Kinshasa One Two Warp***

Damon Albarn's adventures in Africa produced a slew of unexpected thrills on the Mali Music album. Now his recent journey into the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo (with a cabal of producers to raise funds for Oxfam) has also yielded some striking results. While Albarn helms the release and thus ensures it will get a high profile, he leaves it to producers Actress, Dan the Automator, Jneiro Jarel, Richard Russell and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs to guide the album's flow. With the participation of Kinshasa acts such as Tout Puissant Mukalo and Bokatola System, the album sees rough-and-ready streetwise honking grooves distilled through various oddball electronic prisms. Not everything gels quite as well or convincingly as the beguiling Halloand the perfectly cooked Customs, but the experimental spirit and soaring enthusiasm compensates for occasional misfires. See soundcloud.com/ drcmusic

Download tracks: Hallo, Customs