Name: Fongola
Brand: KOKOKO!

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

PIAA417A.1

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Discs

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Standard Version.

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Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2019-07-19

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Orchard

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

5400863013639

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1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

KOKOKO! 

Genre US

African

Label US

Transgressive

<a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/kokoko/kokoko-fongola">KOKOKO! - Fongola</a>

Available on Rough Trade Exclusive Yellow Vinyl with Bonus Disc, limited to 1200 copies.

Inspired by Kinshasa's tumultuous sounds: the tomato can drum pattern of petrol sellers, little bottles of varnish bouncing in rhythm, the cigarette sellers with their elastics sounds, KOKOKO!’s ‘Fongola’ is direct, raw punk with a heavy groove: electric and rolling. All of its members, who played for the first time together at a massive block party, come from different tribes and were shaped by their grandparents (the first generation of "modern citizens”) who would gather at night and sing tribal chants.

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Albums Of The Month - July 2019

Albums of the Year 2019 Top 100

Exclusives

All formats come with a bonus remix CDEP. KOKOKO! are a group formed in Kinshasa, DRC - comprising local musicians, artists, dancers and inventors alongside producer Débruit. Their extraordinary debut album is pure electricity and the band bring the party wherever they go.

Signed with independent label Transgressive, their distorted polyrhythms and spontaneous lo-fi sounds provide a chaotic soundtrack to their home country. When most people think of culture in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it’s The Rumble in The Jungle fight of Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman and the accompanying Soul Power concert with James Brown in the 70s, Mobutu in his abacost and leopard print hat, les sapeurs in their elegant tailoring, and the king of Congolese rumba Papa Wemba. A faded vintage postcard. KOKOKO! represent the antithesis of tradition, and their debut album Fongola - which translates to “the key” - is a torrid, anarchic, youthful journey smashing a new path through modern life in Africa’s third most populous city.

Life in Kinshasa is tough. Since its inception three years ago the band have lost their drummer to lung cancer, a dancer from their wider collective to electrocution, had homes destroyed by police, safety concerns at election time, visa struggles and a lucky incident with a crocodile. Yet the subject matter of the album is far from a one dimensional lament about struggle and hardship. Their lyrics explore love, sorcery and magic, the need to take things slowly in life, greed and corruption and the importance of being heard and understood.

The kind of people who can afford imported guitars and drum kits in Kinshasa live very different lives to the people who make instruments out of sardine tins, water bottles and engine parts. Imitation wasn’t an option, which necessitated innovation. The resulting album is experimental electronic music, but it doesn’t fit neatly within any genre. Most of the sounds on this project can’t be replicated, as anyone trying to tune a one-string guitar made out of a bike brake and a powdered milk tin can attest to! What started as a financial challenge resulted in a creative advantage.

Being an artist gives you special privileges in Kinshasa because it’s seen as an important role, and Fongola is an urgent and vitally important expression of the talent which is thriving and leading the way artistically from the toughest and most unlikely of places.

LP+ - Rough Trade Exclusive. Limited to 1200 Copies on Yellow Vinyl with Download.