Kongo Dia Ntotila – 360° (Pussyfoot Records)
Kongo Dia Ntotila - 360°
Release Date: Out Now
Every now and
again, I get a single or an EP that really surprises me with its strength and
originality but it’s very rare that I get an entire album that makes more
excited with every track. Still, such a day has arrived, and the Congolese/British
collective Kongo Dia Ntotila are behind the album ‘360°’ which you need to
seriously consider adding to your summer soundtrack.
‘Kongo’ opens
things up with a tight drum roll and some big ol’ bass before the band kick in
with horns and the kind of singing that just makes you want to dance. ‘Agbwaya’
keeps the party going with infectious percussion and those horns (a signature feature
on this record) are back again just to keep things funky. The Congolese
influence is strong throughout the whole album but ‘Mbongo’ takes things to a
wonderful place of fusion with elements of Jazz, Prog and Folk intermingling
with the African guitar sound and furious rhythms. I was hooked by this point,
I hope you are too.
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| Kongo Dia Ntotila |
Title track ‘360°’
has a moody bassline and when the horns and guitars join in we get that 70s
American cop film vibe going on while ‘Faux Boss’ pings and pops with pent up energy
and a sense of barely constrained chaos. ‘Kinshasa Makambo’ mixes those
chattering, babbling guitars with spurts of horns and conversational vocals to create
a glorious cacophony but soon the sweet vocal harmonies find some order in the
chaos and you just need to let yourself get swept away. There is a slower, more
deliberate pace to ‘Naleli’ which has a reggae vibe with trilling trumpet and the
necessary skank to the guitars while ‘Feti’ brings the summer party vibe with
some serious sexiness running through the vocals, the horns, the bass – hell,
it’s all sexy.
The penultimate
track on this collection, ‘Koupe Dekale’, is all about the rhythm and how the
bass interacts with it to create a solid base for the lighter than air guitars
and vocals to dance on top of without a care in the world. The album closes out
on ‘Mutwashi’ which has an end of the night feel to it with the tempo dropping
slightly and each musician having one last opportunity to show you what they’ve
got. Kongo Dia Ntotila are six men from two different countries making one hell
of a triumphant noise across these ten tracks and if you can add a few of these
tracks to your summer playlists then it will enrich your life and make your
friends jealous.
Live Dates:
21st June – Ninety One Living Room, London
5th July – Love Supreme Festival, Sussex
6th July – Mirth, Marvel & Maud, London
13th July – Tropical Pressure Festival, Cornwall
18th July – Folklore, London
9th August – Houghton Festival, Norfolk
10th August – The Jago, London
26th August – Devizes International Festival, Wiltshire