Lightning over the River:
The Congolese Soukous Guitar Sound
1999: Music Club/Stern’s Africa 50098
Pepe Kalle, featuring Popolipo
Lokassa Ya Mbongo, featuring Lokassa & Guests
Zaiko Langa Langa, featuring Matima
Syran Mbenza & The Best Of Paris, featuring Syran Mbenza
OK Jazz, featuring Franco
Zaiko Langa Langa FD, featuring Petit Poisson
Syran Mbenza & The Best Of Paris, featuring Diblo Dibala
Kanda Bongo Man, featuring Nene Tshakou
Tabu Ley, featuring Huit Kilos
Tshala Muana, featuring Dally Kimoko
YOWZA what a frenzy of rhythms!!! It starts off peppily enough with “Roger Milla,” then with the next two songs it lulls you into a false sense that you can easily keep up with the dancing, no problem. And then “Molatisi” sweetly gets you bouncing along, clueless to the impending storm of dancing you’re going to be doing, first to the steadily rockin’ second half of “Molatisi” itself and then what’s next, which is 3 minutes of the gentle-enough start of “Minzata” followed by 8 minutes of far more intensive sustained shakin’ all the way to the end of the song, with fiery patches here and there. If you don’t manage to keep yourself from dancing to this you will very likely be a sweaty, well-worked-out heap by the end of the track.
And there’s still 5 tracks to go. Still, they’re not all as relentless as “Minzata”—“Yesu Christo” is in fact almost drearily twee—but certainly there’s not a lull of any kind to be heard. Put this CD on when you want to shimmy some pounds off: the B-52’s may be great for individual dance workouts, but this album gets you moving in ways you never thought to move before as the jerky rhythms and the unfamiliar harmonies work your buttons like a Magic Fingers set to “Stun.”
Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.