#obisini kisomele

[mywifeleftme]

26: Empire Bakuba // Empire Bakuba [1986]

Empire Bakuba [AKA Obosini Kisomele] Empire Bakuba 1986, Syllart

Every few years some branch of ‘world music’ sweeps through the American and European charts. Today, reggaeton/Latin trap is probably the trendiest; in the 1980s it was a bramble of interrelated African dance music genres like Afrobeat, highlife, jit, and soukous. Soukous is a Congolese form, marked by giddy rhythms and sugarcane guitar improvisation, usually led by a charismatic vocalist who doubles as a hype man. With roots in American R&B and Cuban rumba, it’s a kind of pan-Black form of music—and yet, the guitar style is also faintly reminiscent of bluegrass. So, of course, it’s easy to see why white people, most notably Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, and David Byrne, went nuts for it.

I have a handful of mid-‘80s soukous LPs, mostly French pressings on account of it being a craze there at the time. It’s always exciting sliding a record out of the sleeve and seeing the huge rings—soukous LPs were meant to soundtrack lengthy dance parties and the tracks, usually two per side, average from 8 to 14 minutes each. Empire Bakuba were a locally beloved band with a considerable discography, including a few self-titled releases; this one, which I’ve also seen referred to as Obisini Kisomele after its opening track, is from near the height of their popularity in 1986. It’s endlessly listenable, like most of what I’ve heard by them. They understood their job to be making people move, found a sound that irresistibly did so, and stuck to it.

There’s something about their music that feels like someone has slipped a very, very long finger into my ear so they can rub on my brain’s pleasure centres. After each side, I almost feel sore from all the direct stimulation—but then I stagger over, give it a flip, and check in for twenty minutes’ more bliss.

26/365

#empire bakuba #congolese music #soukous #obisini kisomele #vinyl records #music review #'80s music #african music