Another question Ive wondered for a long time...who really makes the band?  I have seen in the past with many groups how various elements seem to make or break a group but in modern music, that seems to have shifted a little more so away from the soloist and into the atalaku's hands. What do you all think and why?

It is not an easy poll, as in case you want to be exact, you cannot choose only 1 thing to describe what makes Congolese music Congolese music. But i remember that when for me it comes to think about answering the question: "this song could be very good but there is definately something missing from it, what is it?", almost always I conclude it is a good animation. So the distinct Congolese sound is given by the solo and atalaku, but it seems to me there are less good atalakus than soloists.

even seben made in Kin has the "omph" that those made abroad don't have.

Oh, I strongly disagree with that. These are all exceptional materials released by fans of Congolese Music from all over the world:





To me they sound even better than MOST of the Kinshasa stuff released recently.

Us drummers will swear its us; we are that mid-fielder, the quarter back,the pitcher, the point guard aka the ball handlers. And then followed by Rythm.

Yeah Kaisari is right, it's the guitarist.