Introducing: Kin’gongolo Kiniata

Silence. A lively kora ostinato with a samba feel. After four snare hits and a tom-tom fill, the band joins in: syncopated drums, bass guitar and pitched percussion adding depth to the kora melody. The rhythms and melody are classic Afropop, but something sounds different about the tone of the instruments…

Watch Kin’gongolo Kiniata live, and you’ll see what sets them apart; the band’s five members play: a kora fashioned from a plastic fuel container; a corrugated iron drum kit; a xylophone made from plastic bottles of various sizes; another from empty spray cans; a twirled plastic pipe that sounds like a synthesizer; and any number of other percussive instruments made from materials found in the group’s hometown of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“It’s my universe, you know?” says lead singer and percussionist Leebruno, who started making his own instruments as a 15-year-old. “I’m inspired by mixing urban genres with traditional Congolese music”, he adds. Bassist Djino, joining Leebruno over Zoom for a short interview in French, elaborates: “Our inspiration comes first and foremost from Kinshasa, l’environnement Kinois.”

Kin’gongolo Kiniata’s journey is a long one, from Leebruno’s collaborations with Congolese sound/visual artist and fellow proponent of ‘musique métallique’ Bebson de la Rue, to chance meetings with producers and creative directors, to the band’s first rehearsals (now as a five-piece counting Mille Baguettes on drums, Ducap on plastic percussion and Bébé Mingé on kora/one-string electric guitar) and honing of their ‘electro-rock’ sound after the pandemic. Now, they are promoting their upcoming debut album, Kiniata.

The record continues the group’s live work in Kinshasa. Yet even as they attract increased industry interest from overseas, Kin’gongolo Kiniata continue to be challenged by their home city’s lack, save for in a few churches, of quality equipment: “Relative to other places… the equipment isn’t very good. In Kinshasa, you really have to work on your sound.”

Writing the album, then, was an intense collaborative and experimental process. Group rehearsals enabled a bottom-up compositional approach beginning with a bassline or a guitar riff, to which each member quickly adds their part. “It’s like we’re building a house”, explains Djino. “Everyone brings one stone and makes a small contribution to the construction.”

Kiniata also addresses current sociopolitical issues, not least the ongoing war in eastern DRC, which they denounce on the partly French-language track ‘Toko Lemba Te’. Most of the album is sung in Lingala, the native language of Kinshasa. Kin’gongolo’s lyrics, like their approach to instrumentation, valorise Kinois culture and highlight local injustices.

One word that reappears throughout our interview to describe both the physical togetherness central to Kin’gongolo Kiniata’s approach and the band’s community-driven ethos is the reflexive verb se réunir (‘to come together’). Ultimately, these are five men from Kinshasa united by their excitement to be in the same room and make music “with the beautiful sounds of the city.”