Search - M'Bilia Bel :: Bameli Soy

Zairean soukous has rarely transcended the nine-minute title track of this 1984 album recorded during the apex of the era in M'bilia Bel's career when she shared the Orchestre Afrisa International with her husband, Congolese star Tabu Ley Rochereau (from whose backing chorus she had emerged). Bameli Soy demonstrates why Bel went on to become the first female African superstar: train-track drums, a singing horn section, and Tabu Ley's molten-gold guitar lines wrap themselves comfortably around Bel's dreamy, creamy voice. Singing in Lingala, Bel repeats this winning formula on the album's three other tracks. The energy level ebbs and flows sensuously as Africanized rumba rhythms oscillate in a never-ending dance trance. Yet it's the angular insouciance of Bel's beautiful pipes that always stands out. --Richard Gehr