109: Les Tambourinaires du Burundi, by the Drummers of Burundi

The Drummers of Burundi (Burundi)
Les Tambourinaires du Burundi (1992)
1 track, 31 minutes
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Watching the Drummers of Burundi is a spectacle that is hard to forget. You hear them before you see them – a distant booming coming closer and closer, joined by the high-pitched clacking of wood-on-wood as it gets nearer. Then you see them and it’s even more striking than that powerful sound had you expecting. A big bunch of willowy, muscular men in beautiful robes of white, red and green to match the Burundian flag, each with a gigantic wooden drum on their head, playing their infectious beat with all their might. Now there’s an indelible image.

They set their karyenda drums in a semi-circle with one (painted with the flag) in the middle for soloists, and the energy levels never let up. They keep their beat going as long as you’d like, the drummers taking turns to play different aspects of the rhythms, to solo on the main drum and to impress with acrobatic flips, jumping splits and dancing with spears and shields. At the end, they load the drums back on to their heads and troop away, never letting that beat waver. There are few musical experiences that can match watching – and feeling – the Drummers of Burundi.

And so we come to this album. It was recorded in Real World Studios in 1987, completely live – to be honest, there isn’t really any other way to record 20 drummers of this particular might. As such, you don’t hear anything that wouldn’t be there in a live performance, although there isn’t the wonderful incoming and outgoing head-bound drumming; I guess it wouldn’t have the same effect on record. There is a short call-and-response to start, the leader asking the others if they are ready and worthy to play these royal and sacred drums. Everyone decides that, yes, they’re pretty sure they are and they get to it. It is a beat that will get all the way through your body (if you play it loud enough) and the ever-evolving rhythmic patterns will do something pleasant to your brain, too. As it’s a live performance, it’s presented as one long, unbroken track – what is a little strange that it is only 30 minutes, considering that they can go for much, much longer.

If you’ve never heard the Drummers of Burundi before but the music on this album sounds familiar to you, you might be right. This album was not the first time the music of the karyenda drummers was heard in Europe, and it was most famously included in the Ocora album Musiques du Burundi in 1968. That recording became a sort of cult hit in certain circles and ended up being one of the most unlikely sources of inspiration among new wave and post-punk musicians. The rhythms of what was called ‘the Burundi Beat’ became infused into the work of bands such as Bow Wow Wow and Adam and the Ants.

Those groups had their own thing going on, but their rhythms just don’t match the Drummers for the sheer intensity and awesomeness. Of course this album is never going to fully capture what these musicians do live – the power of their beats and the chest-rattling reverberations can only ever be experienced within earshot of the actual drum – but it certainly captures a little bit of what they’re about and the mesmerising qualities of their sound.