Album Review: Staff Benda Bilili - Tres Tres Fort" (Uncut)

4/5
Homeless Congolese paraplegics defeat the odds

Comprising four senior citizens in homemade wheelchairs, a disciplined younger rhythm section and a teenager shredding solos on a contraption constructed from a single electric cable and tin can, Staff Benda Bilili may be stranded in one of the world’s most war-torn countries, but their debut’s as miraculous as their story. Recorded by Vincent Kenis (Konono N°1) in the grounds of Kinshasa Zoo – hear frogs croaking behind the rich harmonies of ‘Poliomyelite’, an ode to vaccination - this improbable collective combines reggae, rumba, soul and funk with traditional African rhythms as accessibly and joyously as Bob Marley. Inspirational.

Album Review: Staff Benda Bilili - Tres Tres Fort" (Uncut)

Album Review: Fever Ray - Fever Ray (Uncut)

3/5
The Knife’s female half cuts loose

Few ‘80s revivalists – asides, perhaps, from M83 – have attempted to emulate Trevor Horn’s luxurious production values, but Karin Dreijer Andersson takes a well-aimed stab at them, though her studio team - Christoffer Berg (The Knife’s engineer) and Swedish house producers Van Rivers & The Subliminal Kid – tends more towards Propaganda than Dollar. This sombre solo debut indicates an earnest love for the decade’s more intense performers: the multi-tracked eccentricities of Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love are everywhere, ‘If I Had A Heart’s lush gothicism recalls Floodland-era Sisters of Mercy, and ‘When I Grow Up’ nods towards Japan. On ‘Seven’, the album’s most upbeat track, she even seems to mimic Cyndi Lauper, something excused by engagingly enigmatic lyrics like “We talk about love, we talk about dishwasher tablets”. But, despite these obvious debts, this is a disconcerting exercise in brooding, extravagant claustrophobia rather than nostalgia.

Album Review: Fever Ray - Fever Ray (Uncut)