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Recent trends and fashions in Congolese music have led to a lot of commentary about how bad these trends and fashions have been. The guitar-led sebene has been a rare element in new music, a lot of new albums are filled with yawn-inducing ballads and songs with incomprehensible tempo changes, noisy atalaku calls and growling, mabanga-filled lyrics. These are all valid complaints, but not all new music should be readily dismissed and there are, in fact, quite a number of good songs and good albums being made.
On today's progam, I've tried to present for you some examples of the good new songs out there on the Congo music scene, songs produced in the last year or two. For variety and comparison, the show starts and ends with some older tracks, most presented originally some ten to twenty years ago.
I'd love to hear your comments on today's selections. Thanks for listening!
Here the covers of a few of the albums you'll hear this time around on Ambiance Congo.
Recent trends and fashions in Congolese music have led to a lot of commentary about how bad these trends and fashions have been. The guitar-led sebene has been a rare element in new music, a lot of new albums are filled with yawn-inducing ballads and songs with incomprehensible tempo changes, noisy atalaku calls and growling, mabanga-filled lyrics. These are all valid complaints, but not all new music should be readily dismissed and there are, in fact, quite a number of good songs and good albums being made.
On today's progam, I've tried to present for you some examples of the good new songs out there on the Congo music scene, songs produced in the last year or two. For variety and comparison, the show starts and ends with some older tracks, most presented originally some ten to twenty years ago.
I'd love to hear your comments on today's selections. Thanks for listening!
Here the covers of a few of the albums you'll hear this time around on Ambiance Congo.
Download the prgram here:
This link will be good for the next two weeks only, but the show will also be available in the Ambiance Congo Audio Archives. Find it in the links section of this page.
Here's the track list.
PART A
1)King Kester Emeneya & Victoria Eleison DTDB
sebene from DORIS ILOKO (this program’s theme song)
from the CD PAS DE CONTACT
Black Music
2)Kichar Kilesa
YE KILESA
from the LP THE BEST OF BETO BAYAYI
Afro Rythmes
3)Reddy Amisi
DESTINEE
from the CD ZIGGY
Galaxie Productions
4)General Defao & Big Stars
MOSKY
from the CD THE UNDERTAKER
Ets. Kauila
5)Werrason & Wenge Maison Mere
CAYENNE
from the CD TECHNO MALEWA SUITE ET FIN VOL. 2
Diego Music
6)JBlue “El Buddha”
THIERRY KONGOLO
from the CD PASSE PARTOUT
Duo D’Enfer
7)Felix Wazekwa
ALITA
from the CD/DVD LIVE A L’OLYMPIA BRUNO COQUATRIX
Dario Kindongo
8)Tabu Ley Rochereau
EXIL-LEY
from the CD THE VOICE OF LIGHTNESS VOL. 2
Sterns Africa
PART B
9)Joss Diena
LES PAROLES
from the CD VITRINE
Bana Music
10)Ferre Gola
3eme DOIGT
from the CD QUI EST DERRIERE TOI?
DRTV Production
11)Doudou Copa
NAZO KAMWA TE
from the CD EVOLUTION
Regis Production
12)Roga Roga & Extra Musica
BRICE ANGA GOLO
from the CD SOCELLERIE (KINDOKI)
Letiok Production
13)Impression Des As
COEUR BATTU
from the CD BANA LIBALA
Sonima Music
14)Fara Fara
VIBRATION
from the CD UNITE CONGOLAISE
Section Zouk
15)Young Bakuba Band
PASI-NA-MOLEMA
from the CD SACRIFICE
Vibrations
*=by request
After weeks of catching up on the AC archives from the last few years I finally got to listen to an AC show in the same month it was broadcast! Quite appropriate that it should be a show of (mostly) music from the present day.
ReplyDeleteIt's encouraging to know that good music is still being recorded by Congolese musicians, it's just a shame it's not more widely available. Maybe that's the appeal.
Love the scratchy old vinyl stuff but good to hear some new names to investigate.
Thumbs up. Cheers.
Dave I thank you for listening and for your positive response to the selection of songs. Was there any particular song or artist you liked? Some album you'd like to hear more from?
ReplyDeleteThanks
Albums I'd like to hear more from? I'm pretty sure that's a list that has no end.
ReplyDeleteThe Felix Wazekwa track was superb and Doudou Copa's Cd Evolution sounds like it could be very good.
I just ordered a copy of Roga Roga's Cd Socellerie on the strength of hearing it here. Thanks for pointing me in that direction.
While I wait for it to arrive I'm going back into those archives...
Wazekwa's newest ablum Memoire ya Nzambe is the only disappointing disc of his I've heard. The guy's work is always very good and his live concerts are wonderful. I recommend that DVD/CD I played on Sunday. If you're digging into the archives, search for tracks from Que Demande Le Peuple? Really great double disc that was on the top of the charts for an unheard of 6 months.
ReplyDeleteThank you David for this episode of AC. The Reddy Amisi and Defao songs are really nice. Looking at the pictures, I can see that Defao is looking thinner (and pink!) than ever before... Apurva from Pune, India.
ReplyDeleteApurva, I've been a bit perplexed by the album title and by the recent pictures of Defao.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure just what is going on. The old fashion for ladies bleaching their skin has spread to men it seems or else some people are having their photo retouched. Not just Defao. Serge Mabiala looks very different on his album cover from last year than he does in the videos on the DVD. I cannot say which is the case with Defao.
He has put out two very good albums this year though there is some repitition.
Many thanks for the Wazekwa recommendations. While it seems that Que Demande Le Peuple? is quite easy to get hold of, I cannot locate any reference to the LIVE A L’OLYMPIA BRUNO COQUATRIX DVD/CD anywhere. Maybe you could play a bit more of that one on a future show? Great sounding guitar on it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteDave, the 2 songs from that session I've already played on the show are about the only ones that survive translation from performance to pure recorded music. The concert was quite a spectacle and the music is presented in that way. I'm reluctant to spin the disc again, but happy to refer you to this link, where you can see for yourself and hear that great guitar.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeIQ3_5Y1V4