Assume Crash Position

by Konono N°1

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

€7.90 EUR or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

Digipack

Includes unlimited streaming of Assume Crash Position via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 2 days

Purchasable with gift card

€11.90 EUR or more
Full Digital Discography

Get all 4 Konono N°1 releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Konono N°1 meets Batida, Assume Crash Position, Live at Couleur Café, and Congotronics. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

€21.42 EUR or more (30% OFF)

1.	Wumbanzanga 11:51	buy track
2.	Thin Legs 01:58	buy track
3.	Mama Na Bana 07:45	buy track
4.	Makembe 10:23	buy track
5.	Fula Fula 05:06	buy track
6.	Guiyome 03:11	buy track
7.	Konono Wa Wa Wa 11:40	buy track
8.	Nakobala Lisusu Te 04:09	buy track

about

"Assume Crash Position" is the second album from Congolese street band Konono No.1, the fourth volume in the Congotronics series from Crammed Discs.

Once again recorded in their home domain of Kinshasa, DR Congo by Congotronics series producer Vincent Kenis, the long-anticipated follow-up to Konono's 2005 debut sees their trademark thrilling junkyard sonics and relentlessly hypnotic percussive grooves (as created using thumb pianos and drums made from scrap metal and disused car parts) further elevated with electric guitars and bass - played by neighbourhood musicians from a young Konono covers band! - as well as a wider range of vocalists plus guest appearances from guitarist Manuaku Pepe Felly (Zaïko Langa Langa) and members of fellow Congotronics band Kasai Allstars.

The band's music is and will always be a very precise mixture of traditonal bazombo trance music with the distortion of their modern home-made equipment... but their sound on "Assume Crash Position" is somehow deeper, more layered and ethereal, without losing any of that signature raw power and driving energy. Those gloriously extended full band tracks take off like never before - but also, for the first time, we hear Konono stripped right back to their essence: the album's final song, "Nakobala Lisusu Te", features just the band's founder and master, Mingiedi (now in his late-seventies) and his likembe. "I don't feel like getting married any more", he sings in sweet and mournful tones, "because women nowadays think marriage is just a six month affair".

The album title is a rough translation from the Kikongo meaning of "Konono", and if you've heard or seen the band in full flight before you'll have some idea of the ride you're in for here. If not - well, strap yourselves in...

credits

released May 3, 2010

license

about

Konono N°1 Democratic Republic of the Congo

The legendary Congolese band, founded back in the 1960s and masters of electrified likembe, introduced the world to the strange and spectacular electro-traditional mixtures which are being concocted in the suburbs of Kinshasa

Facebook

contact / help

Contact Konono N°1

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Konono N°1, you may also like:

Congolese Funk, Afrobeat & Psychedelic Rumba 1969-1978 (Analog Africa Nr. 17)
by Verckys et l´Orchestre Vévé

supported by 11 fans who also own “Assume Crash Position”

Analog Africa is by far my favourite gateway to the amazing music of the African continent... I must have missed this album by release, so I made this an early christmas present to myself. This is some serious funky shizzle!!! Mr Crumbone
go to album
Pop Makossa - The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984(Analog Africa Nr. 23)
by Analog Africa

supported by 10 fans who also own “Assume Crash Position”

Nice groove! I'm glad i discovered this in Barcelona. Georg Bader
go to album
African Scream Contest Vol.2 - Benin 1963-1980 (Analog Africa Nr. 26)
by Analog Africa

supported by 10 fans who also own “Assume Crash Position”

June 2023 - An excellent comp. Family Feet
go to album
Singeli Ya Maajabu
by Sisso & Maiko

More breakneck dance music from Uganda, as Nyege Nyege all-stars Sisso & Maiko team up for a non-stop banger. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 3, 2024
go to album
Queridão
by DJ Anderson do Paraíso

featured on Bandcamp Radio Mar 12, 2024
go to album
Novaterra Vol. 1
by Zopelar

featured on Bandcamp Radio Mar 5, 2024
go to album
Ejokawulida
by Nilotika Cultural Ensemble

supported by 10 fans who also own “Assume Crash Position”

Kekusimbe almost sounds like an acoustic take on techno, contrasting the slow, heavy kick with the sharpest, locked in angular rhythms. It just sounds so good. Super Super Sounds
go to album