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LP
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ACHE 021LP
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2008 repress. Limited LP version of the 2004 Crammed Disc CD release. "Konono N°1 was founded over twenty-five 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 megaphones dating from the colonial period. Instead of apologizing for the heavily distorted sounds of such DIY amplification, Konono N°1 have embraced them, provoking a radical mutation of their sound, and has accidentally connected them with the aesthetics of today's most underground forms of music as much through their sounds as through their sheer volume (they play in front of a wall of speakers) and merciless grooves. Hailing from Africa and rooted in a very social form of folk music-making, Konono N°1 is one of the main exponents of a spectacular style of music which has developed in the suburbs of the capital city of Kinshasa. The Congolese refer to this style as 'tradi-modern,' meaning electrified traditional music. These are musicians who have left the bush to settle in the capital and, in order to both continue fulfilling their social role and make themselves heard above the urban din, they have resorted to DIY amplification of their instruments, and the use of megaphones."
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