Konono No 1 - Dingwalls, London

Formed over twenty years ago, it's only in the last few years that Konono No 1 have come to the attenion of audiences outside of DR Congo thanks to a couple of albums recorded straight to a MacBook and released by Belgian imprint Crammed Discs.
The sound of those recordings was made distinctive in part by the means of amplification - microphones jerry-built from old car parts and fed through conical speakers, relics from colonial times. The sound that crackles from this set up is a glorious, propulsive racket of likembe (thumb pianos) and junkyard percussion, punctuated with chanted vocal parts and ryhthmic shouts.

Playing at Dingwalls to a disappointing crowd the thrilling quality of the sound is retained; they've shipped over those conical speaker which give the whole thing a distorted edge reminiscent of Mudhoney's Touch Me I'm Sick. The two elder statesmen of the band defy the clattering beat surrounding them to stand stock still save for the thumbs which dance over their instruments, appearing to text message the melodies to our ears. By contrast the drummers leap around behind their kit, one of them looking like a rave casualty, a whistle jammed in his mouth throughout the set.

Without sufficient knowledge of African music to do justice to their sound I can only encourage you to go see this lot if you get the chance. They'd make the Tin Man feel loose limbed.