Blog March 31, 2016
Exclusive! New Track by Konono No. 1
Fans of electrified lamellophones rejoice: Konono No. 1 has another album coming out and you can hear a track from it right now.
The track is called “Tokolanda” and if it's any indication, the Congolese group's next album, Konono No.1 Meets Batida, builds off the success of their last record while still evolving in interesting directions. The album is slated to be released in North America on April 29 by Crammed Discs.
If listeners pick up a little something different in the sound this time, at least some of that can be attributed to the Angolan/Portuguese producer and artist Pedro Coquenão, more popularly known as the titular Batida.
Konono No. 1 traveled from their home in Kinshasa to Batida's studio in his garage in Lisbon. You can hear guitarist Papa Juju from the band Terrakota lending his talents to “Tokolanda.” According the label, the record features many of the talents from Lisbon's incredible African music scene.
Once you're done with the long-jamming “Tokolanda,” check our program on Congotronics, the 2004 album that introduced Konono No. 1 to a much wider audience, and introduced that audience to the brutal beauty of an electrified lamellophone.
