BUTU

KOKOKO! The collective renowned for its daring sound, experimentations, rolling rhythms, stabbing melodies, and powerful live shows comes back with a more electronic, upbeat sound, inspired by the nights of Kinshasa – DR Congo. BUTU, their latest album, means “the night” in lingala. The album’s idea is a deep and intense dive into the night of Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo, a noisy 17 million strong, chaotic, and amazing city. Makara sings to help people forget about their problems, the country’s problems for a bit, expressing frustrations through music too: “my country doesn’t like me ‘elingi biso te’,” “my sweat hurts ‘motoki nanga pasi’,” “they are scared ‘Bazo Banga’,” “you will break your head ‘Kidoka’,” “The world will shake ‘Mokili eko ningana'” but still do it well ‘Salaka bien’. Taking influences from the rich Congolese music, with a natural revolted tone, and with touches of Kuduro or Kwaito, in its own electronic post-junk sound and sometimes distorted way, BUTU is made for letting go, for trance, for expressing frustration and anger sometimes, losing yourself. It is busy like the streets, it is the capital’s night soundtrack, loud, energetic, surprising, driving, eccentric, intense like Kinshasa.