I think he is still a pro-Mobutu. He talked about something that the "president" had an anniversary or such a few years ago that he commemorated. And many other musicians from those decades, too. However to Nyoka Longo personally I forgive this. His work as an artist is enormous. You can debate whether he could be a better boss, but it is a serious achievement that he can still keep his band on the Congolese track under such trends that we experience.

I watched the interview, LOL I understand now why Arafat became an atalaku. He has such a high pitched speaking voice. I never heard him speaking yet, and the guy doesn't seem to be in bad shape. Well, I am really looking into with what they will come up. Unfortunately Quentin most of the time appears then disappears, I hope their new work will be accessible in the near future not just next year or even later.

@bencuri

Extra Musica Nouvel Horizon has taken subtle shots at Roga Roga with their generique, but have largely kept the split largely civil. This is not like previous polemiques where they were sending open shots in interviews and music which hypes the fans as well as musicians to prove a point. We'll see Roga's response...

I doubt we could see any improvement due to the split from Roga Roga. Those days when Extra was big has gone, musicians are much more lazy nowdays. And the group Roga Roga will have to work with now is very very different from the one he started with in the middle of the 90's. I find that group was much more ambitious than his group today. Possibly because being a band member was much more tempting back then. Today everyone is heading for going solo.

"He never reached that level again. "

I agree. This album turned out to be perfect, and it is the peak of the career of Extra Musica. Etat Major is close to this, but not that refined like this one. La Main Noire could have been as good as this album, if Roga would have composed more exciting sebens on that album, and would have skipped the Salsa tracks from that album. Because La Main Noire has many very good moments anyway, but overally not as exciting as Trop C'est Trop.

Roga is a lazy guy and is wasting his talent. He is still living from the past fame of Extra Musica. He has the talent and creativeness to do exceptional albums, but Trop C'est Trop is the only one that really turned out to be professional all through. It's a shame, and he should devote more time to composing than playing the boss. He thinks he is big, but he is only big because Extra Musica was big 20 years ago. In this sense I have much more respect to Nyoka Longo and some other musicians, because at least he is trying to do his best every time since the foundation of Zaiko. There were low moments in that band, but you see the fire flaring up again and again.

I didn't even notice the Autotune, LOL

What you mention as addition wouldn't hurt, however even like this they could get on well in case they would hire a music artistic director, who arranges the ideas a bit. This could apply to many other Congolese produtions, too. Very often I feel the good ideas are there but they should be selected and arranged.

Quote from: bencuri on January 31, 2020, 13:44

Where is Papy Jah in the clip? I didn't notice him.

I confuse the two. Anyway I think it was Papy Bastin in the clip

Indeed he is there at 4:18.

The video is very well directed and interesting, the music needs to be improved. The part with clean guitar was not interesting for me, the distortion part: that one I liked. Sonor can do good things, he proved it on the 242 album, he should stay on that path.

One thing is a true improvement though regarding the past 10-20 years of Congolese music: the lead guitar is in the focus and very well audible.  This is crucial, and I am glad people recognised it and did improvements.