  “Kule Kule” features the three likembes, letting the listener savor their amazing range of tonalities, from woody boinks to clanging, overtone-rich blasts of sound.  Some songs, like “Ungudi Wele Wele,” employ the well-worn “seben” rhythm from urban Congolese pop, basically a variation on Cuban clave.  This provides a foothold of familiarity in a strange sonic world. 

Of course, the energy of seben existed in village music long before radio, vinyl records, and the likes of Zaiko Langa Langa, one of the first urban groups to consciously incorporate indigenous sounds and rhythms into their music.  Still, in a country with such a hyped stable of urban pop musicians, it is a little ironic that for the moment, they are being upstaged internationally by the likes of Konono No 1.  Is this another example of westerners preferring a romanticized, primitive view of Africa to its perplexing modern realities?  Go there if you like, but check the music first.  This is some of the most engaging and dramatic fare to be found on any African disc this year.  In the end, one has to believe that people are responding to Konono’s overwhelming spirit and the vibe, and rightly so. 

Don't miss Konono No 1’s first tour.  Tickets are selling fast, but there are still some for the SOB's show in New York … and elsewhere.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org