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Messages - Felo

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16
Congolese Lyrics / REQUEST: Vita Imana Lyrics
« on: April 02, 2015, 05:22 »
I've always sang this song but I've butchered most of the words. Can anyone post the lyrics here? I might get inspiration to take this song to the studio and do my own version of it. Please?

17
Congolese Music / Re: DEPLICK - Cri de bilengi ( CLIP OFFICIEL )
« on: September 02, 2014, 13:43 »
So Deplik did not just imitate Fally's voice. He also copied the hopeless R&B beat! What a mess.

18
Very nice song

19
The mark of a good drummer: when the snare fell of at around 37:00 he did not stop playing but continued playing the serene seamlessly on the high-hat. That was quite something. It is amazing how they still create something so nice without the bass and foot kick.

20
You can use piano or synth keyboard, just like any other instrument to create soukous-like solo. Of course you cannot play it in the manner like a guitar, yet it sounds like soukous, and not latin rumba. You just need to accomodate the soukous structure to the capabilities of the instrument. There are soukous guitar solos which use nearly single notes only. You can do such solos on any instrument. Here is a good example for that on piano:
There is a very big difference between a synthesizer and a sampler. As I said earlier, a synthesizer is not an instrument at all, nor is the sound it produces that of any known instrument. It simply mimics the idea of changing pitch while pressing different keys like happens in musical instruments using complex algorithms as programmed by a computer. Rule of thumb: if you cannot tell what instrument it is, then it is probably a synth.

A sampler, on the other hand, is several recordings of an instrument done at different pitches and velocities and mapped to a keyboard or any other controller. When a key is pressed, it retrieves the corresponding sound stored in its memory. Advancement in methods of recording and mapping has made the sound more and more authentic for many instruments (although am still looking for a kora patch). But some instruments are harder to reproduce on a keyboard sampler. A classic example is a guitar: seldom do two guitars sound the same due to many differences in build and styles.

In the examples you gave, the acoustic guitar sounds or even piano-like sounds you are able to identify are those of a sampler. But if a real guitar were to play the same piece, the sound would always be more authentic and rich, mainly due to the natural harmonics and resonance created by the instrument. In many modern sebenes keyboard samplers are used to try and imitate the sound of a brass section (that was a standard offering in the days of TPOK Jazz) but the result is never the same since trumpet and saxophone sounds are pretty hard to reproduce by mapping. Notice that Bana OK still favour a live horn section for their music. That is why I prefer the real instrument, but, if it is not possible or practical (it can be challenge moving an organ around) then the music sampler would be the lesser evil for me. A synthesizer sound - the sound of the unknown - is a compete turn-off.


21
It takes a hell of a lot of time to master the guitar. There are several resources on the internet. You can try justingutar.com. I personally started in guitar.about.com where I was directed to more resources that have greatly helped me. My best advice though: learn to read music for guitar - it will open up far more possibilities for you.

22
Congolese Music / PATROUILLE DES STARS are THE REAL DEAL
« on: July 19, 2014, 23:48 »
I have not had such a good feeling in a long time. These guys' album is without a doubt the best that has been released in the recent past (make that several years). With classic songs like Ndoto na Nga and Featuring d'Amour, my blood has been rushing into places it has not been in a while. The work done with the instruments and vocals is amazing. This is creativity on a very high level. Choruses, rhythms and transitions (thinking Tonton Partout Partout) are novel. The rumbas are excellent with powerful singing and wonderful vocal harmonies - and guess what? they have those solo guitar parts we crave.

Just when we thought Congolese music was on its deathbed these guys show up with such great sebene music. I had completely lost interest in new Congolese music - and even opted to create my own music instead - but this group has restored my hope. The only criticism I have is their overuse of the synthesizer sound as padding and for transitions (maybe because I am obsessed with clean sound) but I can live with that since everything else they did is impeccable. I especially love the sound of the live performance which is such a welcome change from the patchwork that characterizes most modern productions.

23
Felo, if you lived in  Kenya precisly where i come from, I'd have invited you for lunch.Today my son and I, we were lucky to trap 17 wild quails from my sugar plantation..... tommorrow  at lunch time we are going to feast on this sweet birds. We call them in our mother dialect " Tsisindu" I am touched by your piece which is very informative . This are some of the brains we need in this world...Didier Miller 's albums are very Congolaise.

Shenzi, I do live in Kenya but in Nairobi. My wife comes from your area and I know very well the taste of Tsisindu followed by a puff of Omusara. Bon apetit my brother.

24
Werrason & Wenge Maison Mere Discussion / Re: Fletche Ingeta
« on: July 18, 2014, 16:38 »
Is this the latest massacre?

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So you guys like upbeat rhumbas it seems and what's wrong with the piano in rhumbas? The piano is still an instrument used widely in every genre of music.

You don't understand. We don't really care about "every genre of music" but only in Congolese music. Authentic Congolese music. And the piano dilutes it badly. There are very minor exceptions like where Makaba used the piano (there real piano sound) to complement the main rhythm in a song and thereby serving as the secondary rhythm instrument with the advantage that, since it has a unique timbre, it did not cloud the guitar when sounding in the same frequency range. Yet that is taking shortcuts perhaps by lack of better ideas. Great artists like Beniko and Madoka can play up to three rhythm guitars in the same passage while all standing out distinctly. That is what Franco did with the mi-solo. That is Congolese music - rumba or sebene - with the complex interplay of the bass, two rhythm guitars a solo and mi-solo that no one else could come up with until then. And that is what we love, er, loved. Now it is all going, going, gone; to be replaced with the 'piano' (in quotes because what we hear is not a piano).

Nowadays what is played - no, inserted - is a synthetic sound (worse still, a muddy mixture of those sounds). Let me tell you about synthesizers. They are programmed by keyboard controllers hooked to computers. They are no instrument sounds but electric signals that have been squeezed and tweaked by software to give different pitches (like music instruments do) when different keys are pressed. No problem with that but they should be left alone to be used for electronic music. Not Congolese music. Trends can be chased forever and they will keep on changing and there will never be a conclusion. Synths are relatively new in the music scene but that does not mean they should be adopted by everyone, especially not for Congolese music. More emphasis should be placed on playing the music properly (by musicians) rather than doing things simply because they are fashionable. Even when musicians become expensive, all effort should be made to stay true to the sound. Didier Milla did it successfully when he got Caen Madoka to play all guitars in an album. But the true Congolese music should never have been compromised, sacrificed and murdered by the advent of the dreadful synthesizer/ keyboard.

In addition to what others have said, the embracing of the synthesizer by the Congolese musicians has contributed to the demise we are witnessing of this once beautiful music.

26
Thanks a lot. Now that I have the words, I shall do my own version of this song. One of my favorite classics.

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Congolese Music / Re: DOUDOU COPA OF WENGE BCBG !
« on: May 12, 2014, 09:31 »
This is very good music. I had lost all my interest in JB's music a while ago. Once Blaise Bula and Alain Mpela left BCBG, JB lost the plot of vocalists completely. He ended up with a bunch of squeaking tenors, who could not complement his voice, and the whole vocal unit of the band was in a mess. That is where Werra beat him by balancing the act. You cannot have a vocal unit of only tenors, some of them trying to sing the bass parts and ending up sounding like sleepy frogs. Extra Musica had powerful vocals and choruses by the spectral balance they achieved from the vocal ranges of baritones like Herman and Doudou, through the middle ranges of Bastin etc up to the tenors of Papy Jah and oxygen. On most of his recent albums, JB has not had a good bass or baritone singer and that has thrown the balance into shambles. This guy above sings very well and JB needs to do more and incorporate such in his band.

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Congolese Music / Re: WATCH OUT THE FALLY FERRE RIVALRY
« on: March 04, 2014, 14:14 »
There is, and has always been, a strong and consistent attack on music from Satan. At this point I should note that some people don't believe in Satanism. To me that is like wishing off a bad thing or closing one's eyes to reality and evidence. It is interesting to read Werra2006's post above where he condemns everyone who believes in all this to hell; he must believe in hell surely then?

The attack on music is from several angles, the main one being the curse of ignorance. I am shocked by how most of the people I meet cannot tell the difference between good and bad music. Poor education it a culprit. If everyone was taught from an early age to listen and appreciate good music, created by artists (humans, not computers) and shared and played communally - as intended and as it has been done before, especially in the African tradition - then we would all be demanding for good music from our 'musicians'. I have to commend Archos for standing by his principal of a music group/band while advising Ferre, as opposed to the selfish solos of today's musicians; as it were, we are all created with limitations, partly, I believe, to make us appreciate our need for fellow humans. The cliche goes: no man is an island.

Apart from making sure we are illiterate musically (how else can you explain pop music and the terrible, sickening lot we listen to on majority of radio stations and public entertainment places?), Satan does indeed use the musicians themselves - to a big success, I must say. How do you finish a nation off? You pit the top leaders against each other. Look at South Sudan. So, by making sure Ferre and Fally (arguably the top emerging musicians from Congo) are at war, that music is headed for doom.

There are several other ways that are being used to take away the beautiful, inimitable gift of music from humanity. That is why I urge everyone to fight back. Fight the illiteracy. There is no excuse in the modern age not to really learn music. Let us all demand for good music. Congolese music is supposed to be full of innovative solos and strong guitar harmonies, real drummers and enchanting percussions. Good sebene music is all we ask for. We are not getting any of that and instead all we hear is polemic and talk, but no music at all. With the abundance of choices today, some of us are already looking elsewhere for good music; and, believe me, there is a lot of it out there.


29
Reddy Amisi is one of the few legends remaining in Congo. He is both capable and willing to produce good music like the one he is rehearsing above. Many of the modern Congolese musicians are either incapable or unwilling to stick to this formula which is the only thing that still interests some of us, leading to the lull, failure and looming death of this beautiful music.

30
Good vocals and I like the fact that he recorded live instruments. Yet I hope that one day, when I grow up, I will be able to hear sebene music from Congo.

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