"The World Is Shaking: Cubanismo From The Congo, 1954-55"

This is fifth release in Honest Jon's uniformly rewarding plunge into the EMI Hayes Archive of vintage recordings.  While the previous albums have all been exotic, haunting, or unique, The World Is Shaking is the first that can be considered sensuous and fun.  Here the normally disparate worlds of musicology and awesome parties unexpectedly intersect.

 

Honest Jon’s Records

The World is Shaking documents a particularly fertile, unique, and influential period in The Congo's musical evolution that ultimately birthed Congolese rumba and Soukous (which completely dominated African music for nearly two decades).  The music here was shaped by three massive factors: the growing excitement of the independence/anti-colonialism movement, the new nightlife that resulted from people flocking to the cities for well-paying factory jobs, and the recent influx of imported records of latin music, American jazz, and European torch singers.  The Congolese were particularly enamored with Louis Armstrong and Italian heartthrob Tino Rossi.

Needless to say, many previously traditional Congolese musicians began appropriating these new cosmopolitan sounds by whatever means they had at their disposal.  This resulted in some unexpected instrumentation: the brilliantly absurd "Tika Koseka" is centered around several buzzing kazoos, while "Bino Boton, Bosele" is built upon a thumb piano motif.  Naturally, the distinctly non-African guitar is rampant throughout the album (and violins and banjos are not uncommon either), but the twenty-one tracks here are invariably anchored by infectious and sexy Latin/African percussion (regardless of instrumentation).   

The highlights are many, but I was most struck by the mournful opening track (Laurent Lomande's "Maboka Marie").  Notably, many of the tracks included here feature rather downcast and lovelorn vocals, but the sadness is poignant rather than tiresome due to the relentless sultry heat of the underlying rhythm.  Also, even the tracks that aren't conventionally great (such as perhaps Adikwa Depala's "Yoka Ngal") radiate such awkward wide-eyed enthusiasm that it is nearly impossible to avoid being charmed.
 
The World Is Shaking is definitely one of the best world music compilations that will come out this year. This is raw, inspired, and vital music (dangerous too: many of the lyrics deal with sex, death, drugs, pimps, and heartbreak).  Also of note, this lovingly assembled collection is augmented by notes and rare photographs from Rumba on the River author Gary Stewart.  Highly recommended.

samples:

• Laurent Lomande – "Maboka Marie"
• Vincent Kuli – "Yaka Ko Tala"
• Adikwa Depala – "Yoka Ngal"