Search - Classic Swede Swede :: Toleki Bango

Their music reminiscent of Cuba's percussion-driven guaguanco style of rumba, Zaire's Classic Swede Swede is a nine-piece band consisting of drums, a pair of wailing harmonicas, and vocalists. Hailing from the country's Mongo region, the former groupe folklorique hit the big time when their sundama dance (meaning "bend over") was declared obscene and banned from Kinshasa television. Stripped down to a rhythmic essence, and delightfully devoid of Parisian synthesizers, Swede Swede (Mongo for "mouse tunnel") are a powerful presence even without Congolese music's quicksilver guitars. Six tracks averaging nine minutes each allow plenty of time for voices to assemble, separate, and reconstitute into constantly evolving call-and-response choruses as harmonicas and drums churn out conversational vamps and percussive train trips across the dance-floor of your mind. --Richard Gehr