Konono No. 1 : Congotronics 1 & 2

Ahh the Kalimba, what a wonderful little apparatus. Im dying to get my hands on one myself. The Kalimba or electric Likembé, is an african instrument also called a thumb piano or lamellaphone, it is featured in the following clip. I am absolutely infatuated with its singular and mesmerizing sound.



Konono No. 1 is a musical group from Kinshasa in the African Congo. They are a testament of the resilience of the d.i.y. aesthetic on a global scale. Their first album gained worldwide recognition in the marginally esosteric, dance music and even rock circles for its fresh and hipnotizing quality.


Congotronics 2 is more of a compilation featuring Konono No. 1 and other fairly similar but no less noteworthy artists.

1&2

[#1 is in .m4a format]

Various Artists - Afro-Rock Volume One

One of many great compilations of great fucking african funkified electric music with touches of psychedelia, soul, and cuban spice, featuring great cuts from Jingo, Super Mambo 69, Yahoos and Bokoor Band among others, and including Geraldo Pino's immortal "Heavy Heavy Heavy". Get fucked in afrodelic zones of debauchery.

buttahbean

Cooooooooooooooooooooooomments

Brian Eno/David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Classic collaboration between two innovators that liked to explore beyond typical western music and incorporated many elements into their funked out, percussion layered, sound collages. Recorded in the period between Fear of Music and Remain in Light the style here might sound familiar at times but instead of writing songs with traditional singing Eno and Byrne mixed a bunch of different vocal samples ranging from Arabic singing , to radio hosts, to exorcisms and more.

Get it Here