I was wary when I heard about Staff Benda Bilili, a crew of guys all rendered paraplegic by Polio who live rough in the grounds of Kinshasa zoo in the D.R.Congo and play Cuban-influenced grooves featuring a 17-year-old kid playing solos on a one-stringed tin can instrument of his own invention - it just sounds like it's too good to be true, or like there's some sort of freakshow or pity or gimmicky element to their appeal... and then I heard their music.

They. Are. AMAZING.

Check out the cheeky James Brown "interpolations" in this rough version of a song that appears on their forthcoming album...