Customer Reviews

Lightning Over the River

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Better late than never for me to have discovered the joyous sounds and rythms of Congolese soukous! Buying cd after cd, in an effort to quench my insatiable desire for this music, this is so far the best compilation of a few of the "greats", Diblo Dibala, Pepe Kalle, and Kanda Bongo Man - how could you not want to get up and shake those hips! Then, there is the surprisingly sweet "Marie Jose", that will at most send you into a "chair-dance". Kanda Bongo Man shows his softer side in "Yesu Christo", so sweetly reverant, it could have been written by David in the book of Psalms. Its is heart-breaking and tragic that too many of these wonderfully talented musicians have come to untimely deaths, and that what we have left are a precious few years worth of recordings. It is an incomprehensible loss for musicians, artists, lovers of music, and the soukous sound.

Modern rumba featuring an array of big name vocalists and virtuoso guitarists. The test of any selection of this kind in my book is whether it contains memorable duets between rhythm and lead guitar, and this does: there are plenty of itchy fingers on this compilation. Listen to MARTIN AHANGA by Zaiko Langa Langa, featuring Petit Poisson, whose lead guitar solo is said to "leap like the fish he's nicknamed for" (Christina Roden). If PP is a fish, then DD (Diblo Dibala) must be a bird, and a hummingbird at that, so tireless and delicate is his playing on ICHA. Nothing fishy about this album: add it to your top shelf...

This song on the album has all of the uplifting characteristics of soukous music. It has a wonderful rhythm, the very soulful talking/singing low male voice and a driving energy.

I just love the cheerful Congolese Soukous beat, with those wonderful rhythm guitars that move as smooth and fast as the wings of a humming bird.

I like just about every song on this album, which is really rare thing these days. The compilation starts out with the great song Roger Milla by the late Pepe Kalle, the Elephant of Zaire. This song is followed by the very nice Marie Jose by Lokassa. Another standout song that I like a lot is Yesu Christo (Jesus Christ) by Sweet singing Kanda Bongo Man. I'm not that religious, but if a church around here had music like that I'd show up every Sunday!

This really is a fun CD and much better for you than Prozac. ;-)

This album may take a while to enjoy; but once it does--buyer beware--you WILL become hooked to the infectious grooves found within. This will become a stapple on all your adventures and you may find yourself opting for more, more, more. Be careful. This is an expensive habit. The individual albums highlighted by this compilation are hard to come by.
This album begins with the powerful Soukous anthem "Milla". The album then continues with classic sounding songs with superb vocals and excellent guitar licks. Musicians include Diblo Dibala, Syren Mabenza, Lokossa, Zaiko Langa, et al. The album never tapers, instead it only gets better at the end... throw in a "Yesu Christu" (Kanda Bongo Man) and Ponce-Pilate (Tabu Ley) and you have one incredible all-encompasing album. Highly recommended and not to be taken lightly. I love this album, I love this music, and I love Africa.

A terrific collection of Soukous classics from some of the greatest performers.

Wish there was more of these kinds of compilations than the Putumayo mush.