WOMAD

Kasai All Stars

From Congo

"This is rock sucked back to the continent of its birth to be granted a glorious resurrection." This was the verdict of The Word magazine when writing of the might of Kinshasa's Kasai Allstars. Back in the Congolese capital, the average Kasai gig involves around 25 performers drawn from five different bands and a similar number of ethnic groups - did someone just whisper 'super-group'? For their WOMAD debut, however, they're bringing a streamlined ensemble consisting of a mere 14 musicians, singers and dancers. Using a mix of acoustic instruments, electric guitars and distorted thumb pianos to accompany no fewer than six soulful vocalists, their songs are derived from ancient Congolese ritual and pagan trance ceremonies with lyrics such as "In the seventh moon, the chief turned into a swimming fish and ate the head of his enemy by magic". The line is also the wordy but magnificent title of their debut album, the third release in the Congotronics series which has already unearthed the hugely celebrated (and award-winning) Konono No 1.

Biog by Nigel Williamson