- You could never accuse Peder Mannerfelt of being a one-trick pony. Over the last decade, he's been impressively ambitious, despite having started off making rather naff-sounding electro house as Subliminal Kid. His more recent project, Roll The Dice, saw him and fellow Swede Malcolm Pardon release a trio of absorbing ambient albums that followed a grand, overarching narrative. As a solo artist, Mannerfelt offered up dark, pressurised dronescapes with last year's Lines Describing Circles. Now he returns with something completely different: The Swedish Congo Record.
The Swedish Congo Record finds Mannerfelt inspired by a recording of Central Congo sounds from the 1930s. There are no samples on the album: the whole thing has been produced from the ground up. If you were told this was culled straight from the source, you'd probably believe it. The shabby drums, irregular rhythms and generally earthy sound of the whole thing feels completely authentic. There are what sound like lo-fi space ships, scuttling insects and blown out subs marbling most tracks. They are loose and intense affairs.
A lot of the time you'll have difficulty deciding if wordless chanting is just that, or if it is the distorted squeal of a machine. On tracks like "Royal Watusi Drums," taught drum skins ping randomly like rain drops on a tent roof. "Omande" is dark and rhythmically intoxicating, like a multi-layered Shackleton track. "Elephant Feast" is a rare moment of light on the humid, dense and often oppressive jungle floor that is the rest of the record. In truth, 24 tracks in 53 minutes makes for pretty heavy listening and tests your ability to endure these kinetic, imperfect rhythms, which pretty much start and stop fully formed. This is an accomplished and wonderfully weird album, though, and one that expertly traces back our longstanding obsession with visceral rhythm.
Tracklist01. Bapere Dance
02. Bahuto Chant & Dances 1
03. Batwa Pigmy Dance 2
04. Royal Watusi Drums 3
05. Batwa Pigmy Dance 1
06. Omande
07. Xylophone At Lubero
08. Mambuti Pigmy Flutes
09. Batwa Pigmy Dance 3
10. Chief Karumi's Dance
11. The Ceremonial Drums Of Chief Kokonyange
12. Elephant Feast
13. Royal Watusi Drums 1
14. Pigmy's Of Kigali
15. Flagellation
16. Circumcision Dance
17. Kokonyange's Dance
18. Humming
19. Bahuto Chant & Dances 2
20. Circumcision Atmosphere
21. Bahuto Chant & Dances 3
22. The Circumcision Bird
23. Stick Orchetstra
24. Royal Watusi Drums 2