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Congotronics
''Congotronics'' is the official debut album by Konono Nº1. It was released in 2004. by Crammed Discs. It has won the band massive favour in the dance and alternative rock scenes as well as in world music circles and in the North American and European media. Konono Nº1's ''Congotronics'' was also released on vinyl by Canadian label Ache Records, who issued three vinyl pressings of the album: the first included 546 on black and 548 on dark green; the next two were each 1,000 copies on black vinyl. ''Congotronics'' will now also be released on vinyl as part of Crammed Discs Congotronics Vinyl Box Set, a limited-edition box containing 5 albums from the Congotronics Series as well as assorted bonuses. Reception Initial critical response to ''Congotronics'' was positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 87, based on 11 reviews. The album placed 31st in webzine Pitchfork Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congotronics Series
''Congotronics'' is the official debut album by Konono Nº1. It was released in 2004. by Crammed Discs. It has won the band massive favour in the dance and alternative rock scenes as well as in world music circles and in the North American and European media. Konono Nº1's ''Congotronics'' was also released on vinyl by Canadian label Ache Records, who issued three vinyl pressings of the album: the first included 546 on black and 548 on dark green; the next two were each 1,000 copies on black vinyl. ''Congotronics'' will now also be released on vinyl as part of Crammed Discs Congotronics Vinyl Box Set, a limited-edition box containing 5 albums from the Congotronics Series as well as assorted bonuses. Reception Initial critical response to ''Congotronics'' was positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 87, based on 11 reviews. The album placed 31st in webzine Pitchfork M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Konono Nº1
Konono Nº1 is a musical group from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are known for their DIY aesthetic, combining electric likembé (a traditional instrument similar to the mbira) with vocals, dancers, and percussion instruments that are made out of items salvaged from a junkyard. The group's amplification equipment is equally rudimentary, including a microphone carved out of wood fitted with a magnet from an automobile alternator and a gigantic horn-shaped amplifier. The genre of the band's music has been characterized as difficult to classify; the group themselves have classified their music under the labels of "tradi-modern" and "Congotronics". Konono Nº1 achieved international recognition around 2004, with the release of their album ''Congotronics'' through the Crammed Discs record label. Appealing to fans of rock and electronic music, they played at the Eurockéennes festival in France the following year. They collaborated with Björk for a song on he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crammed Discs Albums
Crammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released around 375 albums and 275 singles, working with artists from all over the world (from Western Europe and the US to the Balkans and North & Central Africa, from South America to the Middle East and Japan). Crammed Discs is run by Marc Hollander (A&R) with Hanna Gorjaczkowska (artist development, marketing, distribution & art direction) and Vincent Kenis (producer, director of the Congotronics Series). Marc Hollander and Crammed Discs received the WOMEX award in 2004 at the World Music Expo international music trade fair, for being "one of the seminal players on the world music field". However, the label has always systematically worked with electronic music, indie pop and rock artists, and "doesn't see itself as a ''world music label'': it just happens to enjoy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crammed Discs
Crammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released around 375 albums and 275 singles, working with artists from all over the world (from Western Europe and the US to the Balkans and North & Central Africa, from South America to the Middle East and Japan). Crammed Discs is run by Marc Hollander (A&R) with Hanna Gorjaczkowska (artist development, marketing, distribution & art direction) and Vincent Kenis (producer, director of the Congotronics Series). Marc Hollander and Crammed Discs received the WOMEX award in 2004 at the World Music Expo international music trade fair, for being "one of the seminal players on the world music field". However, the label has always systematically worked with electronic music, indie pop and rock artists, and "doesn't see itself as a ''world music label'': it just happens to enjo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kasai Allstars
Kasai Allstars are a 25-piece musical collective based in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The musicians originally come from the Kasai region, but originating from five different ethnic groups: the Songye, Lulua, Tetela, Luba, and Luntu. Some of these groups have endured conflicting relationships over the centuries, and they each have their own culture, their own language, and their own musical traditions. These were always thought to be incompatible until the musicians decided to pool their resources and form a collective at the instigation of Belgian producer Vincent Kenis. Career In 2008, Kasai Allstars released an album on Crammed Discs entitled ''In the 7th Moon, the Chief Turned Into a Swimming Fish and Ate the Head of His Enemy by Magic''. It was the third release in the label's Congotronics series. The album was well received by Western music critics. In 2010, Crammed Discs released ''Tradi-Mods vs. Rockers: Alternative Takes on Congotronics'', a multi-art ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Kenis
Vincent Kenis is a Belgian musician and record producer. He was a member of the avant-garde group Aksak Maboul ( Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine, 1977) and of The Honeymoon Killers, an experimental rock band (Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel, 1982). As a musician, he also collaborated with Congolese artists such as OK Jazz's Franco Luambo Makiadi (La Réponse de Mario, 1988) and Papa Wemba (La Vie est belle, 1989). Closely associated with Belgian label Crammed Discs since its inception, both as an in-house producer and an A&R, he co-produced the semina''Noir et Blanc''album by Zazou Bikaye (with Hector Zazou and Bony Bikaye, 1983), one of the first albums which blended electronic and African music. He produced the first album by a cappella band Zap Mama, and several albums by Balkan Gypsy bands Taraf de Haïdouks and Kocani Orkestar, while also being involved in the sonic design of many Crammed releases, including albums by Tuxedomoon, Cibelle, Zuco 103, as well as the label ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ache Records
Ache Records is an independent record label based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was started by the musician Andy Dixon around 1999. Ache releases music for both Canadian and foreign acts. The first release on Ache Records was Hot Hot Heat's release, ''Hot Hot Heat'' (1999), a four-song EP. Other notable artists to work with Ache include Death from Above 1979, Four Tet, Hrvatski, Konono N°1, and Matmos. Ache Records releases albums from disparate genres. The University of Saskatchewan newspaper, ''The Sheaf'', says that Ache has an "inconsistency of genres" and the label distances itself from using genres to describe its releases. Ache has been described by the ''Montreal Mirror'' as having an "uncanny ability to meld seemingly disparate worlds into a cohesive whole". ''Discorder'' magazine named Ache Records "Label of the Year" for 2004, citing a featured review on ''Pitchfork Media'' for Flössin's album ''Lead Singer'', as well as the label's DIV/ORCE 7″ seri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staff Benda Bilili
Staff Benda Bilili are a group of street musicians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They used to live around the grounds of the zoo in the country's capital city, Kinshasa, and play music which is rooted in soukous, with elements of old-school rhythm and blues and reggae. The core of the band consists of four senior singers/guitarists, who are paraplegic (they had poliomyelitis when they were young) and move around in spectacularly customized tricycles. They are backed by a younger rhythm section consisting of abandoned street children who were taken under the protection of the older members of the band. The soloist is an 18-year-old boy (2009) who plays guitar-like solos on an electrified one-stringed lute he designed and built himself out of a tin can. The group's name translates roughly from Lingala as "look beyond appearances". Staff Benda Bilili earned the 2009 Artist Award at Womex (World Music Expo). The group has sought to raise awareness about crimes against human ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as All-Music Guide by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it, he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Likembé
Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs (at minimum), the right forefinger (most mbira), and sometimes the left forefinger. Musicologists classify it as a lamellaphone, part of the plucked idiophone family of musical instruments. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of mbira, often accompanied by the hosho, a percussion instrument. It is often an important instrument played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings. The "Art of crafting and playing Mbira/Sansi, the finger-plucking traditional musical instrument in Malawi and Zimbabwe" was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020. A modern interpretation of the instrument, the kalimba, was commerci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akron/Family
Akron/Family were an American folk-influenced experimental rock band active from 2002 to 2013. Former members have lived in Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles, California; and Joshua Tree, California. Music and history Though each member of the band—Dana Janssen, Seth Olinsky, and Miles Seaton—could be assigned to loosely defined roles, each played several instruments and sang. Improvisation and three-part harmonies were prominent features, both live and on recording: their eponymous debut release included field recordings of a creaking chair, thunderclaps and the white noise from an untuned analog television, with psychedelic and electronic elements, guitars and a glockenspiel. Early years (2003–2006) Between 2003 and 2007 the band was the hub of a social scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that revolved around the " Gimme! Coffee" coffee shop. Many of the events of this period served as material for songs. In 2003, the band began sending demos to Young God Records label head Mic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
