Rough Trade
  • Cart
  • New This Week
  • Pre-Orders
  • Exclusives
  • Books
  • Events
  • Browse
    • Genres
    • Labels
    • Dance Wall
  • Browse
    • Genres
    • Labels
    • Dance Wall
  • Account
  • Radio
  • Stores
  • Club
  • UK / US
  • UK / US
  • Club
  • Stores
Rough Trade Rough Trade
  • New This Week
  • Pre-Orders
  • Exclusives
  • Books
  • Events
  • Browse
    • Genres
    • Labels
    • Dance Wall
  • Browse
    • Genres
    • Labels
    • Dance Wall
  • STAFF PICKS |
  • Our staff each make their own top 10. See everyone's picks on our blog...
  • Kokoko! exploded
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest

Fongola

KOKOKO!

LP+ $19.99
  • Yellow Vinyl
  • Rough Trade Exclusive
  • Limited to 1200 copies
  • Includes download code
  • Includes bonus disc
Add to cart
Loading variant
  • LP $19.99
  • CDx2 $13.99
  • LP+ $19.99

All formats come with a bonus remix CDEP. KOKOKO! are a group formed in Kinshasa, DRC - comprising local musicians, artists, dancers and inventors alongside producer Débruit. Their extraordinary debut album is pure electricity and the band bring the party wherever they go.

Signed with independent label Transgressive, their distorted polyrhythms and spontaneous lo-fi sounds provide a chaotic soundtrack to their home country. When most people think of culture in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it’s The Rumble in The Jungle fight of Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman and the accompanying Soul Power concert with James Brown in the 70s, Mobutu in his abacost and leopard print hat, les sapeurs in their elegant tailoring, and the king of Congolese rumba Papa Wemba. A faded vintage postcard. KOKOKO! represent the antithesis of tradition, and their debut album Fongola - which translates to “the key” - is a torrid, anarchic, youthful journey smashing a new path through modern life in Africa’s third most populous city.

Life in Kinshasa is tough. Since its inception three years ago the band have lost their drummer to lung cancer, a dancer from their wider collective to electrocution, had homes destroyed by police, safety concerns at election time, visa struggles and a lucky incident with a crocodile. Yet the subject matter of the album is far from a one dimensional lament about struggle and hardship. Their lyrics explore love, sorcery and magic, the need to take things slowly in life, greed and corruption and the importance of being heard and understood.

The kind of people who can afford imported guitars and drum kits in Kinshasa live very different lives to the people who make instruments out of sardine tins, water bottles and engine parts. Imitation wasn’t an option, which necessitated innovation. The resulting album is experimental electronic music, but it doesn’t fit neatly within any genre. Most of the sounds on this project can’t be replicated, as anyone trying to tune a one-string guitar made out of a bike brake and a powdered milk tin can attest to! What started as a financial challenge resulted in a creative advantage.

Being an artist gives you special privileges in Kinshasa because it’s seen as an important role, and Fongola is an urgent and vitally important expression of the talent which is thriving and leading the way artistically from the toughest and most unlikely of places.

CD - Digipack.

LP - Standard Red Vinyl with Download plus Bonus CD.

LP+ - Rough Trade Exclusive. Limited to 1200 Copies on Yellow Vinyl with Download plus Bonus CD.

Label
Transgressive
Genre
African
Artist
KOKOKO!
Released
07/05/19
Catalogue Number
TRANS417XRT
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
Featured in
Albums of the Year 2019 Top 100, Exclusive, Albums Of The Month - July 2019
LP+ $19.99
  • Yellow Vinyl
  • Rough Trade Exclusive
  • Limited to 1200 copies
  • Includes download code
  • Includes bonus disc
Add to cart
Label
Transgressive
Genre
African
Artist
KOKOKO!
Released
07/05/19
Catalogue Number
TRANS417XRT

Our recommendations

Coffin For Head Of State, title

Fela Kuti , artist

Sahari, title

Aziza Brahim , artist

Yellow Fever, title

Fela Kuti , artist

VIP, title

Fela Kuti , artist

No Agreement, title

Fela Kuti , artist

Mogadisco - Dancing Mogadishu (Somalia 1972 - 1991), title

Various Artists , artist

Remain In Light (Talking Heads Cover Album), title

Angelique Kidjo , artist

Music Of Many Colours, title

Fela Kuti / Fela and Roy Ayers , artist

  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Soundcloud
  • Spotify

Independent purveyors of great music, since 1976

  • United States
  • United Kingdom
  • Stores
  • Help
  • Shipping
  • Returns
  • Club
  • Events
  • Careers
  • Radio
  • Gift Cards

© 2019 Rough Trade. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy
  • Terms
Cart

Your cart is empty

Checkout

Shipping and final taxes will be calculated at checkout