Each Wednesday, The World Africa presents three new musical releases from or inspired by the continent. This week, head to Seine-Saint-Denis, which hosts from March 24 to April 21 the 40e edition of the Banlieues Bleues festival, i.e. some twenty concerts in twelve towns in the Ile-de-France region.
With, of course, African artists and groups, including the Congolese Ray Lema (March 31 in Clichy-sous-Bois), the Franco-Algerian trio Mademoiselle (April 4 in Pantin) or the Malian singer Rokia Koné (the April 5 in Pantin). And, on the “discoveries” side, Lova Lova, HHY & The Kampala Unit and Baba Commandant & The Mandingo Band.
Lova Lova
We had already told you about Lova Lova, this Congolese artist (DRC) whom the festival rightly presents as a “UFO”. A punk energy, a rap phrasing, an electro cadence… After the EP Head of Danger (2020), he clarifies and enriches this unique style in the album Hierarchy, released in early February. In the piece smell, he takes up the cause of the street children of Kinshasa, putting the leaders face to face with their responsibilities: “Why don’t you want our children to go to school and be happy? »
On the Banlieues Bleues stage, he will be preceded by the Kinshasa group Fulu Miziki Kolektiv (“trash can music”, in Lingala), whose instruments and costumes are made from recycled materials.
Saturday, April 8 at 8:30 p.m., L’Odéon, Tremblay-en-France.
HHY & The Kampala Unit
It was during a residency in 2018 at the Nyege Nyege Festival, a hotspot for electronic music in Uganda and Africa, that the group HHY & The Kampala Unit was born, founded by Portuguese producer Jonathan Uliel Saldhana and two musicians locals, trumpeter Florence Lugemwa and percussionist Omutaba. Together, they offer a unique mix of techno, jazz, punk, dub and traditional music, including the album Lithium Blast, released in 2020, provides an overview.
Recently, the formation took part in a transdisciplinary project (music, dance, circus, etc.) called “We Are Going to Mars”, whose Afrofuturist aesthetic pays homage to the strange space program led by the Zambian Edward Mukuka Nkoloso in the 1960.
Saturday April 15 at 8:30 p.m., Mains d’oeuvres, Saint-Ouen.
Baba Commandant & The Mandingo Band
Finally, direction Burkina Faso, where the singer and ngoni player Baba Commandant has also invented his own style, at the crossroads of afrobeat, funk and rock, mixing traditional sounds with a touch of punk madness in company of his Mandingo Band, made up of guitarist Issouf Diabaté, bassist Wendeyida Ouédraogo, drummer Abbas Kaboré and percussionist and balafon player Nickie Dembélé.
In the clip of sonbanbela, Mamadou Sanou (his real name) takes us on a discovery of his hometown, Bobo-Dioulasso, and more particularly the old quarter of Dioulassoba, with a short detour to the slaughterhouse… This piece is from his third album, him also titled sonbanbela and released in September 2022.
Thursday April 20 at 9 p.m., Les Instants capvirés, Montreuil.
Find all the editorial staff’s musical favorites in the YouTube playlist of the World Africa.