Live At The Couleur Cafe
Konono No. 1
Crammed Disc, 2007
1 CD
Catalogue #: CRAW45
EAN: 0876623005728
UPC: 876623005728
You save: 25%
One wouldn't think that a handful of thumb pianos and some assorted percussion could raise a ruckus similar to a gritty, grungy rock band, but Konono No. 1 is adept at toppling assumptions. This Congolese ensemble, known for making drums from pots and pans, building amps from machine parts, and playing kalimbas through heavy distortion, create a sound that's as rowdy as it is hypnotic, as cacophonous as it is intricate and sophisticated.
LIVE AT THE COULEUR CAFÉ captures Konono No. 1 performing at a small venue in Belgium. Like the group's first album, CONGOTRONICS, LIVE is raw, propulsive, and full of energy. In fact, the album hums with even more vitality given the energy created by the audience, the chanting, and the dancing that was almost certainly taking place (Konono No. 1's music is a summons for the body to gyrate and thrash). Unmistakably African, yet unlike any "world" music out there, this group should be seen or at least heard on LIVE to be believed.
Tracklist
Konono No. 1
Hailing from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Konono No. 1 took the international music community by storm in the early 2000s with their raw, propulsive take on likembe instrumentation and traditional zombo sounds. Using crude amplification devices and percussion instruments fashioned from used car parts, Konono No. 1 create a deep unrelenting groove that sounds as much like '70s krautrock and experimental electronic music as it does the traditional tribal sounds from which it is ultimately derived. Konono No. 1 have toured the world since the release of the landmark CONGOTRONICS album in 2005, and helped create an interest in the mesmerizing sounds emanating from the troubled streets of the Congo's capital city.
