Vincent Kenis is attempting to light his cigarette with a lamp. His voice is marbled with a thick accent and long pauses as he constructs words to describe his field recordings in Africa. A Belgian musician/producer now well known for his knowledge of Congolese music, he is relaying the story of Konono No. 1, a group from Kinshasa that had all but disappeared until the sudden exposure of Congotronics 1 (Crammed Discs) in 2005 brought global recognition.

“He came to Kinshasa when he was very young,” Kenis says of Konono’s founder, Mawangu Mingiedi, who started the band in the 1970s. “I think he came when his father died. He was born in the village, and his father was…the leader of the king’s orchestra. You know they had local kings in the Congo region. He learned the likembe (a Central African instrument also known as a thumb piano) from his father, and carrying the likembe into town was maybe for him a way to continue to evoke the sounds he heard when he was a kid. It’s like a portable village.”

Mingiedi’s history is tangled up in the history of his country: nebulous kingdoms upended by Belgian colonization, remade into arbitrary regions like incongruous patches on a quilt; a nationalist movement for independence and then the brutality of dictators like Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, who, as the Western and Eastern Blocs played tug-of-war for the globe, renamed the country the Republic of Zaire; and emergence from bloody conflict as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Our music is the heritage that was passed on to us by our parents,” the group says in an E-mail exchange, while en route to the UK, through its translator Aharon Matondo. “Because of the total lack of means, we had to look for elements in garbage dumps — for instance, car alternators, from which we took wires to construct microphones and amplify the likembes. And the cymbals were made from old kitchen pot lids. After we started touring in Europe and America, we improved the amplification, but we always kept those original elements. It became part of our music.”

Its eclectic array of instruments, heard again this summer with Assume Crash Position, centers on the likembe, a small wooden box with metal tines that are plucked with the musician’s thumbs in order to mimic the region’s traditional horn polyphony.

Konono uses several in its lineup — each one handmade by Mingiedi — that weave back and forth across each other like ripples from divergent waves, helping transition call-and-response choruses into electronic jams and filling out the band’s style of Bazombo trance music that garnered it a spot on Bjork’s Volta and Herbie Hancock’s recent The Imagine Project. (Also known as Zombo, the Bazombo are an ethnic group with roots near the Angola border.)

Konono’s odd blend of instrumentation was not borne out of the vacuum of novelization, but rather its physical context. In 1971, Mobutu launched his Authenticity Program — a mandated, nationwide purge of European culture. The impact on local music was enormous. Radio stations only played Congolese music, and bands of relative obscurity were suddenly seen as spokespeople at the very least, saviors at most.

“Mobutu…realized the political strength of the music in Congo,” Kenis says. “Independence is considered by Congolese as a victory brought to them by musicians, as well as politicians.”

The government could only corral musical experience so long. Traditional groups like Konono fell out of favor after only five years, paralleling the prosperity of the nation. The band’s music was again confined to the local public.

It was during this time that Kenis, who was first drawn to Congolese music as a kid — a result of the dense diaspora around Brussels — heard Konono’s music. He made a cassette of it, and while on tour in the late 1970s, this music that was “so radically different than the rumba and the soukous” became like a muse for him.

He had traveled to Congo in ’71, just as the Authenticity Program was beginning, and returned in 1989 and 1996, making recordings of groups like Kasai Allstars and a number of others. Twenty years passed and he had still not found Konono, which remained shrouded by rumors; some reported that Mingiedi had died.

Kenis finally discovered a pocket of Bazombo in Kinshasa. He found the members scattered, eking out livings; Mingiedi was driving a taxi. They met and talked, and two years later, Kenis returned once more to Kinshasa to record the group — a haphazard process that eventually became Congotronics 1.

Even as it gained global acclaim, Konono’s repetitive, almost toy-ish electronic sound was not instantly accessible to the broader audience, especially with track lengths that range between 2 and 12 minutes. When audiences hear Konono, there often is a lull, a lag before they appreciate it.

“After 10 minutes, there’s a kind of uneasiness,” Kenis says. “And then the uneasiness usually goes after 20 minutes, because they catch the thing, the swing. The Konono music…cannot be divided by two infinitum. It’s not in 4/4—it’s like 5/4 or 3/4. It’s very specific. You have to come to terms with the sound — which is evolving constantly and minimalistically over time, but basically staying the same — and [you have to] realize that the shifts in that sameness is the whole game. As soon as people get into it with their bodies — without knowing it, just intuitively — they get it.”

The music of Africa is like this — foreign but deeply understood, with primal roots that unearth hesitation. And yet there is a sense of lacking. Musically, it is rich — both soothing and invigorating, like the view from the continental divide. But there’s a disconnect, a rift between what a Westerner will hear and what the band’s Bakongo brothers and sisters will hear.

“We like playing in the Congo and abroad,” the group says, “[but] in the Congo, what prevails in our concerts is the festive atmosphere, a feeling of joy, and a feeling of coming together with our people and our tradition. These are moments when the spirits of the ancestors are working a lot, and we can feel that. In the rest of the world, it’s [just] the joy and the festive atmosphere.”

Staff Benda Bilili

Channeling the voices of the disenfranchised into playful rumba melodies, this tenacious band of paraplegic Congolese musicians captures beautiful music and colorful vocals on its debut album, Trés Trés Fort.

Primarily a group of men in their 50s, Staff Benda Bilili also features the virtuosity of Roger Landu, a street kid with a "perfect ear" whose handmade satongé, a lute-like instrument, spouts out emotive high-pitched vibrations.

Throughout the album, mid-tempo guitar and lute strings amplify to energetic rumba rhythms, as folksy anecdotes unfold in Lingala and French. The album holds tranquil tracks like "Sala Keba," frantic, mambo-esque numbers like "Moziki," and rapid percolators like "Avramandole."  The group's story is inspirational, but its musical ability makes the story compelling.

Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound: When Sweet Sleep Returned (Tee Pee)

Amidst the strong psychedelic-rock scene in the Bay Area, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound creates a unique brand that simultaneously nods to the heavy fuzz of Blue Cheer and the jangly, summery pop of The Byrds while maintaining a spacious and exploratory groove all its own.

The band's new album, When Sweet Sleep Returned, marks a shift away from the band's improv-heavy, '60s-influenced first record, Ekranoplan. On this album, the band has taken its sound into bolder and more spacious territory while retaining some of its fuzzier aspects.

Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound: "Two Birds Sang"
Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound: \"Two Birds Sang\"

Bronnt Industries Kapital: Hard for Justice (Get Physical)

Layering sublime, harmonized synthesizers and organic instrumentation over straightforward dance beats, Hard for Justice is the lissome new album from English IDM producer/multi-instrumentalist Guy Bartell.

Contrasting some of his earlier work that centered on beat arrangements, moods, and effects, Hard for Justice is driven by melody and musical prowess. It won't blow away tech heads, but it's a hypnotizing effort that doesn't get stale from track to track.

Bronnt Industries Kapital: "Streets of Fury"
Bronnt Industries Kapital: \"Streets of Fury\"

Balkan Beat Box: Nu Made (Remixes) (JDub)

Led by Ori Kaplan (ex-Gogol Bordello) and Tamir Muskat (Firewater), this Brooklyn outfit fuses Gypsy, Mediterranean, Jewish, and Arabic music with pulsing dance beats and other new-school sounds, not dissimilar in theme to Caribbean dancehall.

Nu Made lets others remix Balkan Beat Box's remix style, allowing for new takes on the group's mash-up of old instruments and structures with new technology and attitude.  Despite this album's misleading name (BBB's last album was titled Nu Med), the source material on Nu Made spans the band's catalog.

Balkan Beat Box: "Adir Adirim (Nickodemus Remix)"
Balkan Beat Box: \"Adir Adirim (Nickodemus Remix)\"

Warsaw Village Band: Infinity (Barbes)

With a seemingly self-summarizing band name, Warsaw Village Band sounds much like one would expect.  But on top of a healthy dose of Polish folk and droning vocal harmonies, the sextet adds elements of Klezmer music, polyrhythm, and even turntablism.  Infinity will mostly appeal to fans of traditional music, but it could win over new fans with a bit of crossover.

Dan Deacon: Bromst (Carpark, March 24)
This electro-spazz solo artist emphasizes live instrumentation for this anticipated follow-up to Spiderman of the Rings.  On Bromst, Deacon's sonic evolution is highlighted with lively marimba and glockenspiel melodies, live drums, and "real" singing.

Mastodon: Crack the Skye (Warner Bros., March 24)
Mastodon's publicity team has done a great job of building the buzz for Crack the Skye, an album whose themes deal with wormholes and astral travel.  Even if it turns out to be a disappointment, it likely will be better than 95% of all metal albums released this year.

Jerseyband: Beast Wedding (late March)
This incredible unsigned band is in the mixing stages of its new album, one that should further the band's "lungcore" style with mathy grooves, heavy horns, and metal breakdowns.

Staff Benda Bilili: Tres Tres Fort (Crammed Discs, April 7)
This group of paraplegic Congolese street musicians is releasing an album of inspiring material via Crammed Discs. The band's feel-good music will also be celebrated in a forthcoming documentary.

Karl Sanders: Saurian Exorcisms (The End, April 14)
The newest solo album of Nile linchpin Karl Sanders is another beautiful acoustic release of Arabic flavors mixed with Western structures.  Following Saurian Meditation from Relapse in 2004, this album will be released through The End Records.

Prefuse 73: Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian (Warp, April 14)
Guillermo Scott Herren's newest album as his glitchy alter-ego is meant to be a linear work — one that Herren describes as both straight ahead and obscure.

Mr. Lif: I Heard it Today (Bloodbot Tactical Enterprises, April 21)
Continuing a great few months for independent hip-hop releases, outspoken rapper Mr. Lif issues his newest full-length on his own, collecting songs meant to reflect on the recent political landscape and meant to inspire others.

Coalesce: Ox (Relapse, April or May)
Following the outstanding Salt and Passage 7″ from late 2007, this recently reunited pummeling hardcore group unveils a proper follow-up to 0:12 Revolution in Just Listening from 1999.  Taking the Salt and Passage release as a portent, the decade between albums should be worth the wait.

Isis: Wavering Radiant (Ipecac, May 5)
These purveyors of epic, accessible heaviness have gotten progressively more melodic. Whatever this new album sounds like, it should take another step forward while remaining heavy as hell.

Instrumental(-ish) Boston group Irepress has completed its sophomore album, Sol Eye Sea 1, which will be released February 17 on Translation Loss (a new song can be heard here). The group's mathy, melodic, chugging, epic songs can be heard on a five-week US tour that begins March 4.

Les Claypool has announced a four-week traveling mini festival, scheduled to begin in early March, that is officially titled The Oddity Faire: A Mutated Mini Fest. The fest's outstanding lineup is different depending on the city; guests include Secret Chiefs 3, Saul Williams, DeVotchKa, Yard Dogs Road Show, O'Death, and The Mutaytor.

And speaking of Secret Chiefs 3, the incomparable Indian/surf/metal group has a concert DVD being released in March on mastermind Trey Spruance's Mimicry label.

Hardcore trio Young Widows has announced a major list of tour dates that run from February through April. See the list here.

Dan Deacon has announced a six-week tour, starting April 3, that will feature a full ensemble in support of Bromst, his new album due March 24 from Carpark.

Marking its final recording with long-time member Reed Mathis, the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has made a new studio album, Winterwood, available for free downloading on its website.

Next Tuesday, February 3, Tibet House US hosts a benefit concert and dinner at Carnegie Hall. Performers include Philip Glass, Antibalas, Keb' Mo', Vampire Weekend, The National, and more.

Nile linchpin Karl Sanders has another solo album in the works, this time to be released through The End Records. Titled Saurian Exorcisms, the album will be out April 14. Some awesome preview tracks are already posted on Sanders' MySpace page.

Despite comments from main member Tobacco that the group was on indefinite hiatus, dreamy hip-hoppers Black Moth Super Rainbow have a new album, Eating Us, that will be released on May 26 via Graveface.

New York jazz group Dred Scott Trio has a live album being released via Ropeadope on February 3.

Hardcore group Pulling Teeth has a new album, Paranoid Delusions | Paradise Illusions, that takes a crushing and despairing direction. The album is available today to preorder from Deathwish Inc. and its official release date is March 31. Hear a preview track, "Foreshadowing," here.

Grindcore group Agoraphobic Nosebleed will release its fourth full-length album, Agorapocalypse, through Relapse on April 14.

Kocani Orkestar: The Ravished Bride (Crammed Discs)

A vivacious Romani brass band, the Kocani Orkestar returns after its release of Alone at My Wedding, an album full of Gypsy wedding music.

The Ravished Bride finds the group as powerful as ever, combining wild instrumental runs with the crooning voice of Ajnur Azizov. The album contains a touch of surf influence while also including a Mexican number and a few traditional Macedonian pieces. Guitarist Uri Kinrot (Balkan Beat Box) makes a guest appearance.

Femi Kuti: Day by Day (Wrasse)

The eldest son of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, Femi furthers his own legacy with Day by Day, the newest installment in his 20-year career as a bandleader. Like much of his family's catalog, Day by Day targets the corruption of African politicians, but its soul-jazz influence takes Femi in a new direction — trading his saxophone for a piano and a trumpet, his original instrument.

Ocean: Pantheon of the Lesser (Important)

Two years in the making, Pantheon of the Lesser is Ocean's brutal new two-song full-length.

The album's opener, "The Beacon," is 41 minutes of über-slow doom – which consists of three movements and turns into more than an hour of material when played live. But the songs are more than distorted, minimalist dirges; melancholy chimes combine with clean-channel guitar to give "The Beacon" a downright deathly feel.

Ocean: "The Beacon" (excerpt)
Ocean: \"The Beacon\" (excerpt)

Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid: NYC (Domino)

Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) and Steve Reid (Steve Reid Ensemble) present another helping of atmospheric samples, dense sound collages, and jazz drumming. Influenced by New York City and its "infamous energies," the songs on NYC are time-tested structures — no longer the "instant compositions" that marked the duo's initial collaborations.

Spylacopa: s/t EP (Rising Pulse)

This five-song debut EP is a studio project from John LaMacchia (Candiria), Jeff Caxide (Isis), Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan), and Julie Christmas (Made Out of Babies / Battle of Mice). The disc's primary style is one of modern metal, but it crosses into alternative sonic territory with the pretty piano work on "Together We Become Forever" and the Pink Floyd-sounding guitars of "I Should Have Known You Would."

Spylacopa: "Haunting a Ghost"
Spylacopa: \"Haunting a Ghost\"