(le) poisson rouge

Konono N°1's "Congotronics" album introduced the world to the strange and spectacular electro-traditional mixtures which are being concocted in the suburbs of Kinshasa, Congo. World music, electronica and avant-rock aficionados have all been equally amazed by this otherworldly music, which has driven the international press to come up with some surprising comparisons (from Can and Krautrock to Jimi Hendrix, Lee Perry and proto-techno!...).

The band was founded over 25 years ago by Mingiedi, a virtuoso of the likembé (a traditional instrument sometimes called "sanza" or "thumb piano", consisting of metal rods attached to a resonator). The band's line-up includes three electric likembés (bass, medium and treble), equipped with hand-made microphones built from magnets salvaged from old car parts, and plugged into amplifiers. There's also a rhythm section which uses traditional as well as makeshift percussion (pans, pots and car parts), three singers, three dancers and a sound system featuring these famous megaphones.

The musicians come from an area which sits right across the border between Congo and Angola. Their repertoire draws largely on Bazombo trance music, but they've had to incorporate the originally-unwanted distortions of their sound system. This has made them develop a unique style which, from a sonic viewpoint, has accidentally connected them with the aesthetics of the most experimental forms of rock and electronic music, as much through their sounds than through their sheer volume (they play in front of a wall of speakers) and their merciless grooves.

Konono N°1's debut album was the inaugural release in Crammed's Congotronics series, which is devoted to the exciting electro/traditional musical hybrids from the Congo.

Recorded in their home domain of Kinshasa, DR Congo by Congotronics series producer Vincent Kenis, the long-anticipated follow-up to Konono's 2005 debut, Conogotronics 1, sees their trademark thrilling junkyard sonics and relentlessly hypnotic percussive grooves (as created using thumb pianos and drums made from scrap metal and discarded car parts) further elevated with electric guitars and bass - played by neighborhood musicians made up of young Konono protégé's - as well as a wider range of vocalists plus guest appearances from guitarist Manuaku Pepe Felly (Zaïko Langa Langa) and members of fellow Congotronics band Kasai Allstars. The band's music is and will always be a very precise mixture of traditional bazombo trance music with the originally-unwanted distortion of their modern home-made equipment...but their sound on Assume Crash Position is somehow deeper, more layered and ethereal, without losing any of that signature raw power and driving energy. This energy will resonate even further with a US tour that reaches all the corners of the country in some of the finest venues and festival stages this July.

Worldwide reactions to their debut album Congotronics 1 were exceptional, and remarkably won the band massive favor in the dance and alternative rock scenes as well as in world music circles: they picked up a Grammy nomination for Live At Couleur Café, a concert recording released in 2006, and played to thousands at festivals such as Sonar, Coachella and The Big Chill. Meanwhile an army of celebrity admirers gathered, including Radiohead's Thom Yorke (who played a Konono track on BBC Radio One), Beck, Björk (whose album Volta featured a guest Konono performance), and Herbie Hancock, to whose forthcoming album they have also contributed. Hancock's record features a whole cast of stellar performances from key figures in the music world.

The gloriously extended full band tracks on Assume Crash Position take off like never before - but also, for the first time, we hear Konono stripped right back to their essence: the album's final song, "Nakobala Lisusu Te", features just the band's founder and master, Mingiedi (now in his late-seventies) and his likembe. "I don't feel like getting married any more", he sings in sweet and mournful tones, "because women nowadays think marriage is just a six month affair".

Konono No. 1 was founded some 44 years ago by Mingiedi, a virtuoso of the likembe (the traditional instrument sometimes called "sanza" or "thumb piano", consisting of metal rods attached to a resonator). Konono No. 1 come from an area which sits right across the border between Congo DR and Angola. The line-up includes three electric likembés (bass, medium and treble), equipped with hand-made microphones built from magnets salvaged from old car parts, and plugged into amplifiers. There is also a rhythm section which used traditional and makeshift percussion (pans, pots and car parts), singers, dancers and a peculiar sound system including megaphones dating from the colonial period, which they call "lance-voix" ('voice-throwers').

Javelin is a hip-hop and electro production duo from Providence, RI.