Konono No1 - "Tradi-Modern" - This shit is unreal

(I imagine a scenario in which these guys become overnight commercial successes, invest in proper equipment, and immediately lose their appeal.)

isn't crammed the label that originally reissued "ere mela mela" by mahmoud ahmed sometime in the 80s? good on them.

http://uk.onino.com/music/zaire_music_of_kinshasa_city.html

it definitely sounds like them to me.

Here's the word from Crammed Discs on the forthcoming Konono CD:
--
Hi Chris,

We heard from Louisa @ Six Degrees that you liked the Konono excerpt that's on our site, and that you were wondering about our release plans. We also noticed an enthusiastic comment about Konono on http://www.christopherporter.com/

Konono No. 1 is actually only one of many "electro-traditional" bands which Vincent Kenis recorded during several stays in Kinshasa. As explained in the presentation text on the site, Konono No. 1 are part of a whole movement of bands who moved from the bush to the suburbs of Kinshasa, and went on to amplify their instruments.

We're doing extensive work with several of these bands, and have already gathered many hours of recordings.

We will be releasing a Konono No. 1 album around November, and are also finalizing a "various artists" album, to be entitled "CONGO ELECTRICO (Buzz & Rumble from the Urban Jungle)", which will feature tracks by several bands. This should come out in early 2005, and will include tracks by Kasai Allstars, Kisansi Congo, Sobanza Mimanisa, Konono No. 1 and several others.

Meanwhile we are also releasing a 12" with two Konono No. 1 tracks, through a small UK label called Fat Cat, which generally deals with experimental & electronic music. It's interesting that many people in those areas seem to be very excited by these recordings, and we're working on getting remixes done by interesting European & US producers.

Please get back in touch if you want additional info.

All the best,
Marc
Crammed Discs and associated labels
43 rue General Patton, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
phone (32 2) 640 79 14 - fax (32 2) 648 83 69
http://www.crammed.be

Crammed Discs' website discusses it, but this is the release date I've found through google. Part of a new "Congotronics" series from Crammed. I can wait two weeks.

Hi Jason,
thanks for the tip -- actually we're pretty keen on them already. in
fact we're getting a live album in next week, and then the one you're
talking about, the studio album, we'll have when it comes out in
January. There's also a second studio album that's supposed to come
out later in 2005.
cheers,
Allan/aQ

Konono No. 1
"Ditshe Tshiekutala"
Lubuaku (Terp, 2004)

Thanks to Mark from Subterranean Distribution in Amsterdam for giving me the heads up that Konono No. 1 finally has a CD out. It's not the one I wrote about on Sept. 2, but rather a live soundboard recording put out on Terp Records, which is run by Terrie from the Ex. I once wondered aloud if Konono was the Fennesz of the Congo? Now I just call them The Very Reverend Konono No. 1 because they deserve that honorific---there's nobody like them.

Mark also writes, "You might dig on a little video footage shot during Konono's tour with the Ex here in Holland. The clips are pretty short and arbitrary, but they capture a tiny bit of the Konono ass-shaking machine live."
Clip one
Clip two
Clip three

The MP3 and videos are hosted on Subterranean's Web site, which is where you can buy Lubuaku.

Also, Crammed Discs is listing that Konono's studio-recorded Congotronics 1 is for sale now, but I'm not sure where to buy it in the U.S. because according to this list there seems to be no distro over here. But I'll put on my parachute pants and Sherlock Holmeslice hat and find out for y'all. Man, I'm just earnest like that, what can I say?

Meanwhile, Konono's home country continues to eff itself up with war.

can't wait!

I have only heard the mp3 samples and seen the video, and I think they're good, but the online excitement seems out of proportion (ugh, how common is that sentiment). I'd be particulary interested to hear someone talk them up who can compare them to other Congolese/West African recordings.

Ahh, I don't really believe that, given that you are posting and reading here. It would be boring if we all just agreed with each other all the time, right? Wondering why people get excited about things in onde direction or another is interesting, I think. Anyway, no problems, I hope.

personally i like distorted things, this includes things not usually heard with fuzz/distortion

That's what I was wondering about. I'm not criticizing that sentiment, just wondering if there's something else unique here that I was missing...

but in re: "online buzz" surrounding things in general, it seems hard to qualify/quantify this sort of thing.

i think that part of the attraction to konono no 1 comes from the honesty of their sound, and a kind of return to pre-synth african music where rawness and rhythm take precedence over superclean production values and digestability...this may be their primary distinguishing feature when compared against the last 30 years or so of musc from Congo/Zaire (rumba, soukous, etc).

The other critical thing about konono is seeing them live...it's that crusty old adage about "not being able to capture their live show" on CD...for one thing, it's 3 hours long. and for another, you're dancing the entire time, even if you "don't normally dance." indie-kid armfolders, 60-year old Ex fans, and everyone else in the place was sweating and booty-waggling until late. i'm sure it helped immeasurably that it was a rock club, certainly nothing like the museums that most "world music" gets performed in. and lastly, the sound. there's not a single thing about it that distances you from them...it's more like the magnets in their homemade pickups are so strong that you're drawn toward the stage. you can't imagine being in the room with them and not coming closer.

anyway...just wanted to give you a first-hand testimonial, and assure you that what buzz there is (if any) developed out of the best intentions: to expose more people to unique, passionate music.

many of you probably already saw this, but christopher porter's blog reprinted a very lengthy letter from Vincent Kenis (one half of the wonderful band Aqsak Maboul) talking about how he came across the band, the logistics of producing the record, recording techniques etc.), I was almost expecting to see these as the liner notes but for now they're only here: http://www.christopherporter.com/2005/01/konono-no.html

Friday November 4, Consolidated Works, 8pm
Konono #1 (Congotronics)
Direct from the Congo, in their US premiere, something to behold: a twelve-piece combo playing driving township music with thumb pianos amped by car-batteries and salvaged parts, all embellished by busted hub-cap cymbals and found instruments.
$22 general / $20 members & discount

more info at http://earshotjazz.org

SO FUCKING EXCITED

http://www.crammed.be/live/index.htm

KONONO N°1 ^

11/04 USA SEATTLE, WA EARSHOT JAZZ FESTIVAL
11/06 USA SAN FRANCISCO, CA SF JAZZ FESTIVAL
11/10 USA MINNEAPOLIS, MN CEDAR CULTURAL CENTRE
11/11 USA CHICAGO, IL LOGAN SQUARE AUDITORIUM
11/12 USA COLOMBUS, OH WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
11/13 USA DAYTON, OH BOLL THEATER
11/14 USA ANN ARBOR, MI THE ARK
11/15 USA PITTSBURGH, PA THE WARHOL MUSEUM
11/16 USA NEW YORK, NY JOE'S PUB
11/17 USA NEW YORK, NY S.O.B'S
11/18 USA SOMERVILLE, MA SOMERVILLE THEATER
11/20 USA PHILADELPHIA, PA WORLD LIVE CAFE

http://www.christopherporter.com/2005/10/congotronics-2-buzz-n-rumble-from-urb.html

(Apparently the 8pm is either sold out or near sold out, however a 10:30pm show was added... see here: http://www.earshotjazz.org/fest/artistinfo/kononocongo.html)

Wait, what is this about Congotronics 2? Where can someone like ME get a copy of something like THAT?

Wait, world cafe has no place for dancing?! I've never been there. What use is it then, for a lot of the things they have there? What if someone pretends to go into a trance and starts dancing anyway?

If you want half price tix for Konono's show on Nov 10th at the Cedar Cultural Center...go to tctix.com ....they are only 14-something with the charges....it's 23 at the door.

I really wanna go buy my band is opening for Tristeza that nite

Konono!

-- strongo hulkington's ghost (wt...) (webmail), November 4th, 2005 8:29 PM. (dubplatestyle) (link)

totals. the apotheosis of middle-class taste.

And, very luckily, Consolidated Works staged this in the room with the seating in the back, and a huge empty space for dancing in front by the stage. That space was pretty much filled up (and hey, the senior citizens/handicapped who were attending the Earshot jazz festival got seats up front too, so everybody won), and everyone was revelling everywhere.

If you find out that the place Konono is playing where you are is seats only, I highly encourage you to make and wear a t-shirt that says "I skullfucked Paul Simon at this venue" to that show, because to host Konono N*1 and NOT provide some space for dancing is just a travesty.

There were many kids at the show.. very young kids in fact. During a moment, the singer smiled and danced looking at a toddler trying to clap to the music, despite her not being able to quite walk yet. It was really an "awwwwwww" moment.

..which is to say.. don't expect this to be a LOUD show. Rhythmic? YES, ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY.

So, if you have kids and want to see this show with your kids & family, you absolutely should. I think the band encourages it. Though, the venue acoustics will differ from city to city of course, so bring earplugs just in case, but this is a very kid-friendly show. Thought it was worth the mention.

GREAT show. The drummer, playing a single snare and a makeshift three layered cymbal, was probably my favorite member, but everyone was amazing. Easily one of the two or three best shows I've seen in recent memory.

At least I can go home and listen to the Fat Cat record.

Seriously, this just sounds so great. Sometimes it sucks living in Eugene, the town that is always skipped on the I5 corridor. I would have driven to Portland for this, but no luck.

Konono No. 1 cranks up the Congolese thumb piano
Aaron Cohen

Mawangu Mingiedi just wanted to be heard. And, like everything else in the Congolese city of Kinshasa in central Africa, fulfilling even this simple desire was not easy. But the musician's ingenuity, tenacity, and a surprising series of events wound up taking him further than he ever imagined.

Ever since Mingiedi was 10 years old, he played a Congolese likembe, also called a "thumb piano." The likembe is a traditional instrument that Mingiedi first learned from his father more than 60 years ago. In the mid-1960s, he met some other likembe players and they formed the group that became Konono No. 1 -- and those metal keys never sounded the same.

Much of Konono's repertoire is based on the trance music of the Bazombo people. This sound features repeated chorus lines and frenzied percussion that can induce listeners to dance. Mingiedi's challenge was getting attention above the urban clamor in Kinshasa when his group played on the streets. So Konono hooked up their likembes to microphones and amplifiers that they built themselves out of abandoned car parts.

The wildly distorted, compelling results of this experiment in home-made electronics can be heard on "Congotronics" (Crammed Discs). When the CD was released last year, the music media in Europe and the United States were amazed that the essence of punk rock's noisy do-it-yourself aesthetic had been expressed so far away. Chicagoans can hear the band when Konono performs at the Logan Square Auditorium on Nov. 11.

"I thought that amplification would promote my group in the neighboring streets when we played in public," Mingiedi says through a Lingala-English translator. "I never thought it would carry my sound all the way to Europe and the United States."

While Konono is just beginning to reach an audience over here, Mingiedi says they've had a reputation in Congo for a while. The group's name--which means "stiff"--comes from a line in its popular song, "Lufuala Ndonga," that retells an ancient proverb about avoiding rigor mortis. After Mingiedi's nephews started their own group -- also called Konono -- audiences gave his band the primary number. He also mentions that some notable Congolese soukous musicians, such as Ray Lema, picked up on Konono's influence.

In the early 1980s, a Belgian music fan named Vincent Kenis heard a Konono tape that found its way to French radio. After his initial amazement, he began searching for the group, a journey that involved a sequence of visits to the Congo before Kenis was finally able to locate them, 20 years later.

By that time, Kenis had become a record producer and had the means to accurately document Konono's performances. He realized that instead of bringing the group into a slick, sophisticated studio, the music should be recorded in Kinshasa in a situation that was as close to home as possible.

"It's much better to get a situation where everything is working--socially, dynamically, and somehow try to manage," Kenis says. "That gives me the liberty to modulate a bit and put it in perspective. The distortion is really a part of their sound and there's no use in taking it away."

Kenis and other European-based African music experts knew an open-minded rock audience would appreciate Konono's unique use of electricity. So the group was presented with musicians who had similar inclinations, even if they happen to live on different continents.

When Konono first visited Europe about three years ago, they went on the road with the iconic Dutch punk-rock band the Ex. Even with the language and cultural differences, the groups bonded. Ex guitarist Terrie (just the single name) had visited the Congo in the past and believes that Konono's constructing musical instruments from scraps can be understood as a means of reflecting and transcending the nation's ongoing chaos.

Still, Terrie says he wasn't prepared for Konono's volume.

"It's really incredible," Terrie says. "They were using our amplifiers, which they were playing twice as loud as we did. And for them, this was completely normal."

As the two groups toured the Netherlands, Terrie noticed that Mingiedi watched the Ex closely each night.

"After the sixth gig, we came back and he was sitting in our van," Terrie says. "He was singing all our songs and then said, `Ah, now I know about traditional Dutch folk music!'"

http://www.cantstopwontstop.com/blog/

apparently, it was unbelieveable...opened with like a 40 minute song...

D.C. for free next Tuesday...

Actually witnessing the reunited Meters on stage the next night blew my mind a bit more though :-)

-- Vornado (joh...) (webmail), November 16th, 2005 5:33 PM. (link)

Yeah, Starbucks are the worst. They offer their employees healthcare unlike all those more authentic independent coffee shops.

3 if you count the Barnes and Noble's!

11/17/05 Thursday
@Gavin Brown Project Space
W15th St. bet. 9th and 10th (next to Passerby)
6-8pm *Free!
*Eye solo (Hisham) performance
*Followed by GATAX, Hisham and Eye performing as a duo

TRG, as the expert on Starbucks I can tell you there's one three blocks south on Spring & Varick

KONONO ARE TOO BOUTIQUE IN THEIR DANCE TASTES!

xpost

"Doucement! Doucement! Doucement! Danser! Danser! Danser!"

[Guy rubs money on his head and clambers for more US dollars -- which he gets!]

"Thank you veddy much, Americano!"

You had to practically have your head on stage to get the psychedelic tinny phasing effects that make the recordings so enchanting. They did bring their own awesome sound system -- a pair of big army surplus (M*A*S*H-style) loudspeakers with "Mega" painted inside the cones.

Emotionally, the band seemed shell-shocked, punctuated by moments of beaming happiness. They seemed to have no problem carrying on long arguments while playing 20-minute songs. Of course, a lot of the facial gestures and body language were alien to me. A scowl could just as easily be a sign of sincerity, know what i'm saying?

I was really into "Papa," the 4'5" tank of a man pounding on tuned welded metal bells like he was chopping goatmeat. Old coot. Even the young dudes in the band would laugh when he came busting through.

As a percussion orchestra, they weren't entirely different than Ilê Aiyê (who came to SOBs two months ago), but the hipster quotient was off the charts. Swans, nnck, wfmu, illbient stragglers, mr t haircuts, you name it.

Also, a loopy cowgirl offered me a sandwich, which I thought was really charming.

So many weird things about that set. It was action-packed. I was really pissed at the guy who passed up a dollar bill, because the optics seemed all wrong. Rude or something. Needless to say, the frontman didn't have the same reaction. In fact, he pretty much gave up being a singer for a long stretch to collect money from people. It got to be where it was rude not to pass something up.

Of course, he also got into an argument with the others, I presumed exactly because he'd stopped doing his job, but maybe it's the other way around.

The young guy got bored and left.

It seemed like at one point they were negotiating with their sound guy or soemone to keep playing. I thought they had lost the argument, because the drummers got into what seemed like grand finale-style moves (which was awesome--those two guys were awesome). The hand drummer even lost one of the bandages on his fingers he came down so hard.

But then it just kept going, drifting quite a bit. The crowd got tired too, I think. (Well, I got tired.)

I also thought the likembes were a little low in the mix, but I had assumed that was because I was right next to the drummer.

I wasn't there for the money passing set, which does seem strange - tacky.

But what I want to know is, how was the Eye/Hisham performance?

But to address the point head on, what happens between the band with an audience in Kinshasa isn't quite the same thing as what happens with the same band and a New York audience. Obviously. And I've already said my first comments read a little harsh--ultimately it was fun, the rapport with the audience was great, everyone was unself-consciously and un-ironically enjoying the groove--but even so what harm is there observing that without proper context, a group of rich white beardy hipsters tossing cash at some poor Africans on stage could look a tiny bit tacky?

Here's a rant I ranted somewhere else earlier today:

Konono gussied up their show for America. No homemade amps. No homemade mics. The menacing air-siren-styled speakers on stage were not hooked up to anything—-they didn’t even have wires! They using an octave pedal ferchrissakes!

Essentially, the only reason Konono No. 1 gets to play in America is because they have a cool gimmick. No talks about what they actually sound like. Hell, what do they sound like? It’s not Afro-Cuban enough to be soukous, there’s not enough guitars to be chimurenga and too many mbiras to be juju. My boss says they’re just Congolese street music with a history in trance, but that ain’t gonna get people to buy $12 appletinis at Joe’s Pub.

No, Konono No. 1 boasts hipster cachet because they built their own equipment out of car parts. Accordingly, the crowd was mostly from the white nerd constituency—-all transfixed by band who didn’t bring their ingeniously re-gutted amps, the same amps that glitch out their sound into fuzzy bursts, making them kin-in-timbre to the Boredoms and Amps For Christ. I feel kind of duped that such a “must-see” event show was essentially just a damn good African dance band—the same kind that play here all the time, but I somehow never make it out to. The same ones that the hipsters dismiss as fodder for the socks-and-sandals NPR crowd who doodle kokopellis on the back of their stock portfolios.

I feel like a real schmuck because I haven’t made it out to an African dance show since Oliver Mtukudzi in Prospect Park last year. I’ve seen like five Growing shows in that time! Mtukudzi’s band was livelier and rowdier than Konono… and there were actual African people in the audience!

Cute meta discussion!

I have to admit, it was a very "Wait till I tell ILX!" moment.

I actually see some good points in your post, only as far as other African groups being underrated... but that's it.

I've heard the rest of this argument template re: white hipsters going gaga over lucky "token" non-white group therefore group is overrated and their fans don't know anything else about other similar underrated groups therefore making the experience a disappointment even though the band have nothing to do with what their fans do and don't know anyway, blah blah blah

Forkclove sums up my initial reaction to the money bit - that's the first thing that came to mind.

I talked to a couple of guys who flew to the Seattle show from NYC for the Earshot festival, mainly to see Konono, and they were excited mainly because -- somehow -- they thought the band would become tired as the tour progressed, so they wanted to see the very FIRST show... which seemed really odd to me at the time.. but hearing these stories now, they're slightly prophetic, though I stress "slightly"

Other highlight: when the singer/whistler casually picked up the bells and murdered them.

haha, I was standing with Eye before the show and I thought it was pretty funny that I had heard Konono first as compared to V&infin&redoms and I got to see him hear them.

Then I thought of this:

What's the most "losing my edge"-like accomplishment you can boast?

It was the equivalent of Ralf Hutter turning to the audience and smiling slightly and awkwardly after Kraftwerk played.. which, of course, is the equivalent of Pete Townshend smashing his guitar onto his amplifier knocking it down, and cutting himself severely with the wooden fragments of his former axe, storming off stage in a rage.

These have become my favorite bands.

Some drunk girl standing next to me got so depressed about the money thing that she had to leave. They play in little cafes in the Congo, of course they're used to getting tips!

I was surrounded by just dancing ex-dirthippies-now-cum-antique-store-and-candle-wax-store-owners (including myself, sorta, as far as the dirthippie part goes.)

(ok, maybe i'm generalizing a bit too much there.)

I know that the pile of money had at least $200

Konono's DC show is gonna be at the Kennedy Center. I doubt they printed up any postcards or flyers and left them at African music stores or restaurants in DC, so the crowd here may be mostly like the NY ones described above. But as I mentioned upthread I think, when I saw Congolese rumba star Koffi Olimide at the U of Maryland, just outside DC several years ago, the crowd was largely African. Whether that audience would be interested in Konono I do not know.

I have seen Africans pasting dollars on the sweaty foreheads of Nigerians and Malians and Senegalese and others at DC shows for years. But not too many white folks doing it.

But I am still wondering about this:

"Konono gussied up their show for America. No homemade amps. No homemade mics. The menacing air-siren-styled speakers on stage were not hooked up to anything—-they didn’t even have wires! They using an octave pedal ferchrissakes! ...all transfixed by band who didn’t bring their ingeniously re-gutted amps, the same amps that glitch out their sound into fuzzy bursts..." -Whiney G. Weingarten

I meant they were more in tune with our idea of a "professional" sound system. Using real amplifers and stuff like any professional touring band.

i'll have beers with you anytime! we live in the same borough ffs.

What, there's no car parts in America?

COME TO DADDY'S TONIGHT. NOISE DUDES BE DRINKING.

I admit the show I saw didn't sound as "gritty" as the releases, but that's not the main reason I enjoy their music.. (different strokes, different folks, etc.)

maybe. i'll see how i'm feeling in a little while (fuck a sinus infucktion). you should come out for my birthday drinks though, in TWO WEEKS.

It sounded good, even though the acoustics of the space render almost anything sterile. It's an aural autoclave!

Jess Harvell said upthread that he's coming from Baltimore for the show, and I bet Konono fan Christopher Porter, from the Suburbs Are Killing Us blog and Jazztimes mag, will be there. Plus as I mentioned earlier, the usual assortment of tourists and senior citizens visiting the Kennedy Center to get some 'culture.'

Was anybody else at the Pub show?

I am pretty sure that the Kennedy Center will be showing the Konono No. 1 Tuesday November 22 6 p.m. Eastern time free Milennium Stage show live on their website, and then archiving it for later viewing.

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/

soooooooooooo me.

The band was great and v. charismatic. The NASCAR hats confused me.

http://forum.resonancefm.com/viewtopic.php?t=1202

I have black hair, a beard and black glasses and will be looking lonesome as I'll be on my own so any ILXors say hi. (Or email me beforehand.)