Kinshasa Succursale

Recorded in 2008, the story of Kinshasa Succursale has the trappings of a film script. Congolese-Belgian rapper-cum-dandy Baloji had turned his back on a successful music career and his place of birth, Lubumbashi, until, in 2005, a letter from his biological mother arrived, from Liège in Belgium, and shattered his world. Its plea to fill her in on the previous 25 years took him to the human cauldron that is Kinshasa. That is where Baloji decided to re-work his debut solo album, Hotel Impala, transforming it into this seminal 15-track CD. Kinshasa’s finest – Konono No 1, Zaïko Langa Langa, Royce Mbumba – join an inspired poet whose words are summed up by the liner notes. Unfortunately, these don’t quite grab the subtle power of Baloji’s prose that a literal translation would have. The 33-year-old dips his brush into Congo’s traumatic past and its seething present, and paints a stark picture of a country shattered by the continent’s bloodiest civil war, bereft of infrastructure and riddled by poverty (when its resources are greater than the US and Europe combined). The opening track sets the tone. Baloji takes Africa’s best-known classic by Grand Kalle ‘Indépendance Cha-Cha‘, and turns it on its head. Fifty years of freedom have transformed Congo’s ‘gold’ into ‘lead’ in a nation where ‘nothing happens and everything gets worse.’ This infectious rumba suddenly has a bitter taste with Baloji’s final rallying call for a revolution.

And for those who cannot grasp the French nuances, there is the spiralling variety of rhythms and guest musicians. From aching snips of soul, courtesy of US R&B singer Amp Fiddler, to the saturated guitars of Konono No 1 and the likembés of Zaïko, there is something for everyone here. This is an artist whose catharsis has a superb soundtrack.