Coco Ngambali and Theo Nsituvuidi have had an extraordinary switchback career. Six years ago, they were rehearsing in Kinshasa zoo, and had been living in squalid shelters for disabled people. Then they became international celebrities with Staff Benda Bilili, but quit the band after disputes. Now they are back, teamed up with the Irish-born, Paris-based producer and musician Liam Farrell, better known as Doctor L, in an intriguing new band, Mbongwana Star. Their debut album mixes Congolese influences with insistent, driving basslines and an unworldly sounding electronic soundscape. It’s an inspired studio production, but could they sound as inventive and original playing live?
The answer was not yet – though this was an often exhilarating set. It began with Farrell wandering on stage in vest and jeans, playing a six-string guitar as if it were a bass, and joined by a second guitarist and furiously insistent drummer for what might have been a warm-up jam. But then Coco and Theo arrived in their wheelchairs, adding chanting vocals and furiously urging on the crowd, and this suddenly became a full-tilt fusion of African influences and western pop. The songs were held together by Farrell’s thunderous, slick and insistent basslines, and he was matched by a guitarist who added echoes of soukous, funk and wailing rock solos, while using effects that made his instrument at times sound uncannily like the homemade one-string satonge played by Bilili’s Roger Landu.
The energy and attack were impressive, but the live band lacked the variety and spooky weirdness of their album. Maybe they should add electronics, or try to replicate the likembe work of Konono No 1, who appear on the album. For the moment, Mbongwana Star are a rousing work in progress.
• At Rich Mix, London, 5 June. Box office: 020-7613 7498.
