Rikki Ililonga - 1975 - Zambia

Rikki Ililonga

1975

Zambia

01. The Hole
02. Shebeen Queen
03. Zambia
04. Hot Fingers
05. Musamuseke
06. The Nature Of Man
07. Sansa Kuwa
08. Stop Dreaming Mr. D.
09. The Queen Blues
10. Se-Keel-Me-Kweek

The realm of Western-influenced African music is consistently dominated by such powerhouse names as Fela Kuti, Victor Uwaifo and other West African legends whose 60s and 70s recordings have been reissued by companies like Soundway, Strut and Analog Africa. One can't possibly hope even to scratch the surface of the continent, however, without giving mention to Zambia's Zamrock scene which, alongside the music that arose in Ethiopia in the late 60s and early 70s, is leagues deep and largely misunderstood.

In the same vein,the genius of multi-instrumentalist Rikki Ililonga, and the famed Musi-O-Tunya band he helped found, have been afforded little international light. Ililonga's charismatic presence and unparrelled musicality - coupled with his ability to pen deeper lyrics than most in the genre - and Musi-O-Tunya's transcendent ability to deal in difficult traditional Zambian rhythms, deep funk and unrestrained fuzz rock in equal measure, have made for some amazing albums.

Rikki Ililonga started playing the guitar at the age of 18. Has played with almost every band in Zambia. Travelled extesively in Africa and abroad in search of musical knowledge. Founder member of Musi-O-Tunya who are know based in Nairobi – Kenya. In this, his first album, Rikki composed and arranged all the numbers. He switches from electric guitar to acoustic and slide guitars, bass, drums, congas and harmonicas with ease. He played all the instruments and does all the vocals himself. If you want to listen to African sound with a difference, this is the one. The sound of Rikki Ililonga of Zambia.

There’s a little more polish to this stuff (and a lot of acoustic guitar-based singer/songwriter stuff), as opposed to the wildass in-studio jams of the Musi-O-Tunya album, but Ililonga doesn’t restrain himself that much — he takes one of his scorching guitar solos through the entirety of “Sansa Kuwa,” and the funk groove of “The Hole” is unstoppable. Ililonga’s English-language lyrics are frequently dark, dealing with depression and social problems in Zambia, as opposed to the party anthems many other African groups were recording at the time, and his voice is weirdly compelling, more reminiscent of Damo Suzuki than peers like Fela or Sir Victor Uwaifo.

A solo album that is more literally solo than usual in that every instrument and vocal is done by Rikki Ililonga, with the exception of a couple brass riffs (the one type of instrument he apparently couldn't master). The downside is that he's not much of a rhytm section, so you get really basic drum-and-bass backings that are more utilitarian than musical. And he's focusing a lot more on fairly uninteresting singer-songwriter material. Yet there's still enough of the classic acidic zam-rock to keep it from getting boring, which he curiously distributed very evenly so that you never go more than two songs without it.