Browse by Artist: KONONO NO. 1

Artist:	KONONO NO. 1
Title:	Congotronics
Label:	ACHE (CANADA)
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	ACHE 021LP

2008 repress. Limited LP version of the 2004 Crammed Disc CD release. "Konono N°1 was founded over twenty-five years ago by Mingiedi, a virtuoso of the likembé (a traditional instrument sometimes called 'sanza' or 'thumb piano,' consisting of metal rods attached to a resonator). The band's line-up includes three electric likembés (bass, medium and treble), equipped with hand-made microphones built from magnets salvaged from old car parts and plugged into amplifiers. There's also a rhythm section which uses traditional as well as makeshift percussion (pans, pots and car parts), three singers, three dancers and a sound system featuring megaphones dating from the colonial period. Instead of apologizing for the heavily distorted sounds of such DIY amplification, Konono N°1 have embraced them, provoking a radical mutation of their sound, and has accidentally connected them with the aesthetics of today's most underground forms of music as much through their sounds as through their sheer volume (they play in front of a wall of speakers) and merciless grooves. Hailing from Africa and rooted in a very social form of folk music-making, Konono N°1 is one of the main exponents of a spectacular style of music which has developed in the suburbs of the capital city of Kinshasa. The Congolese refer to this style as 'tradi-modern,' meaning electrified traditional music. These are musicians who have left the bush to settle in the capital and, in order to both continue fulfilling their social role and make themselves heard above the urban din, they have resorted to DIY amplification of their instruments, and the use of megaphones."

Artist:	KONONO NO. 1
Title:	Lubuaku
Label:	TERP (NETHERLANDS)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	TERP 009CD

"Konono No.1 from Kinshasa, Congo, was founded more than 25 years ago by likembe (thumb-piano) virtuoso Mingiedi Mawangu. The band was one of the first groups to use electric amplified likembes. They built everything themselves. The pick-ups are made from hammered bits of car starter-motors, handwound with copper-wire, they made wooden microphones and jack-plugs from bits of copper-wire and branches. With a 25 watts amplifier on a car battery and the typical 'lance voix' field speakers they play fast, powerful, distorted music with the energy and rawness of a punk band. Konono No.1 plays music based on the tradition of the Bazombe, a tribe living on the border of Angola and Congo. Their style is also the basis of modern Congolese music like Zaiko Langa Langa. They have three likembes; solo, accompaniment and bass, three drummers; congas (ngoma), cowbells and a kind of hi-hat from metal plates, two singers, three women dancers and the mysteriously moving 'president'. It is a rough type of Congolese urban music. The lyrics give bitter comment on the social situation in the Congo. Tony van der Eecken, a Belgian Congo music specialist, phoned us up one day to offer this Congolese band Konono to play on a tour with the Ex. He thought Konono would fit better for our audience than in the regular 'world-music' circuit. We didn't know, we believed him and he was right! It was their first ever visit to the West, VERA their first ever gig in a rock club. The audience was flabbergasted, what power, sound and energy. And what volume! This CD is a tribute to Konono No.1, to that first ever gig in Holland. It's a rough recording, directly stereo recorded from the mixer. But the music speaks for itself. PLAY LOUD!" -- Terrie Ex.

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