For nearly 40 years, Mingiedi Mawangu and his Konono No. 1 likembe orchestra, have been playing street parties and festivals in the Congo, and since the 21st century, all over the world. The likembe is a thumb piano made from steel strips cut to various lengs and played across a steel bridge over a hollowed wooden box, creating a resonating tinny sound that registers from deep and and rumbles to high and reedy. Konono No. 1 make their instruments from car parts and amplify them with everything from microphones assembled from alternator magnets, camshafts, valves, and speakers to homemade amplifiers that distort the likembe's sound and create numerous overtones and effects accompanied by whistles and other percussion instruments made from discarded steel pots, pans, radiators, sheets of tin, trunk covers, car hoods, etc. The only conventional modern instrument is Duki Makumbu's electric bass and Vincent Visi's makeshift drum kit (likewise made of found items).

Previous recordings have documented the many kinds of sounds Konono No. 1 generate in their form of polyrhythmic bazombo trance music that incorporates interlinking folk and improvised melodies that are sometimes played by the likembes, and at other times chanted and sung with call and response vocals. Assume Crash Position, produced by Crammed's Vincent Kenis, was recorded in a proper studio setting in Kinshasa. Rather than let the environment take away from the kinetic, utterly organic, raw feel of their previous albums, the separation of sounds created here, and the clarity of the way the likembes interact with one another, create a new experience altogether. Konono No. 1's approach to playing is not at all different; it is still the sound of an hour-long celebration unfolding -- even adding a couple of likembe players from the Kasai All-Stars on "Mama Na Bana," and a few guitars littered throughout doesn't alter that. A solid example is in one of their set standards, “Konono Wa Wa Wa,” near the album's end. The bassline is clearly stated, followed by layers of drums and percussion. The melody unfolds in call and response chants before the likembes begin to enter gradually by tonality. What seems like an ordinary folk song is, by the four-minute mark of its nearly 12 minutes, a complete exercise in Konono No. 1's trademark ancient-to-future hip-shaking trance dance with echoing sounds, reverb, distortion, and overwhelming energy united inseparably. Another extended workout is on album0opener "Wumbanzanga," where a guitar line is woven through the intricate melody of likembes, percussion, and bass; deep shouted responses to Pauline Mbuka Nsiala's lead vocals make this a celebratory hypnosis inducer; it will make a dancer out of anyone within earshot. For fans, Assume Crash Position is a necessary addition to the catalog. For the intrigued, this is an excellent starting point.

Todd,

Okay, then let me spell it out for you.

Konono #1 has been discussed a great deal on this board. The fact that you don't know this proves that you only read your own posts, and further proves a willful ignorance on your part that borders on insulting towards all other members of the site. Similarly, the fact that you've constantly chosen to post my name, even though I have directly explained to you that I'd rather you didn't, displays a related form of disrespect that extends beyond the confines of our little internet world. It's true I only know you from your board persona, but you seem to be a horrible person masquerading as a nice guy.

The Congotronics Vinyl Box Set (2010): in April 2010, Crammed Discs have announced the imminent release of a limited edition box set, available only on pre-order and containing vinyl versions of Konono Nº1's Congotronics and Assume Crash Position albums, of the Congotronics 2 album, the albums by Kasai Allstars and Staff Benda Bilili, plus assorted bonuses including a 7" single featuring a collaboration between Kasai Allstars and US indie-folk-rock band Akron/Family, as well as videos and mp3s.

awesome thread.

as for the band - they are intriguing. then they lose their appeal.

For worse, no doubt about it.

And it's not really a descriptor at all but a way of trying to ghettoize everything that doesn't appeal to you and a few other people.

It's great that you have a clear idea of what it means, but you know as well as I do that it isn't used consistently and that several people on here would call Lightning Bolt and other noise rock bands PPDD.

awesome thread.

as for the band - they are intriguing. then they lose their appeal.

At any rate, what are the odds that Todd will have any idea what it means? He's the one that asked the question.

I swear the only reason you post here anymore is to troll for hits on your blog.

Damn, a little harsh here, man, but contra has kind of become just another hit-and-run boarder so it's not totally undeserved.