"Assume Crash Position" is the new 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...

Assume Crash Position is out on CD and digital download... and also on vinyl, only as part of the limited-edition 7-vinyl Congotronics Vinyl Box Set,  available now from the Crammed online store


Credits

Konono N°1
Mingiedi Mawangu: likembe
Augustin Makuntima Mawangu: likembe
Menga Waku: vocals, bass likembe
Antoine Ndombele: bass likembe
Pauline Mbuka Nsiala: vocals
Vincent Visi: snare drum
Ndofusu Mbiyavanga: percussion, tam tam
Duki Makumbu: bass guitar

Guests 
on 3: Mbuyamba Nyunyi (bass likembe), Kabongo Tshisense and Kalenga Ditu (likembe), courtesy of Kasai Allstars
on 4: Felix Manuaku ‘Pepe Felly’ & Vincent Kenis (guitars)
on 1, 3 & 7: Nzila Mabasukisa (guitar)

Produced, recorded and mixed by Vincent Kenis
Recorded at Halle de la Gombe and Ndjili Quartier N°1, Kinshasa, Congo