ROBERT MASEKO

Classic Rumba - Soukous.

Our Price - £14.00
Released in the UK © 2008. Format: CD

 

The Congolese rhythm king of England's north is backed by the energetic and rootsy CongoBeat. From the trademark East African rumba sounds of his debut album La Cremaria, to guitar-driven jit-pop from Zimbabwe, Robert's music is developing further as he bring in the diverse elements of pan-African music. Robert's voice delivers the throaty demanding lyrics of protest, berating oppression and inequality, as well as the seductive melodic searing sound of pride, love and identity.

 

 

PALENKE

SALSA

Our Price - £14
Released in the UK © 2008. Format: CD.

 

Palenke, London's leading Latin American Dance band, was born in 1990 to the collective talents of Fernando Suarez - "Kinacho" and Lisandro Zapata from Colombia. Both are highly professional performers and are widely experienced in the Latin and Jazz scene.

The Band's eclectic repertoire is passionate, dynamic and eminently danceable: from the characteristically hot blooded tempos of Cuban Salsa and Brazilian Lambada, the traditional folk rhythms of Colombian cumbia and Dominican Merengue, to the latest Caribbean Reggae and universally popular Spanish style "Gypsy Kings".

 

Kasai Masai - Tribal Connection

Classic Rumba - Soukous

Our Price - £14
Released in the UK © 2007.
Format: CD.

 

 

 

Make sure you check out London-based Kasai Masai, a 5-piece band performing traditional music from the Kasai region in Congo with a modern twist. Named after a river, Kasai lies in the heart of the rain forest where many tribes such as the Baka still maintain their traditional lifestyles. The Masai, just like the Baka, are another dignified tribe whose lives still centre around a nomadic existence.

 

 

 

KANDA BONGO MAN

Classic Rumba - Soukous

Our Price - £14
Released in the UK © 20007
Format: CD.

Kando Bongo Man Permanence, stability and continuity are very rare commodities in the political and social life of central west Africa. Congo, Zaire, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Mobutu, Kabila, this faction, that faction - it all leaves people very little to cling onto, let alone dance about. That's why it's all the more reassuring and heartening to see that Kanda Bongo Man is still strutting his stuff with his hi-octane unleaded soukous after a career spanning more than a quarter of a century. Soukous, is THE pop sound of Africa. It was originally blended from Cuban rhumba, Congolese rhythms and stripped down disco production values in the clubs and funhouses of mid 1970s Kinshasa, capital of what was then Zaire. The name comes from the French 'secouer', 'to shake', which is just about all you can do when you're under its spell, unless you're deaf or dead that is. Its hallmarks are a tub-thumping all-consuming groove, mesmerizing guitar work and gorgeous close harmony vocals. Kanda Bong Man, who earned his 'Bongo Man' nickname from his drummer grandfather, fronted the seminal early Soukous combo Bella Bella before moving to Paris from Kinshasa in 1979 to pursue a solo career. His 1981 album 'Iloye' topped charts all over Africa and he went to release a string of classics on the Hannibal label, including 'Amour Fou' and 'Kwassa Kwassa', the later named after a hip-grinding dance that Kanda Bongo Man invented.

 

ZAMBULA

Rumba - Soukous

Our Price - £14
Released in the UK © 2007.
Format: CD.

 

 

ZAMBULA were originally formed as a ten piece in West Cornwall in the 1980's when Ugandan singer and percussionist Tito teamed up with the Israeli singer Wendy Herman and conga player Demelza Val Baker. From the start this was an exciting dance band that soon got their audiences dancing to original material written by Tito and Wendy. Starting off by playing private parties, the band soon progressed to becoming one of the South Wests biggest drawing bands, playing all the main venues throughout Devon and Cornwall. They became regulars at the regions main festivals such as St Ives, Hood Fayre, Elephant Fayre and have been a permanent fixture at Glastonbury for over two decade.

 

LUIS LEMA

SALSA

Our Price - £14
Released in the UK © 2007.
Format: CD.

 

In 1996 Luis Lema joined Bombele, a powerful Latin Orchestra blending the rhythms from his Pacific roots with urban salsa. His repertoire of danceable beats should be enough to take anyone on a musical journey to the hottest carnivals in the world.

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