Kin Sonic

There's a lot of laughter in this second album by the Congo's Jupiter & Okwess. Dramatic, over-the-top ‘mwa-ha-ha's from the belly of Jean-Pierre ‘Jupiter’ Bokondji, whose rallying cries preface tracks that burst into life and fire on all cylinders, with attacking guitars, thundering drums and frenzied, winding polyrhythms. The likes of opener ‘Hello’, with its sung/spoken lyrics is all galloping rhythms and shouty choruses in the Mongo language of the Équateur province, hit you over the head with ear-splitting force. But the similarity of several such anarchic Afro bangers obscures the band's use of different central African rhythms and languages; the songs’ stories of greedy kings, man's hubris and the futility of war disappear into soupy walls of sound. Jupiter & Okwess are a scorching live act. While Kin Sonic captures their righteous fury, it doesn’t do it full nuanced justice.
The best tracks are those that are allowed to breathe, such as the impassioned ‘Pondjo Pondjo’, with evocative violin accompaniment from Nick Cave's right-hand man Warren Ellis, or ‘Le Temps Passé’, a pro-education ballad written by drummer and ex-Staff Benda Bilili member Montana Kinunu. Found sounds and the mandatory cameo by Damon Albarn (playing keyboards on the excellent ‘Musonsu’) mirror the formula applied to the likes of Amadou & Mariam, with whom, unsurprisingly, this album shares a co-producer.