Available on: Crammed Discs 2xCD

When Brussels-based Crammed Discs dropped that first Konono Nº1 Congotronics album in 2004, it had the same kind of “shock of the new” impact in contemporary World music circles as say, ‘Anarchy in the UK’, had among jaded rock fans in the mid-1970s. And like ‘Anarchy’ and other pioneering punk records, it was notable for a strong DIY ethic, a captivatingly dirty sound and a refusal to pay lip service to the earnest “authenticity” that all “worthy” musical endeavours were expected to embody. Such is the power of this “Tradi-Moderne” music from Kinshasa that Crammed has been able to follow that first album with a compilation of tracks by Konono and like-minded Kinois (Buzz’n’Rumble in the Urb’n’Jungle), a full-length album by the Kasai Allstars, and, most recently, Konono’s second album of original material, Assume Crash Position.

And now this, the fifth release in the Congotronics series, one that illustrates the effect that this music has had on audiences more accustomed to listening to the Aphex Twin than Ali Farke Toure, Sonic Youth than Youssou N’Dour. For Tradi-Mods vs Rockers, Crammed has invited a disparate bunch of musicians, mostly operating at the avant garde edges of rock and dance music, to remix, cover and create new works inspired by tracks from the first four Congotronics releases. Some of the names (Animal Collective, Shackleton) may be more familiar – and certainly fashionable – than others, but all have their merits.

Highlights from the first of the two CDs – there are 26 tracks in all – include Deerhoof’s cover of the Kasai Allstars’ ‘Travel broadens the mind’, a remake (complete with new lyrics) that is oddly reminiscent of Crammed’s post-punk enfants terribles, The Honeymoon Killers. Another innovative cover version comes from sometime Casiotone for the Painfully Alone collaborator Jherek Bischoff, who has transcribed Konono Nº1’s ‘Kule Kule’ for chamber orchestra. The intense loops of the original sound even better played on string and wind instruments.

Tussle take another Konono track, ‘Soft Crush’, in a delightful Kraut rock-y direction, while Andrew Bird’s processed violins on the medley of ‘Ohnono’ and ‘Kiwembo’ are a mellifluous joy. At the other extreme, Mark ‘Basic Channel’ Ernestus turns ‘Masikulu’ into deep, dark, dub techno: like Unknown Cases lost in a blood diamond mine.

The second disc begins with another fantastic horror trip, courtesy of Shackleton, who stretches out crucial elements from Kasai Allstars’ ‘Makubu Special’ (chants, conga loops, likembe riffs) over 10 and-a-half minutes of slow-building dubwise menace. His finest remix since ‘Minimoonstar’. By contrast, the track that follows – ‘Likembes’ by Hoquets – is ridiculously bright and breezy anarcho-indie pop inspired by Konono Nº1 and played on self-made instruments. Bon Iver’s compadres Megafaun, meanwhile, turn Kizanzi Congo’s ‘Soif Conjugale’ into a teasing, pleasing ‘Conjugal Mirage’, veering from math rock to jazz to banjo-picking country without ever sounding like they are being clever for its own sake. Beta Band fans will love this.

My two favourite pieces on the album are both original jams inspired by Congotronics tracks – Au’s ‘Two Labors’ (inspired by Masanka Sankayi) and Bear Bones, Lay Low’s Konono-influenced ‘Kuletronics’. Au is a Portland, Oregon band led by multi-instrumentalist Luke Wyland, with anywhere between two and 10 members. On ‘Two Labors’ Wyland (keyboard and vocals) and percussionist Dana Valatka build a monstrous dervish groove. Imagine the riff speed of early Anthrax without all the heavy metal bullshit. Nutty and quite, quite superb.

‘Kuletronics’ is the work of Ernesto Gonzalez, a Venezuelan emigre living in Waterloo, near Brussels. This compelling psychedelic jam is based on the same track that Jherek Bischoff covered – two excellent and very different interpretations. And those looking for something with more of a dancefloor orientation should look no further than Bass Clef’s Kasai Allstars rework, ‘The incident at Mbuji-Mayi’, an infectious low-end banger that combines the interlocking guitars and powerful vocals of the original track (‘Drowning goat’) with a bassline that’s pure London 2010. More experimental dancefloors may choose to rock to the sound of ‘Konono Wa Wa Wa’, a deeply idiosyncratic take on Acid House by Boredoms’ Yamantaka Eye. Brilliantly barmy.

Any project of this nature is bound to be something of a curate’s (or curator’s) egg, but, for the most part Tradi-Mods vs Rockers works, and works well. At its best, these alternative takes on Congotronics are superb.

Justin Toland