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- Record Label: Crammed Disc
- Release Date: Jul 15, 2008
- Summary: The latest album for the supergroup of 25 musicians from the Democratic Republic of the Congo features both traditional and contemporary instruments.
- Record Label: Crammed Disc
- Genre(s): World
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 15 out of 16
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Mixed: 1 out of 16
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Negative: 0 out of 16
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The music is neither bastardized nor precious, just a riveting reflection of the ongoing allure and paradox that is the Congo.
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The sound is terrific, the presentation is handsome, the sound and selection are amazing; and negotiations with musicians are not done on colonial terms.
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The WireThis is a beautiful record, but I wish it had a little more chaos in it. [Oct 2008, p.58]
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UncutMost compelling are the variety of vocals--some spoken, some hollered, some sung in spinetingling harmonies. [Sep 2008, p.98]
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In a style gentler and more richly textured than the crudely amplified minimalism of the series’ debut by Konono N°1, the songs swell in and out of expansive and hypnotic patterns, forming clouds of interwoven rhythms.
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Mostly they provide gentle melodic loops familiar to fans of old-school soukous and indie-rock fusionists like Vampire Weekend. But sometimes they break ranks.
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In their multi-ethnic make-up, the face-painted, twenty-something strong Allstars chant a slightly more devolved game than fellow marimba manglers Konono No.1, but the cumulative effect is similar, a sustained concussion of sound, a kind of sonic vertigo that subverts the cliché of Congo as perpetual victim.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 0 out of
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Mixed: 0 out of
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Negative: 0 out of