In 2004 Belgian record label Crammed Discs released the first in what would become its renowned Congotronics series.
It was recorded by a Congolese band of street musicians called Konono No 1 and called Congotronics. Konono No 1 was formed by Mawangu Mingiedi, a likembé (thumb piano) player and truck driver, who is now in his 70s, sometime between the late Sixties and early Seventies (no one seems to know for sure) but the band had never recorded a whole album of its own.
Featuring amplified likembés, Congotronics highlighted an addictive, distorted style of dance music that left the world’s electronic music professionals with gaping mouths. The album was met with rave reviews and led to tours of Europe and the United States, before the band won BBC Radio 3’s 2006 World Music Award for newcomer of the year.
Soon the band was collaborating with Icelandic pop princess Björk on her single, Earth Intruders, in 2007 and was being embraced by many name-dropping Western music stars.
Meanwhile Crammed Discs had moved on with the Congotronics series, releasing a compilation of Congolese street music under the title Congotronics 2: Buzz’n’Rumble from the Urb’n’Jungle in 2006 and followed this with albums by bands Kasai Allstars (2008) and Staff Benda Bilili (2009).
In 2010 the second Konono No 1 album, Assume Crash Position, hit the shelves and was closely followed by the Congotronics vinyl box set, containing all five of the Congotronics records on vinyl, with a bonus book of photography and some exclusive seven-inch singles.
Once again Konono No 1 was the talk of the music industry with news organisations such as the BBC and the Los Angeles Times and music magazines Mojo and Spin giving Assume Crash Position rave reviews.
So with all that Crammed Discs has achieved with its Congotronics series, 2010 was a big year, but it has just got bigger.
The latest addition to the series is Tradi-Mods vs Rockers and is a 26-track double CD featuring a number of musicians and producers from the US, Europe and Japan giving their take on the Congotronics sound.
As the album’s press release says: ‘The Congotronics series has spawned a fervent following in the world of indie rock and electronic music — and now that world answers back in musical form.”
What makes Tradi-Mods vs Rockers truly special is that the tracks that have been reworked, remixed and covered add up to so much more than an album full of clever ideas.
Sure, Tradi-Mods vs Rockers started life as a clever idea but somehow the music when listened to as a 26-track double album transcends that clever idea and becomes something unique and satisfying all on its own.
This can probably be put down to the great selection of artists chosen to offer up tracks and credit for this must go to Crammed Discs.Thanks to its vision, something that could have been a half-baked compilation turned into a fascinating listening experience.
‘Most of the contributions blur the boundaries between reinventions and covers versions, reworks and homages,” says the press release. ‘Much like its source material, this music is by turns serene, invigoratingly noisy or aimed squarely at open-minded dance floors — yet [is] always intriguing and in some way revelatory.”
Featuring American indie stalwarts such as Deerhoof, Animal Collective, Andrew Bird and Skeletons alongside London’s indie-pop sensation Micachu & The Shapes, and electronic music producers such as Shackleton, Optimo and Bass Clef, Tradi-Mods vs Rockers is a roller-coaster ride of sounds and ideas.
The opening track, which sees Deerhoof offer up its take on Kasai Allstars, dubbed Travels Broaden the Mind, has been released as the first single for the compilation and is a great entry point into the double album.
It fits a seductive indie-rock song to the likembé’s rhythm, creating something that sounds not unlike a later-period Tom Waits track.
Animal Collective provides another highlight with its Quick as White, which takes some Congolese percussion and rhythm elements and incorporates them into a psychedelic collage.
California’s kraut-rock revivalists Tussle offers up a magnificent take on Konono No 1, dubbed Soft Crush, which is pure dance-floor heaven, and French outfit Hoquets’ take on Konono No 1 is just so damn cute in its lo-fi funkiness, it can’t help but slip right inside your heart.
But, on a consistent basis, the real highlights come from the examples of electronic producers working with remixes of the Congotronics catalogue, which makes sense — after all we are talking about Congolese dance music.
Innovative dub producer Shackleton offers up an exploratory 10-minute-plus take on Kasai Allstars, titled Mukuba Special, and dubstep producer Bass Clef takes on Kasai Allstars to produce The Incident at Mbuji Mayi, a bass-heavy throw-down that should have dance floors the world over heaving.
Ultimately, I could sit here endlessly waxing lyrical about each of these tracks because that’s how good they all are.
It might have been released only in November this year but, in my books, Tradi-Mods vs Rockers adds up to the most fascinating, riveting album of the year and well deserves that billing.
If there is one CD you buy before the end of 2010, make sure that it’s this one.