Jupiter Okwess | Troposphere 13 (Kartel)
Raucous EP of congolese rhythms and vibrant rock energy, featuring Damon Albarn & Warren Ellis (Bad Seeds, Grinderman).
Discovered in 2006 thanks to Jupiter’s Dance, a documentary about the new music scene in Kinshasa, and still one of its iconic—even heroic—members, Jupiter Bonkodji makes a welcome return with Troposphere 13, three years after the release of the exuberant Hotel Univers. On this incredible 6-track EP, the Congolese Don Quixote defies everything, gloom, doom, but also... the laws of gravity.
Taking it’s namesake from the almost unbelievable story of The Democratic Republic of Congo’s short-lived space program, this EP is a raucous trip through the immense wealth of traditional Congolese rhythms and the electrifying stridency of the rock inherited from his European past spent growing up in Germany – and featuring a few friends including Damon Albarn and long time faithful companion of Nick Cave, Warren Ellis.
Troposphère 13 breaks the sound barrier that, until now, has kept Katanga guitars and rock energy apart, lifting the incredible Jupiter into orbit once again, a UFO of contemporary African music inhabited simultaneously by the fighting instinct of Fela Kuti and the moralistic fibre of Jean de La Fontaine.