KOKOKO! - BUTU (2024) [Official Digital Download]

Kinshasa’s KOKOKO! take up the junkyard Kongo-rock mantle from likes of Konono No.1 and ramp it for the 2020s with a virulent energy accelerated by electronic producer dÉbruit.

Renowned for exhilarating shows across the world, from Boiler Room to SXSW, NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts, and even appearances on the GTA and FUFA game soundtracks, KOKOKO! are not fucking about when it comes to setting the room on fire. ‘BUTU’, meaning ‘the night’ in local Lingala lingua, is their 2nd album since debuting in 2017, and builds on the scorched ground of first LP ‘Fongola’ (2019) with a ruck of heavy trampling energy over a dozen songs led by the stentorian holler of Makara Bianko and made rowdy as heck by the bands’s custom kit, constructed from what they can find in Kinshasa - pots, pans, detergent bottles - just like the precedents of Konono No.1 and their still brilliant ’Congotronics’ album of 2004, but modernised by electronics that place them in a similar lane to the likes of Nyege Nyege Tapes’ HHY & The Macumbas.

Propelled by a political fire in the belly, KOKOKO! sing about the serious human rights violations experienced by the people of The DRC, from armed conflict to mass killings and the effect of multinational corporations taking from their resource rich country and never giving back. Worry not though, they’re not about to guilt trip you (even if you understood Lingala), as the music drives the party first, and leaves Western audiences to ponder on where it came from after. Pitching us straight into the swelter of Kinshasa with the sounds of boda boda horns turning into rave motifs on the martial opener ‘Butu Ezo Ya’, the album sustains a fierce intensity right thru to kinky wink of ‘Salka Bien’ at its close. They reserve the right to switch up from punky steppers ‘Bzo Banga’ to below-the-belt heft in ‘Donne Moi’, and almost new beat-via-Kaito styles in ‘Mokili’, to spiralling knees-up ‘Motoki’ and a killer cut of swingeing, triplet-driven badness in ‘Telema’.

Tracklist:
01 - Butu Ezo Ya
02 - Bazo Banga
03 - Donne Moi
04 - Motema Mabe
05 - Mokili
06 - Mokolo Likambu
07 - Kidoka
08 - Motoki
09 - Telema
10 - Nasali Nini
11 - Elingi Biso Te
12 - Salaka Bien


Thanks to the Original customer!