I read it and felt like there could have been a lot more information. They seemed to focus on a few particular periods mostly the franco era. Still a good read but im still waiting on a book thats going to go indepth about our music from the 80s and 90s on up.
He was in Kinshasa in Defao's Big Stars as a Shaker player in the Atalakou section in the late 90's on directly the scene, hence the focus there and the decades before. This book was his actually dissertation, very interesting way to do it, I must say.
The history of popular Congolese music gets very convoluted from the mid-1990's onwards, so only a book from multiple authors and sources would cover the genre to the depth and truth level you want. I wish that was possible.
So far this book is the best to cover the genre basics in the English language. The person who covers the history of Congolese music the best is Professeur Manda Tchebwa. He has multiple part academic textbooks on the history of Bantu music, from the beginnings to late 20th century. In French
