Suddenly he shows up behind the audience. One of the singers in the band Kokoko! shouts in a megaphone as if he was walking on the street, and would attract to the concert. He has yellow overalls and black cowboy hat and shout the band’s name over and over again. He looks like an overenthusiastic inropare on Kiviks market.
It is the start of a good hour of euphoric music of this femmannabandet from the Congo-Kinshasa. They are really only the inner core of a loose collective of musicians, dancers and artists, and has teamed up with French producer Débruit.
elvamiljonersstaden Kinshasa, which seems to bubble of expression right now. Kokoko! play the music of the street – actually even literally. Because they can’t afford to buy instruments, so they built their own from the junk they’ve found.
the Result is similar to the just as much a kind of distinctive works of art as instruments. A ensträngad guitar of two tin cans and tillsågad plank. Plastic bottles strapped to a red-painted wooden frame as percussion. Drum kits of the ihoptejpade wooden and metal parts and hi-hat of tillbankade their saucepan lids. There are a helhetsestetik of the tape, with clothing, music, instruments, videos (it makes me think of the belgian-congolese rapper Baloji).
the instruments are somewhat unique music. An african lo/fi-electronica, perhaps, or ritual congolese punkfunk. They call themselves Techno kintueni. There are said to be traces of traditional songs, but mostly this is a rough dance music that refuses to stand still.
Everything is rhythm. Not only drums and percussion but also bass and the guitar (probably the strävaste the guitar sound I’ve heard since James Brown’s 1970-talsskivor). Débruit stands out with his laptop and modern electronics, he jämkar joints in the primitivist.
the Song often consists of short phrases, sung as a catchy call-and-response. The young audience is already from the beginning in a kind of sleek state of shock, it may as well not defend themselves. Soon steaming it in the small venue, and the band’s yellow overalls begin to darken with sweat.
