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Congotronics 2: Buzz 'n' Rumble from the Urb 'n' Jungle
by Various Artists
Product Group: Music
Studio: Crammed Disc Us
ISBN: B000E6EJK2
EAN: 0876623001027
UPC: 876623001027
Audio CD
Original Release Date: 2006-01-01
Release Date: 2006-02-21
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Editorial Reviews
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Album Description
Hot on the heels of Konono N°1, Congotronics 2 - Buzz 'N' Rumble From The Urb 'N' Jungle offers a fresh selection of even more remarkable sounds, courtesy of seven electro-traditional bands from Kinshasa, Congo. These bands draw on traditional trance music to which they’ve incorporated heavily distorted sounds generated by do-it-yourself amplification...much like, except that these musicians come from various regions (Kasai, Lake Mai Ndombe, Bacongo province), they use diverse rhythms, timbres and instrumentation. The trademark electrified thumb pianos and megaphones are joined by an array of buzzing drums, swirling guitars and hypnotic balafons. Includes a 41-minute bonus DVD of material filmed in Kinshasa!
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Amazon.com
The follow up to Konono No. 1's fantastic Congotronics, Congotronics 2, has the same heavily distorted thumb pianos, chattering hand percussion, gritty homemade amplification, and driving rhythms. This amazing sound clash was an unlikely hit in 2005 that captured the imagination of musical thrill seekers, world music enthusiasts, and hipsters into dance and electronic music. Now five other Congo bands join Konono on this two-disc set that offers nine audio tracks on CD and six videos on an accompanying DVD. While the video serves as a reminder that this music is generally meant for dancing and drinking, the audio proves that this unique approach and sound can have many more mutations than the one hit upon by Konono. The sound ranges from Kasai Allstars' warm African high-life feel to Sobanza Mimanisa's hard metallic shuffle. This is a must for those who fell under the spell of Konono's hypnotic grooves and want to hear more. --Tad Hendrickson
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Customer Reviews
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more great stuff
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-01-14
If you liked Congotronics No. 1, then you will definitely enjoy this effort as well. More of the same: traditional African rhythms with heavy fuzz and distortion from home-made amplification equipment. This CD also includes a bonus DVD with even more great music performed.
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WOW-IF YOU LIKE TO SMILE...
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-03-19
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Great CD. Traditional sounds with an edge of basic electronic processing. Like the thumb piano that sounds like an electric guitar. The DVD takes this package over the top. Have a look at the African communities, performers and dancers. Don't hesitate to get this one Siamak, and everyone else.
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music that makes people want to dance and sway and move, eyes closed, getting lost in the mesmerizing repetition
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-03-05
24 out of 26 customers found this reveiw helpful
You'd have to have been living under a rock for the last year to not know about Konono No. 1, but for those of you who have been, let's recap shall we? Konono No. 1 formed over 20 years ago in Kinshasa (the capital of Zaire) and have been performing their own version of Bazombo trance music, incoporating into their sound, more out of necessity than any avant garde aspirations, home built amps and microphones, hand made instruments, all assembled from old car parts and batteries, pieces of wood and various found bits of scrap material. Performing in the city and thus forced to compete with the din of cars and people and city sound, they built their own PA and speaker system, making their sound much louder but also lending it a buzzing distorted sound that became as much a part of the music as the insturments themselves.
The main instrument though, and the one which defines their sound, is an amplified likembe, a sort of thumb piano, which when run through the homemade pickups and ramshackle PA speakers buzz and distort and the melodies end up sounding like some strange sixties psych fuzz guitar. So those distorted melodies atop a wild festive bed of tribal percussion, hand drums, whistles, call and response vocals, it's like African highlife music but infused with all manner of, well like the title suggests BUZZ and RUMBLE.
But it would be naive to think a band like Konono No.1 developed in a complete vacuum. And one would assume that the music scene in Kinshasa would at least in some ways be like any place else, with loads of bands, all playing together, swapping members, that sort of thing, and this record demonstrates that for sure. While Konono No.1 ended up being the worldwide ambassadors for the Kinshasa sound, they are most definitely just one of many groups creating an amazingly vibrant scene. In fact some of the groups on Congotronics 2 take some of my favorite parts of Konono's sound and take them even further!
All of the bands on Congotronics 2 sound at least similar, employing the same basic song structure and same basic instrumentation. Cyclical repetitive rhythms, bells and hand drums locked in dense pulsing frameworks, loose but definitely the backbone of the music, the vocals are festive and wild, a single voice joined by a chorus. Each track is typically one part, maybe two, repeated and repeated with subtle variations, being as that it is an offspring of trance music, this hypnotic quality definitely defining all of these bands, a buzzing looped joyful noise, the sort of music that makes people want to dance and sway and move, eyes closed, getting lost in the mesmerizing repetition.
All of the bands also seem to employ the electric likembe as well to different effect. Sobanza Mimanisia up the distortion, their thumb pianos practically growl, super percussive and blown-out, definitely the heaviest band of the bunch. Whereas the Kasai Allstars employ their likembes as a swirling delicate percussive background, not at all distorted, gentle, lilting and pretty, sounding the most like traditional high life music. The one way in which many of the bands differ from Konono is their use of guitars, the interplay between a distorted thumb piano and a distorted guitar can be beautifully dizzying.
While all the bands are different, those differences are subtle enough that this could very well be a record by a single, albeit quite varied band, almost as if Konono No.1 decided to expand and explore a little for record number two. If you loved Congotronics, then this will for sure hit the spot, and actually the more I listen the more I think this might be even better than the first one.
Konono No.1 have a SOUND, and that sound is amazing and beautiful and practically perfect, but they truly traffic in trance music, every song a subtle variation of the song before, almost like they have ONE hour long song that just happens to be split into parts, which I love, like most droning repetitive music, if there was a way to have each track last for six hours I would, but by the same token, one has to be in the right frame of mind to bliss out and trance out. So while this collection is still most definitely trancey, it's a bit more varied, with more instrumentation (one group even incorporates accordion!) and thus ends up being a bit more engaging, especially to the casual listener.
And as if another disc of buzzing rumbling joyful trance music wasn't enough, there is also a DVD featuring live footage of 6 of the bands, including Konono (so for those of you who missed their recent visit to the US, here's your chance to see what you missed). Each band performs live, surrounded by throngs of families and children, often performing in houses, on street corners, people dancing, smiling, embracing, this is truly happy joyful music. And the footage is amazing, allowing us a glimpse not only of these amazing bands, their individually customized instrumentation, sardine cans, milk crates, springs, lengths of PVC pipe, hubcaps, film canisters, wooden boards, tin cans, thier costumed and face painted dancers, their dramatic introductions to performances, but also a look at the people, and the city, and the houses, and the streets of Kinshasa, and the culture that inspired such an amazing music.
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Retail Price: $17.98
Amazon.com's Price:$9.39
That's 48% Off!
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