Regular readers (if I can claim such a thing) will be aware of my ongoing obsession with Congotronics, the modern take on traditional Congolese music featuring Official Best Noise In The World, the electric thumb piano (as voted by me in a survey of me). The most recent release was Tradi-Mods Vs Rockers wich featured Western musicians like Animal Collective, Shackleton and Mark Ernestus remixing or being inspired by the more traditional Congotronics source material.
Last Tuesday the Barbican played host to a mega-band consisting of Congolese favourites Konono No.1 and Kasai Allstars as well as some of the contributors to the Tradi-Mods Vs Rockers album: Deerhoof, Juana Molina, Wildbirds & Peacedrums and Matt Mehlan. The night was billed as a live version of the album – an ambitious goal given the breadth of styles covered and the sheer number of musicians involved.
I was curious as to how they would approach the set – would it be individual bands taking turns to do their thing, or selected members of each band coming together for different songs? Instead, no less than 19 people took to the stage including percussionists, a marimba, vocalists, guitarists, basists and of course thumb pianos. Somehow they’d worked out how to merge their myriad styles and sounds into a remarkably coherent whole. Some tunes involved fewer musicians and a more identifiably Western or African sound, but these numbers didn’t feel like the line up had been tweaked or choreographed to ‘achieve’ the different sound. The Congolese musicians augmented the Western music and vice versa, and for the most part it was a harmonious collaboration – a band, if you will!
Personally I preferred the more overtly African pieces. Whether it’s cultural (in that they sound more exotic to my ears which were weaned on the music from my own part of the world) or simply down to taste (in that African rhythms and timbres excite me more than Western ones) I can’t say, but there it is – congas, marimbas and thumb pianos get me going more than a drum kit and a guitar. That said, the whole project is inspired by the Congotronics sound specifically, so it never strayed too far.
At risk of sounding hyperbolic, there were moments (specifically the 3 tunes where the entire band were going for it and playing Konono No.1 or Kasai Allstars classics) where, for my ears and my particular wiring, the music was perfect. I’ve talked about ‘perfect tunes‘ elsewhere in this blog and the same disclaimer as for those is relevant here: the music wasn’t, of course, empirically faultless (one can’t classify art that way), but to me it simply couldn’t have been improved upon. It was a genuinely thrilling, deliciously energetic barrage of up-beat, feel good, rhymically ingenious delight! To top it all, it looked like the musicians were having a ball.
I am going to write another couple of posts on subjects that have been brewing for a while and that definitely tie in to my experience at this gig. Namely: the effect that a venue or setting can have on music, and the physical movement (or otherwise) of audiences to rhythms. Or dancing, as it’s generally called. Suffice to say for now that the Congotronics vs Rockers gig ‘broke’ the Barbican Hall in that I’ve never seen so many people going for it in what is generally considered a classical, or ‘serious’, venue. Indeed, I got congratulated by a fellow dancer for ‘raving hard’ as I left, and had my hand shaken. A fitting end to the night as far as I was concerned!
Before heading home I indulged in the sumptuous Congotronics box set that I’ve been eyeing up for a while. 5 LP’s, a 7″ and a memory stick with a booklet in a lovely box. Mmmmmmm:
A bit sedate for the general vibe of the evening but here’s a video anyway:
Top image from 405
