World

This week's world CDs reviewed

STAFF BENDA BILILI
Tres Tres Fort Crammed Discs ****

After the urban trance of the Congotronics comes another remarkable group from the same benighted country. Staff Benda Bilili (“Look Beyond Appearances”) are formed around a core of four musicians, disabled by polio, who live in the grounds of Kinshasa

Zoo and get around on improvised tricycles. Seventeen-year-old Roger Landu plays the satonge,

a one- string electric lute made from a paint can and a stick that provides a high-pitched, swooping solo accompaniment. The rhythms are Afro-Caribbean – slow Cuban rumbas, touches of reggae and funk, and faster Congolese dance tunes. The vocals are warm and soulful, singing of the experience of polio and of sleeping on cardboard, and calling on black people to unite. Emerging from extraordinary disadvantage, this is a triumph of the spirit, uplifting and hugely enjoyable. www.crammed.be

Download tracks: Moziki, PolioI, Je t'aime