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Staff
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Last Active 01-10-23 3:58 pm
Joined 05-13-09
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| Congolese music: Franco
It’s crazy what’s happening in the Congo right now. The decentralization makes everything feel incredibly dense: you can google and genuinely be taking in facts for an hour straight and still come away with so little. Probably worth it, though.
Anyways in the 1960s a guy named Franco and a guy named Tabu Ley Rochereau absolutely dominated the charts in the Congo, starting to record as young musicians in the traditions of Congolese rumba music: light and bright guitar lines, a loping and lightly syncopated bassline often sketching out perfect fifths and quick to return to the beat, shakers and light drums and an overall breezy danceability. Though they recorded together a handful of times, Rochereau and Franco were considered “rivals,” and their efforts to outdo each other had much the same effect on Congolese popular music as did that whole Rubber Soul-Pet Sounds-Revolver sequence. The effect was to push the extant popular genre, rumba, into a new and more complex form as soukous, which transition I’d say you can start to hear especially on Volume 2 here. Soukous adds more guitars as well as a wider palette of timbres and instrumentation, faster tempos, and increasing reliance on polyrhythms and overlapping syncopation—you’ll notice the motif of the bass falling on each “1” in the “1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2” rhythmic breakdown of each bar, e.g.—to deliver its considerably more dense danceability. Here is a Spotify-friendly rendering, based on their assy compilations, of some good music Franco made as he pushed this sonic movement forward. It’s very pleasant music but there’s a lot to it. Enjoy! | |
robertsona
11.15.23 | Lmao It didn’t even post them and it looks long as shit goddamn anyways
Franco et l’O.K. Jazz: 1957-1958-1959 (Merveilles du passe, vol. 1)
Motema Ya Lokoso
O.K. Jazz Makila Mabe
Babomi Mboka
Tokeyi Kobina Calipso
Franco et l’O.K. Jazz 1960-1961-1962 (chanteur dans l’OK jazz 59-62)
Ya Luna Umbanzila
Bolingo Mpe Ekosaka
Mado Oboyi Simaro
Maria De Mi Vida
Franco et l’OK Jazz, 1961-1962 (Merveilles du passe, vol. 3)
Isaac Ombele
Ba Kalanga Balingi Toyo Kana
Mibeko Ya Mama
Sabina El Kwamy | Havey
11.15.23 | my go-to early franco tracks have been
On Entre OK, On Sort KO
Lina
Na Bosani Yo Te
Mosala Ekomi Mpasi-Embonga
then a lot of later 60s/early 70s stuff
so not much overlap... makes me excited to dig into your playlist! | robertsona
11.15.23 | My favs from francophonic are Tika kondima na zolo and anduku lutshuma | Havey
11.15.23 | i forget which ones are included on francophonic since those have since long been removed from spotify... i am relying mostly on the "Originalité" compilation i guess (which predates the francophonic ones anyway)
my impression is franco recorded waaaay more goodies than tabu ley, but the peaks are comparably high... |
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