CrammedBlog

Congo Band Finds an International Voice in a Junkyard

Excellent article on Konono Nº1 in NYTimes.

Konono Nº1 nomination for BBC Awards

Konono Nº1 has been nominated for the BBC World Music Awards.

Exclusive video preview of «Congotronics 2 - Buzz'n'Rumble In The Urb'n'Jungle»

The KONONO N°1 album (Congotronics 1) has started giving worldwide exposure to the strange and spectacular electro-traditional mixtures which are being concocted in the suburbs of Kinshasa, Congo. World music, electronica and avant-rock aficionados have been equally amazed by this otherworldly music, which has driven the international press to come up with extremely surprising comparisons (from Can and Krautrock to Jimi Hendrix, Lee Perry and proto-techno !...).

Hot on the footsteps of Congotronics 1, here comes a fresh selection of even more amazing sounds, courtesy of no less than seven electro-traditional bands from Kinshasa, which have all been especially recorded and produced by Crammed’s Vincent Kenis

Included here are excerpts of videos by the following bands :

Basokin

Sobanza Mimanisa

Masanka Sankayi

Technorati tags: Congotronics Konono N°1

KONONO N°1 American Tour Dates

04/11 SEATTLE, WA EARSHOT JAZZ FESTIVAL
06/11 SAN FRANCISCO, CA SF JAZZ FESTIVAL
10/11 MINNEAPOLIS, MN CEDAR CULTURAL CENTRE
11/11 CHICAGO, IL LOGAN SQUARE AUDITORIUM
12/11 COLOMBUS, OH WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
13/11 DAYTON, OH BOLL THEATER
14/11 ANN ARBOR, MI THE ARK
15/11 PITTSBURGH, PA THE WARHOL MUSEUM
16/11 NEW YORK, NY JOE’S PUB
17/11 NEW YORK, NY S.O.B’S
18/11 SOMERVILLE, MA SOMERVILLE THEATER
20/11 PHILADELPHIA, PA WORLD LIVE CAFE

Check the images below fore some steaming live footage from their first European concert in Paris on Sunday, May 29, at a special event organized by daily paper Liberation. Video images by Césarine Bolya.

Congotronics on iTunes
(click here icon for direct Congotronics acces to the iTunes US store )

Technorati tags: Congotronics Konono N°1

CONGOTRONICS 2 - BUZZ'N'RUMBLE FROM THE URB'N'JUNGLE

After the explosive KONONO Nº1, the Congotronics series presents 6 other astounding bands from the suburbs of Kinshasa, including Kasai All Stars, Masanka Sankayi and Basokin. More heavily-distorted sounds, more DIY amplification… but also a whole array of different rhythms, buzzing drums, swirling guitars and hypnotic balafons. A DVD will be included to show it all.

More info soon here on Crammedblog.

Konono Nº1 & Swede Swede @ Bozar

Konono N°1 will be topping the bill of a free concert organised by BOZAR (Centre For Fine Arts) in parallel with the exhibition ‘Kinshasa, The Imaginary City’ which won a Golden Lion in Venice this year.

The concert takes place in Brussels on July 21st.

Also on stage: tradi-modern band Swede Swede whose album ‘Toleki Bango’, released by Crammed in 1991, can be considered as numero zero of the Congotronics series.

More KONONO tour dates can be found at Crammed website.

“Congotronics" CD on iTunes
(click iTunes icon for direct acces)

KONONO #1 this evening in Court Circuit

KONONO #1 will be live this evening with the infamous Luc JANSSEN in the Court Circuit program on VRT Studio Brussel radio. The show can be followed live from Studio Brussel website from 23.00 hrs. till 01.00 hrs.

Konono in NY Times

Referred to as “Post-Colonial Electronica", Konono keeps surprising. Read the article published yesterday in the New York Times by Andy Pemberton.

But what really makes “Congotronics” (Crammed Discs), the debut album by the African band Konono No. 1, one of the most startling of recent world-music releases - and drawn comparisons to the German electronic-music pioneers Kraftwerk and the reggae producer Lee Perry - is the amplification system the band has used for the last 30 years.

(...) “Congotronics” was recorded outdoors using an Apple laptop and a handful of microphones, and was mixed in Mr. Kenis’s hotel room with members of the band. It has sold 15,000 copies worldwide, a respectable number for such an esoteric record, and will be released in the United States on June 28; the band has embarked on its first tour of Europe, with the United States to follow in November.

“Congotronics" CD on iTunes
(click iTunes icon for direct acces)

KONONO N°1 LIVE! (Visas finally granted)

Konono N°1 aficionados across Europe had been holding their breath as the Congolese band waited to be granted their visas. The unexpected, additional 2-week delay unfortunately resulted in the cancellation of all their scheduled appearances alongside Tortoise, who had invited Konono N°1 to share the bill with them on a 10-date European tour.

After many vicissitudes, the visas were finally issued last Friday, and the band has played a steaming, first European concert in Paris on Sunday, May 29, at a special event organized by daily paper Liberation.

Check here fore some steaming live footage from that evening. Video images by Césarine Bolya.

Konono N° 1 are now proceeding with the scheduled summer tour which will take them through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy Portugal etc

For more details check the Live section on the Crammed website

KONONO Nº1 hits the Blogosphere

Last weeks Konono Nº1 took the blogosphere by storm. Just do a simple Konono search on Google and check for yourself. 

Some excellent blogs helped building the craze starting with ‘burb killa’ Christopher Porter.

Monday Christopher reported about some early recordings of Konono No. 1 from back in 1978. "Glad all of us finally got to catch up."

Another cool blog is the Can’t Stop Won’t Stop from Jeff Chang.

But most of all, Konono’s Congotronics kicks mad bass pressure. The effect is not far from say, the b-boy throb of “It’s Just Begun”. When on “Masikulu”, the bassline drops out, you take a deep breath, because you know it’s coming back. It’s like ducking a big wave on the inside while you’re paddling furiously back out to lineup and you know the big sets are still rolling in. Huge rollers of blissful noise. If Lubuaku was raw power, Congotronics is high drama. You won’t be able to remain motionless.

Videoclip Konono N°1

Watch the videoclip of the well acclaimed album of Konono N°1

Konono N°1 is the first volume of Crammed’s new series Congotronics, which is devoted to electrified traditional music from the Congo.

Konono No. 1: Congotronics: Pitchfork Review

Great Congotronics review on Pitchfork!

"It is entirely possible that an amplified, slightly distorted likembe creates the most awesome sound on earth. There’s no other sound quite like it, and there’s no other band like Konono No. 1, the assemblage of Bazombo musicians, dancers, and singers from Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) that makes the likembe the center of their sound. It’s something of an accidental update on Bazombo trance music, and it’s thrillingly unique stuff, a torrent of kinetic sound that straddles the line between the traditional and the avant-garde."

... and more:

"Konono No. 1 are the kind of band that remind us that music still possesses vast wells of untapped potential, and that there’s virtually no limit to what can be developed and explored. There’s little precedent for a record like Congotronics, even as the music at its core goes back many generations and predates the discovery of electricity by some time. It’s important to note that these are not pop songs in any sense of the word-- this is traditional trance music with an electric twist, and should be approached as such. That said, it’s among the most fascinating music I’ve heard and deserves a listen by anyone with even the remotest interest in the possibilities of sound."

Konono N°1 Reviews

Reviews from The Telegraphm Stylus Magazine, The Wire, The Beat, Dusted, Word, Pitchfork, The Guardian, Les Inrockuptibles, RFI, Le Journal and others are now available at Crammed website.

The album is available through Amazon.com here

CONGOTRONICS: Konono Nº1

Crammed are very excited to release the first volume of Congotronics, a series devoted to the spectacular styles of music which bloom in the suburbs of Kinshasa. These are bands who draw on traditional trance music, to which they’ve incorporated the heavily-distorted sounds generated by DIY amplification of their instruments, making their music a sonic cousin of some extreme forms of experimental rock and electronic dance music.

Congotronics 1 is the long-awaited album by Konono N°1, a band founded in the ‘70s by Mingiedi and featuring three electric likembés (thumb pianos), megaphones, hand-made microphones and percussion built from old car parts.The album was produced and recorded in Kinshasa by one of the best connoisseurs of Congolese music and old car parts, our own Vincent Kenis.

Konono N°1 in the press

KONONO N°1 IN THE PRESS
‘Every so often there comes a record of such unlikeliness, of such overpowering rhythmic intensity and such majestic indifference to global musical trends that you’re knocked sideways. This is one of them.’ Telegraph (UK)