Konono No 1 - Congotronics Price: €19.99 Availability: Immediate Dispatch

If necessity has proven to be the mother of invention, Konono No. 1--a group of Congolese street performers who utilize homemade electronic instruments--may have inadvertently birthed a new category of music: "Scrapheap Electro". While that tag could be taken as slightly pejorative, it's actually merely descriptive. CONGOTRONICS is the international debut of the long-running Kinsasha-based group whose musical modus operandi is rooted in a simple utilitarian need for amplification. Transforming junkyard flotsam such as magnets from disused car parts into microphones and loudspeakers, the rag-tag ensemble creates hypnotic, enthrallingly dissonant polyrhythms from seemingly humble means. On the spiraling "Kule Kule", a likembe (thumb piano) belts out coarse electronic overtones that sound like they could be from an Aphex Twin record. Meanwhile, the carnivalesque "Mama Liza", with its celebratory whistling and percussion, evokes a Brazilian samba school in full regalia.