Qui sont ces Bobongo Stars?

First off: I don't know if I have words to express how shocked I was to check the DivShare stats and find out that less than 24 hours after I posted it, the PJ Gray Boogie Trip Mix had been downloaded more 400 times, making it the most DLed file I've ever put up here! Did it get cross-posted on other blogs/forums or do y'all just love disco that much? (If the latter is the case, there's more where that come from, I reckon.)

Today's another quickie drop. This is an album that John B sent me a few weeks ago (the man positively spoils me, I tell ya) but I never got around to posting it because I really don't know anything at all about the band and I wanted to dig up some background info so's I could say something more than just "Here's the music; hope you like it as much as I do! Bye!"

My research didn't lead to much, though.* All I can say for now is that they are called Bobongo Stars; they may or may not be connected in some way with Ray Lema; their drummer played with OK Jazz on the classic 1982 Franco/Sam Mangwana classic "Cooperation"; they are clearly one of the new wave of Congolese bands of the 1970s and 80s that broke the typical Congo rumba mold by evincing heavy soul, funk and rock influences.



Also, this album, Makasi, is quite the shit.



Well... Here's the music; hope you like it as much as I do! Bye!

> DOWNLOAD IT! <


*I didn't think to ask Ms Bazu if she or Guy knew anything about them, though. I should've done that.

Yo pardon, this song been on my mind all week

STAFF BENDA BILILI ( et le sex machine)
Uploaded by belleKinoise

fleur d'afrique sent me and Denis this clip from Jupiter's Dance a few weeks ago, and since then the song has permeated my consciousness that even in my dreams I find myself barking "TEE-ro-pa, tee-ro-LAY... Tee-ro-PAPA! SEK-SU MAH-SHEEN!"

Similar to Israel Vibration of Jamaica or even Atlanta's Ying Yang Twins, Kinshasa's Staff Benda Bilili are united by their disability: the band is composed of musicians afflicted with polio (and a few street kids who accompany them) but they refuse to acknowledge their physical handicaps as anything more than a psychological hurdle to be overcome through ironclad resolve, resourcefulness and resilience.

Benda Bilili's "Sex Machine" is not James Brown's or even Sly's; it is a miraculous contraption conceived via the universal ghetto algorithm that nothing plus nothing equals something; contrived of rusty tin, sugar-packet cardboard and bicycle spokes bound together by rugged chicken wire, the soft, worn rubber of old fan belts and the Grace of God; fueled by a cocktail of sweat, spit and seminal fluid; ignited and propelled by the ever-burning spark of the human spirit.