One of great musical success stories of recent years was the emergence of Staff Benda Bilili, a band of paraplegic musicians, from the streets of Kinshasa. The band's irresistible mix of Congolese popular music with R&B played on home-made instruments and with DIY electronics resulted in two amazing studio albums -- Tres Tres Fort (Crammed Discs) released in 2009 and Bouger Le Monde (Crammed) released in 2012 -- a TV documentary and several international tours.
Sadly, several members left the band in 2013 and it has been mainly inactive since. The two members who left, Coco Ngabali and Theo Nzonza, both founding members of Staff Benda Bilili, have since been very busy recruiting young street musicians for a new band. In 2014, they formed the seven-member Mbongwana Star, along with Paris-based producer Liam Farrell (aka Doctor L). The band released their first album, From Kinshasa (World Circuit) earlier this year to great acclaim. The album charted at the top of the European Broadcast Union's World Music Chart shortly after it was released.
Kinshasa has produced a myriad of popular styles from rumba Congolais to soukous and ndambolo, and in the past decade or so new forms of urban-based sounds have emerged as well. Readers may remember reviews in this column on two compilations called Congotronics, which showcased some of the bands, such as Konono No.1 (who appear on one track on From Kinshasa). Another pioneering band was the Kasai Allstars.
These bands were formed by different ethnic groups who would gather in Kinshasa on their days off from work and play music, using whatever came to hand in terms of amplification, home-made instruments and electrical appliances. Staff Benda were formed by paraplegics who gathered at certain places on the streets to play together.
Mbongwana Star have taken the music on from these bands, and in the process developed a sound that is more electronic but still with funky beats, scratchy sounds, call and response vocals in Lingala, amplified and distorted likembe (thumb piano) and snatches of Congolese guitar (much more toned down than in Staff Benda's music). The result is exhilarating and surprising; just when you think you have a handle on the music it veers off in an unexpected direction.
The opening track From Kinshasa To The Moon sounds like dub meets the Congo, with its spacey rhythms and insistent basslines, while Nganshe rattles along like a Brazilian percussion drum frenzy mixed with someone playing a Space Invaders video game. One of the standout tracks, Malukayi, features the driving sound of the likembe and is perhaps the closest track to the Congrotronics' sound.
But my favourite is Suzanna, which has a rhythm that wouldn't be out of place on a techno track but in this case also has a beautiful vocal soaring over it (Congolese music has wonderful vocal harmonies and they feature on several tracks). And not all the tracks are based on layers of hard-edged rhythms; Coco Blues is a soft lilting song, like a lullaby, very simply done and to great effect.
I bought the vinyl version of the album and tried out a track last Saturday at my DJ night at Studio Lam. It went down very well on the dance floor and solicited enquiries from revellers (as Congolese music always does).
This album has been on my turntable for the past month or so and I keep returning to it; each time I find something new I hadn't heard previously. From Kinshasa is a catchy album that confounds and surprises the listener. Perhaps this is what "the shock of the new" means.
I haven't been so excited by a new band since I heard the music of Los De Abajo from Mexico a few years ago. Highly recommended. The album is available on both CD and vinyl.
This columnist can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com
