Out Of Africa

In July of this year, a genre-spanning team of producers set out for sweltering Kinshasa, with the intention of capturing the electricity of Congolese music. After just five days in the nation’s capital, they would present a 14-track LP to Oxfam to use as part of their ongoing efforts in the area. The project was the brainchild of – who else? – pop’s busiest creative force Damon Albarn, who masterminded the trip in between writing an Elizabethan opera, forming a new supergroup with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea and finally committing his first proper solo album to wax.

On paper, they mightn’t seem ideal conditions for making a record, but according to producer Richard Russell, it didn’t take long for everything to fall into place.
“I suppose the word is ‘serendipity’,” proffers Russell whose XL label is currently home to Adele, Radiohead and MIA. “I think there was some magic to it, you know? I never felt any doubt that it was getting done. There was just so much momentum.”
Case in point, just 30 minutes after setting down in N’djili Airport, the group had already found the beat for the album’s lead track, the aptly-named ‘Hallo’.
Russell remembers; “We got off the plane, got told, ‘Your luggage has disappeared forever’, and went off to have a drink. We went to a club and this band called Tout Puissant Mukalo were playing, so we recorded them and that became the loop that we based ‘Hallo’ on. There was absolutely no intention that we were going to be recording that quickly.”
Of course, the group did not leave everything to fate. Albarn drafted in filmmakers Florent de la Tullaye and Renaud Barret, best known for their award-winning documentary about local band Staff Benda Bilili, to introduce them to the real sound of the Congo.
“They’re in the thick of it, so they know all the best musicians,” Russell recalls. “They’re the difference between this record taking a week to record and taking years to record.”
Kasabian producer Dan The Automator reckons connecting with local talent was the fun part.
“I was most excited about recording musicians,” he says. “I picked some music that was done by these bank robbers in their hideout, I feel like that encapsulated the feeling.”
Russell remembers one particularly wild recording session, with Albarn and local singer Nelly on vocal duties.
“It was sauna temperature, it was definitely sauna temperature. Everyone was dripping with sweat and the gear was on the verge of cocking out. It was all just on the edge of not working, but it did work. Just this incredibly exciting bit of music that we knew was taking shape, and that vibe is just… ah! It’s just wonderful!”
Speaking of gear, did the Congolese musicians ever stop in the middle of their five-hour jam sessions to marvel at their foreign friends’ technical set-up?
“No, they just played,” Dan laughs. “They are players. They’re just ready to go all the time. Live music never stopped unless we had to stop it. A love of music just permeates these people, to the point where they’re making their own instruments in order to play. Making your own drum-kit with tins and old fan tops and plywood, and having it sound incredible was amazing to me.”
The group, which also includes producers T-E-E-D, Kwes and Actress, kept a Tumblr during their stay, so I’ve already seen some of these DIY instruments. They certainly look ingenious, but do they really work?
“They sound amazing,” Dan stresses. “The drum-kit they had… Awh! It sounded as good as any drum-kit I’ve ever heard! Phenomenal! Mind-blowing! James Brown would have been proud.”
“For these musicians, playing is the main thing,” Russell agrees, “but ideally you want people to hear it as well. I don’t think we realise in the West how easy it is to get heard. To a struggling musician, it might not feel like it’s easy, but it’s a damn sight easier than if you’re in the Congo. I think we were there as a bit of a middle-man, really, between local musicians and the wider audience. We’re not turning up saying we’ve got any answers to anything – I would never do that – but we were there to hopefully create a little bit of a platform for people.”
Is the trip going to change Russell’s own approach to music-making?
“Of course it is!” he exclaims. “You can’t help but learn from doing stuff like this. The experience I had before this that changed my music an enormous amount was making the record with Gil Scott-Heron and this to me was another enormous step. Just having your eyes opened and your mind opened to other things. I think for anyone who went on the trip, it’ll affect what they do in future. This is why I’m loath to refer to it as a charity project, you know? We’re benefitting from this too!”

Kinshasa One Two is available to download now on Warp Records. The LP will be released on CD and vinyl on November 4. All proceeds go to Oxfam’s work in the Democratic Republic Of Congo.