Konono Nº1

On Tour

128,540 plays (20,607 listeners)
In your library (0 plays)

20 shouts

Add to my Library Share

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Konono Nº1 is a musical group from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire). They combine three electric likembé (a traditional lamellaphone similar to the mbira) with voices, dancers, and percussion instruments that are made out of items salvaged from a junkyard. The group’s amplification equipment is equally rudimentary, including a microphone carved out of wood fitted with a magnet from an automobile alternator.

The group was formed by Mawangu Mingiedi, a likembé player and truck driver now in his 70s. Dates for the group’s formation vary: Crammed Discs, who released Konono Nº1’s Congotronics album in 2005, places the group’s formation around 1980. However, in November 1978, an ensemble called Orchestre Tout Puissant Likembe Konono Nº1 (All-Powerful Likembe Konono Nº1 Orchestra) recorded one track, “Mungua-Muanga”, for the compilation album Zaire: Musiques Urbaines a Kinshasa.

Their typically Congolese repetitive beats, together with their DIY approach resulting in an (initially unintentional) distorted sound called congotronics, has brought the group some renown in North America and Europe. They have toured both continents, documented by the 2007 album Live at Couleur Cafe.

Konono Nº1 collaborated with Björk on her 2007 album, Volta and the Dutch rock band The Ex has covered one of their songs.

Tagged as:

afrobeat, world, africa, congo, african
See more…

Similar Artists

Top Albums

Congotronics
Konono Nº1
Buy
- Download Album
- Amazon MP3 Search
- 7digital Search
- iTunes Search
- Buy Album
- Amazon Search
- eBay Search

Top Tracks

1	Kule Kule	66
2	Paradiso	58
3	Lufuala Ndonga	52
4	Masikulu	42
5	Kule Kule Reprise	41
6	Mama Liza	36
7	Ungudi Wele Wele	32
8	T.P. Couleur Café	6
9	Paradiso [Live]	3
10	Intro	2
10	Landu Mambu	2
12	Konono N1 - Kule Kule Reprise	1
12	TP Couleu	1
12	T.P. Couleur Cafe	1
12	Lufuala ndonga edit	1

Shoutbox

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up (it’s free).

xezzy wrote:
last month

Wow! I was digging discogs page of "congotronics" and found out that Janjetov was working with artwork! Pretty big name. Regarding the band itself, pretty overrated :p but overrating happens very often and in this case I'm happy for the band. It's definitely very good and It's worth a listen...

View Profile | Leave xezzy a shout
Cox_of_Seagulls wrote:
last month

Oh wow, this is amazing.

View Profile | Leave Cox_of_Seagulls a shout
MissClarck wrote:
December 2009

Hi, I just want to present you the band call Bantunani with their afrogroove and strong lyrics you will just be touched by such strengh http://www.lastfm.fr/music/Bantunani Support them around you 'cause they are very engaged for a New world with a new Africa.

View Profile | Leave MissClarck a shout
road_to_ruin wrote:
September 2009

Thanks to Mojo I found out about this band. They are amazing!

View Profile | Leave road_to_ruin a shout
sontarieh wrote:
August 2009

for me this is a serious candidate to a next step - organic electro.... and this sound started in the 80s! go konono, amazing world we live in:)

View Profile | Leave sontarieh a shout
Voyeur76 wrote:
July 2009

It's wonderful, and it's litterally all garbage. Shouldn't there be a "delicious garbage" tag or something?

View Profile | Leave Voyeur76 a shout
NicDowse wrote:
April 2009

whatever. the music is amazing.

View Profile | Leave NicDowse a shout
LLJK_tatoBug2 wrote:
November 2008

vvv what he said

View Profile | Leave LLJK_tatoBug2 a shout
caiocaio wrote:
September 2008

Yeah, well, this is the one where their main album is streamable so fuck it.

View Profile | Leave caiocaio a shout
naugrim wrote:
August 2008

Also for those unsure of the proper spelling, please visit the group's official site: http://www.crammed.be/konono/

View Profile | Leave naugrim a shout
naugrim wrote:
August 2008

Konono Nº1 = 5,085 listeners (correct ID3 tag defined by the CD) ..............................Konono No. 1 = 3,677 listeners (incorrect ID3 tag) ..............................Konono No.1 = 2,407 Listeners (incorrect ID3 tag) ..............................Let's fix this folks!

View Profile | Leave naugrim a shout
a_dayum wrote:
June 2008

shut up last.fm. i bought their cd and this is the tag that came up.

View Profile | Leave a_dayum a shout
tigerbalsam wrote:
June 2008

Oh, it's come down to this, 'degree sign' or 'masculine ordinal indicator'... The system with voting on this issue becomes ridiculous - why can't last.fm pay a person to look through this?

View Profile | Leave tigerbalsam a shout
RiRaRobbie wrote:
June 2008

It's a typography matter. It should be the numero sign. That's an N and a superscript o, preferably the masculine ordinal indicator (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numero_sign). I think this pages spelling of it is right. The supposedly right Konono page has the numero spelling with a degree symbol rather than a masculine ordinal indicator. See Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_sign. It's not wrong, but spelling here is preferable.

View Profile | Leave RiRaRobbie a shout
manu_chao wrote:
February 2008

according to their album covers, this is the correct tag. also this tag has more listeners

View Profile | Leave manu_chao a shout
daftstar wrote:
December 2007

16,000 Konono Nº1 fans can't be wrong!

View Profile | Leave daftstar a shout
SYL2Oh wrote:
August 2007

Tx Tazru333 for the rec;Good Congolese music!Junkyard? La sono & les instruments sont fabriqués au village ...Expressive music Bravo!

View Profile | Leave SYL2Oh a shout

See all 20 shouts

Videos

Events

Apr 29 Konono Nº1 De Oosterpoort, Groningen, Netherlands
Add shout | 2 attendees
May 2 Konono Nº1 Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing, Lille, France
Add shout | 3 attendees
May 7 ATP curated by Matt Groening Butlins Holiday Resort, Minehead, United Kingdom
158 shouts | 215 attendees