redcrescent
Well-known member
I know that Zaire Classics series. Funny enough, it's on the very same Belgian label, Crammed, that has put out Konono #1*. Incidentially, the series was put together by Vincent Kenis, co-founder of Aksak Maboul and sometime member of the Honeymoon Killers and Minimal Compact, who also played keyboards on some late 80s TPOK releases and toured Africa and Europe with both Koffi Olomide and Ntesa Dalienst. More recently, he has produced/engineered/worked with Zap Mama, Taraf de Haïdouks, the Kocani Orkestar, Bebel Gilberto and Zuco 103 (in other words, on half of the releases found the 'World Music' section of your local store - and not necessarily the worst ones, IMHO). MiltonParker probably knows much more about Vincent Kenis/Crammed than me.
Some fantastic stuff on Zaire Classics --essential listening, no doubt-- but there isn't a badly amplified likembé pumping out Bazombo death trance music in sight. Nor would you find a lot of the other distinctive features of Konono #1 (communal self-organization/self-reliance, homebuilt equipment, street musicianship, critical subject matter in the songs, sheer volume and power, etc.). A lot of the things on Zaire Classics are very big-band and Cuban-sounding (rhythms, horn charts, vocal phrases - rhumba, innit?), and, this being the pre-independent Belgian Congo, don't yet show much of a distinctly African sensibility and have little of Konono #1's pure DIY sonic anarchy, I find. I also think that most 'world music' listeners would have no trouble sitting through and enjoying a Zaire Classics disc, and that this would not necessarily be the case with the Konono set. But this is just me.
The bottom line is that I don't find at all that it is a question of either/or regarding 'classic' Congolese rhumba or amplified likembé madness -- "get 'em all!"
*Not to forget the amazing Trio Mocotó albums Samba Rock and, especially, Beleza! Beleza!! Beleza!!!, both of which I wholeheartedly, unashamedly, enthusiatically and unreservedly recommend.
Some fantastic stuff on Zaire Classics --essential listening, no doubt-- but there isn't a badly amplified likembé pumping out Bazombo death trance music in sight. Nor would you find a lot of the other distinctive features of Konono #1 (communal self-organization/self-reliance, homebuilt equipment, street musicianship, critical subject matter in the songs, sheer volume and power, etc.). A lot of the things on Zaire Classics are very big-band and Cuban-sounding (rhythms, horn charts, vocal phrases - rhumba, innit?), and, this being the pre-independent Belgian Congo, don't yet show much of a distinctly African sensibility and have little of Konono #1's pure DIY sonic anarchy, I find. I also think that most 'world music' listeners would have no trouble sitting through and enjoying a Zaire Classics disc, and that this would not necessarily be the case with the Konono set. But this is just me.
The bottom line is that I don't find at all that it is a question of either/or regarding 'classic' Congolese rhumba or amplified likembé madness -- "get 'em all!"
*Not to forget the amazing Trio Mocotó albums Samba Rock and, especially, Beleza! Beleza!! Beleza!!!, both of which I wholeheartedly, unashamedly, enthusiatically and unreservedly recommend.