Name: Bantou Mentale
Brand: Bantou Mentale

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

GBCD073

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2019-10-25

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Proper

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

4030433607329

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

GBLP073

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Black

4030433607312

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2 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Artist

Bantou Mentale

Genre GB

African

Label GB

Glitterbeat

Glitterbeat is an independent music label specializing in vibrant global sounds from Africa and beyond. Established in 2012 as a subsidiary of Glitterhouse Records, it became independent in 2014. With a commitment to both cultural traditions and contemporary expression, Glitterbeat represents artists such as Aziza Brahim, Tamikrest, Noura Mint Seymali, Bassekou Kouyate, Bixiga 70, Sacri Cuori, Samba Toure, Fofoulah, Dirtmusic, Damir Imamovič, MAKU Soundsystem, Altin Gün and Gaye Su Akyol.
Glitterbeat's diverse roster showcases the rich musical heritage of Africa and other regions around the world. The label prides itself on presenting artists who are deeply rooted in their cultures while pushing boundaries with innovative sounds and modern production techniques.
With its distinctive approach to global music exploration and its commitment to showcasing talented artists from diverse backgrounds, Glitterbeat has become a leading force in the international music scene. Their releases offer listeners an opportunity to discover captivating rhythms and melodies that transcend borders and celebrate the power of music as a universal language.

A dark, thundering Kinshasa meets Paris soundworld. Ecstatic vocals, broken beats, subterranean bass and full-throttle energy. This four-piece group of sonic groundbreakers have delivered a scintillating debut album. Bantou Mentale was born in Chateau Rouge and born out of Matongé. Drummer and song-writer Cubain Kabeya -- originally from the DRC, now resident in Paris -- has been in or around every big thrill to come out of Kinshasa over the past decade: Staff Benda Bilili, Konono No.1, Jupiter &amp; Okwess, Mbongwana Star. Guitarist Chicco Katembo was part of the Staff Benda Bilili story in the early days, before moving to Paris to live with his French mother. Singer Apocalypse is an ace face on the Parisian Congo scene, an alumnus of the orchestra of Koffi Olomide, emperor of contemporary Congolese soukous. Liam Farrell, aka Doctor L, born Irish, raised Parisian, is a musician, composer, and producer with an impressive score sheet that includes Assassin, FFF, Psycho on Da Bus, Tony Allen, Mbongwana Star, Babani Koné, Nneka, Les Amazones d'Afrique. 

The Bantou Mentale sound is neither traditional, nor slave to the all-encompassing tropes of Congolese rumba, nor slick and arty and self-consciously stylish. They're bringing something modern, raw, open to the world. Liam and Cubain have been distilling experimental mashes of electro African beats on-and-off for years, under names like Black Cowboys or Negro-P. The sound is a gleeful borderless up-cycling of all the urban styles that Paris, London, New York, Kinshasa have been doling out to the world these past two decades, combined into something new and purposeful. There are songs like "Zanzibar" and "Sango" that lament the clandestino stuck in the desert, penniless, screwed. And songs like "Chateau Rouge" that celebrate the wild uncertainty, the liberation, the fellowship of the migrant. "Boko Haram" bemoans the intellectual subservience and social servitude of many Africans, with music that's underpinned by the pulse of the forest and propelled by roughneck riffs and phasing guitars. "Papa Jo" pays homage to an old departed friend from Kinshasa who threw the best parties in his ramshackle house. The delicious grime of "Suabala" hides a story of love, with levels of passion and guitars frolicking in the red. "Boloko" is slower, more ethereal, with its subversion of the sound of those angelic choirs of "saved" little African kids that were the pride of the missionaries. "Syria" tells you that there's no future in petrol wars, with music that's strangled, painful, urgent, tragic, with plenty of glorious distortion.

Music GB