012: Congotronics, by Konono No. 1

Konono No. 1 (DR Congo)
Congotronics (2004)
7 tracks, 51 minutes
Bandcamp · Spotify · iTunes

So it’s only the twelfth day of this one-album-a-day lark, picking an album at random out of an almost 365-strong list, and already you can see some patterns of my taste starting to come out. It would seem that I have a particular weakness for music based on continuous repetition – as seen in the albums of Kel Assouf, Donso and Laraaji so far. Here’s another one, and they take it to the next level.

The music of Konono No. 1 (for it is they) is, at the very heart of it, traditional music played for the modern day. It is based on the interlocking patterns used in the ritual trance music of the baZombo people from Angola and south-west Congo. This music, in Konono No. 1’s hands, is more or less the same, except played on likembé lamellaphones and all cranked through DIY, no-fi electronics. This was their debut full-length album, and it not only chucked the band into the international spotlight, but also created an entire Congotronics hype all itself, spawning a whole catalogue on Crammed Discs and influencing the sound of artists from Vampire Weekend to Björk to Batida.

The aesthetics of Congotronics is harsh – the amplification is distorted and noisy, the percussion is full of snares, rattles and cymbals. On top of that, the likembés are all tuned ever so slightly differently from one another, making the sound ‘beat’ against itself, which can be quite disorientating. Add in the fact that the music is almost entirely based on incredibly short passages – sometimes just one or two measures – repeated seemingly into infinity and slowly evolving through tiny variations, and this is music for deep trance. I once saw Konono No. 1 play an hour-and-fifteen set in three songs. If you’re not feeling it, you’re doomed. But when it clicks, it will fill your head and fly you away into a maelstrom of sound.

I like repetition! I like it, I can’t help it and Konono No. 1 are masters of it. And if you like repetition too, stick around: there will be more repetition here before long, I'm sure.