Cherie Na N’ga

Born Belangeni Musumbu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bel was raised in Kinshasa but is now resident in London. He was inspired to pick up a guitar by the playing of the soukous great Dr Nico. He toured for a while with Kanda Bongo Man and has become a noted teacher who has made a series of tutorial DVDs on how to play in the classic Congolese rumba and soukous styles.

On this album he sees no reason to depart from the uplifting sound of the 70s and 80s recordings that inspired him, but he brings a sophisticated harmonic sense to his playing and is rewardingly backed by several musicians who learnt to play soukous as his students. The guitars spiral heavenwards, while a bevy of fine singers, the best-known of whom is Nyboma Mwan’dido, add sweet vocals in the familiarly mellifluous soukous style and the use of sax on the less frenetic, swaying tracks such as ‘Mon Pays’ evokes delicious memories of Orchestra Baobab’s West African rumba. There’s nothing new here at all. But it’s never a bad thing to be reminded that, at its best, classic soukous is surely the finest forget-your-troubles-and-dance music, one of the most joyously uninhibited sounds in the world.