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KONONO NO 1

Konono No 1

Konono No 1 Meets Batida

    For this new album, the legendary Congolese band has joined forces with acclaimed Angolan / Portuguese artist Batida aka Pedro Coquenão. Along with producer Vincent Kenis, they convened in Batida's garage-cum-studio in Lisbon with a series of collaborators and friends of Batida's, reflecting the city's vibrant, cosmopolitan music life: guitarist Papa Juju (the leader of Lisbon's foremost Afro-fusion band Terrakota), vocalist Selma Uamusse (one of the best young African singers currently residing in Portugal) and MC AF Diaphra, a distinguished slam poet and an artist / producer in his own right. As we all know by now, Konono N°1 are based in Kinshasa, DRC, but originate from the Bakongo ethnic group, which lives in a region straddling the border between the Congo and Angola. Hence certain similarities between Konono's rhythms and some types of Angolan music from which Batida has drawn inspiration for his albums and shows. This encounter was obviously bound to happen… but was nevertheless quite an adventure: blending the worlds of electronic beats and organic grooves was a challenge to which the parties have risen beautifully to create this exciting, unheard-of new strain of Afro-electro music.

    Konono No.1

    Assume Crash Position

      "Assume Crash Position" is the keenly-awaited new album from Congolese street band Konono No.1, whose 2005 debut was acclaimed by the press, the public and an army of celebrity admirers including Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Beck, Björk (whose album Volta featured a guest Konono performance), and Herbie Hancock.

      Once again recorded in Kinshasa, the vast capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo by Congotronics series producer Vincent Kenis, "Assume Crash Position" sees their trademark junkyard sonics and hypnotic percussive grooves (created using thumb pianos and drums made from scrap metal and disused car parts) further enhanced with electric guitars and bass and a wider range of vocalists. Mixing traditonal bazombo trance music with the distortion of their modern home-made equipment their sound on "Assume Crash Position" is deeper, more layered and ethereal, without losing any of that signature raw power and driving energy. Gloriously extended full band tracks take off like never before but also, for the first time, we hear Konono stripped right back to their essence: the album's final song, "Nakobala Lisusu Te", features just the band's founder and leader, Mingiedi (now in his late-seventies) and his likembe.


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