Entertainment For Lively Minds
Congotronics scene? Me neither
Posted by Andy Lynes on 14 December 2009 - 11:14am.
"Staff Benda Bilili - Très Très Fort: The latest African sensation to break out of the Congotronics scene are a group of trike-riding polio victims..." Andy Gill gets seriously obscure in compiling his albums of the year list for the Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/andy-gill...
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It's a great record...
simple as that. It deserves to be included.
And
it's on my Christmas wishlist. Funky stuff.
Commended/seconded/thirded
...and their show in Manchester last month was my gig of the year. I think the word is Groovy, in the sense that they groove, in the way Tinariwen groove, though they are very different bands.
Staff Benda Bilili
They're not that obscure, are they? They've headlined the main hall at The Barbican, and there's a good documentary about the "scene".
Apropos of nothing, another interesting Congo "scene" is the Le Sape Movement, where young Congolese men dress up in expensive, Colonial-style suits. There's a fantastic-looking photo book about it called Gentlemen of Bacongo.
I was wrong to say seriously
I was wrong to say seriously obscure; plenty of column inches in the quality press and no 1 in the African music catagory on Amazon. They have completely passed me by however - am Spotifying as I type.
Staff Benda Bilili
definitely not obscure
Even my mum knows who they are!
(Admittedly I did tell her about them being paraplegics who made their own scooters, musical instruments and used to live in a park)
But they are on the rise commercially, I forsee them becoming the next Tinariwen. Easily. Especially as "Je T'Aime (aka Na Linga Yo)" being such a TUNE.
OK, finally listened to the
OK, finally listened to the album on Spotify and I have to say I just don't get it. It could have been anyone of the African records Peel and Kershaw used to pay back in the day. What makes them so good?
That is
SHOCKINGLY dismissive of an entire continent's music. I don't even know where to start.
African music
"I don't even know where to start".
I believe this may be the problem, there's a lot of music on that there continent....
I meant
I don't know where to start in responding to "It could have been anyone of the African records Peel and Kershaw used to pay back in the day."
But I'll try.
First and foremost Staff Benda Bilili sound more like CUBAN music than they do like most other forms of African music. Their particular strain of Congolese music is directly based on Cuban rumba, its rhythms and melodies are Afro-Latin to the core. Even if there is the odd superficial similarity to other West African music in vocal tone and guitar timbre, to say it sounds like "any one" of the African records you might have heard on the radio is like saying Keane sound like "all those bands like the Sex Pistols and Beatles and Metallica and Abba that you used to hear back in the day".
Didn't mean to be
Didn't mean to be dismissive; just holding my hands up to the fact that I can't seem to get into African music, and I have heard a fair amount over the years. If you played Black Sabbath and AC/DC to a classical music buff, they may well think "well, this all sounds the same to me" and I'm in a similar position. I can't get past the similarities to hear the differences. And it was a serious question, what does make them a cut above the rest?
I happen to love jazz, but I think there's a reasonable arguement to say that an awful lot of be bop for example sounds exactly the bloody same. For non-jazz musicians like muself it takes a lot of close listening before you can begin to find the nuances that makes one performer more appealing to another.
I don't doubt that Andy Gill is quite correct to single out Staff Benda Billi for special mention, I'm just not familiar enough with the genre to understand why and the album didn't sound unusual enough to grab me as a casual listener.
European music
Yeah I see the conundrum. All that European music sounds the same to me.
Except it doesn't. Because there's no such thing. Same principle.
I think you may be thinking of the traditional African "world" music, i.e. the traditional drums, singing and rudimentary instrumentation.
As, when I hear different African artists, I hear a number of genres. Not a continent of origin.
Sorry if that seemed a bit venomous, it wasn't intended to be, its just one of my pet bugs when people seem to act as if Africa was a country, not an ethnically diverse continental land mass.
Some different genres and who to check out if you don't believe they sound dissimilar:
Blues (Ali Farka Toure)
Electro rap (Playdoe)
Kwaito - a type of dirty hip hop (Zola)
Egyptian cafe music (Anouar Brahem Trio)
Jazz (Mulatu Astatke)
Vocal group harmony (Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
Traditional Malian kora (Toumani Diabate)
Pop (Vusi Mahlasela or Youssou N'Dour)
West African Disco (Bunzu Sounds)
Electronic fusion (Konono #1)
Rock (Kristian Bediiako)
reggae (Lucky Dube)
an example of the above can be found here:
http://open.spotify.com/user/badger_king/playlist/6ibHogxGQOp1Zk8Uonl54E
Thanks very much for the
Thanks very much for the list, that's very helpful indeed. I will give it a close listen.
I think you can say there is such a thing as European musical tradition i.e classical and folk which is distinguishable from similar but different traditions in American music, or Indian classical music for example. But I admit that the term "African music" is about as meaningful as "British music", which must encompass just about every genre on the planet.
That is a great list...
you know your stuff.
Really enjoying the
Really enjoying the playlist, Toumani Diabate is a stand out for me at the moment.
After a bit of investigation, I think I may well have been mistaking Chimurenga music for the entire output of music from Africa (not that Staff Benda sound particularly Chimurenga-esque, although Tonkara sounds like it's in the same sort of ballpark. Tell me if I'm wrong!).
Anyway, give me your home address and I'll pop round so you can give me a good slapping in person.
haha
Glad you're enjoying the Toumani Diabate stuff. His "Mande Variations" album is absolutely beautiful.
Chimurenga I think is probably the most widely used as backing music for films set in Africa. Well, it seems that way to me. Although to be fair, if a film like "The Wild Thornberry's Movie" had someone like Zola in the background, it would drastically alter the mood of the film.
And this is why we all the Massive. A place to discover new things to waste money on. (or at least listen to on Spotify)
The first "Congotronic" breakout band Konono No.1
(or Orchestre Tout Puissant Likembe Konono No 1 De Mingiedi to give them their full name) have been featured in The Word several times, both in artist profiles and reviews, and I think have been on the covermount CD too... And Staff Benda Bilili have been featured too...
I love African music.
Gracelands, brilliant.
Can I call you Al, Albert?
One of the posts of the year for me.