COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: Putumayo
PERFORMER: Ricardo Lemvo, Makina Loca (vocals)
CATALOGUE NO: PUTU 158-2
For the listener who has heard it all, how about Congolese rumba? RICARDO LEMVO and his band give a distinctive slant to their Latin material, not only in the voices but by instilling a different kind of urgency: the instruments more driving, the bass-lines more insistent, even while the singing is more relaxed.
Steely guitar and assorted percussion lend their own character. ‘Re-Africanising’ is the name of the game. Ironically it started in the last days of the colonial age when these styles were all the rage among the Europeans, and groups like Orquesta Aragón turned up on tour. Nowadays the West can take its African music straight.