Live Review: Mbongwana Star ‘Kala’ / ‘Malukiya’ (Official Videos)
MBONGWANA STAR is a group of musicians hailing from the crowded dusty streets of Kinshasa. Where? Well, it’s actually Africa’s third largest city with nearly 6.5 million residents.
MBONGWANA STAR is a group of musicians hailing from the crowded dusty streets of Kinshasa - the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In fact, it's Africa’s third largest city with nearly 6.5 million residents.
Mbongwana Star’s new album From Kinshasa has enjoyed pretty much universal praise. Stand out singles ‘Kala’ and ‘Malukiya’ share many qualities of house and garage music that we might recognise from Western dance floors thanks to the intricate and steady beat work. But the ethos of the band is much more akin to that of a classic punk or rock troupe – the energy and style of their live performances, the raucous message and inspiration for putting the group together. It’s not about sampling or cut and paste drum patterns: Mbongwana Star is a band that record and perform live and different every time.
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The pulsating energy of ‘Kala’ is an ode to the birthplace of kwasa kwasa rhythms and soukous dance music. The video places the djembe drums and mbira (thumb pianos) that we’re hearing in context amidst the streets of Kinshasa. There’s teenagers on roller blades, masks and quasi-military uniforms, and we hurtle through back alleys and darkened rooms, spinning past street kids and running under washing lines. There’s a scary midsection as a man sweats and claws at his face in delirium, but the star of the show is the frantic, hypnotic dancing, which looks a little like the kuduro or batida styles that are so popular in Angola. The video is shot in black and white, perhaps purposefully calling up classic photojournalist styles of documentation that we’re used to seeing adorning the covers of National Geographic et al.
The tongue twisting vocals are a frantic call and response in the local Lingala dialect, which scurry above cowbell rhythms and distorted post-punk electronics. It’s a lot more aggressive and in your face than the hallucinatory and floaty lead single ‘Malukiya’. Where ‘Kala’ is about pace and tempo, ‘Malukiya’ is an ever-vibrating collage of melodies and dreamy vocals. Fitting then that there's a space woman in the video.
From Kinshasa is the band’s debut album. It was originally meant to be called From Kinshasa to the Moon but the second half of the title was lost in translation by the World Circuit record label when it came to publication. Naturally, there may be preconceptions or pigeon holing that come with the exotic sounding, but location specific title.
Most of the band members still live on the streets. The grainy and organic sound captures the scruff and dirt of street life. It’s not the clean-cut production that we’re used to, but why should it be when musicians in Kinshasa have historically had to fashion instruments from scrap metal and garbage, scratching up tapes and recordings.
Dublin-born, Paris-based Liam Farrell has undoubtedly been a driving force behind the record, bringing a wealth of recording and production experience to these Congolese street artists. His style is heavy handed but effective; he slaps on reverb and echo, distorting vocals and layering rhythms. But it’s not about Europeanising African music, or exoticising European house sounds – ‘mbongwana’ translates as ‘change’, which echoes the ethos of the project as a whole. Changing perceptions, changing living conditions, changing genres. You don’t have to over analyse it, just appreciate Mbongwana Star as the band that they are, comprising talented musicians who make exciting and energised new music.
Words by Katie Rowley
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